Broken Business Model: See Cons List - Senior Manager, Internal Audit Protiviti Employee Review

1.0
13 Nov 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work/life balance is better than Big 4.

Cons

-Limited areas of focus. Essentially the firm is focused on internal audit and SOX work. If you do anything else expect to travel significantly. -Be prepared to work on little details that add little to no value on the client engagement (i.e. unnecessary flow charts, timelines, controls listing and walkthroughs that do not have relevance in the final deliverable to the client). Its all "Keep you busy" type work. Unfortunately, the client is paying for all this and has no idea. -Little to no on-boarding process for experienced hires. We have higher expectations of experienced hires but management's disorganization and lack of training sets these new hires to fail. -Experienced hires are staffed based on resource gaps rather than matching their skills with a relevant engagement. Essentially everyone is a body just billing the client. -Revenue growth of the company is primarily due to the hiring of more staff. Protiviti ends up billing more to the client for work that could have been performed by less staff. -POTENTIAL CLIENTS BEWARE: Protiviti's business model is predicated on getting their foot in the door for a specific engagement in order to find more work to bill you for. We are all evaluated in being creative to find additional work. Never expect to only pay the proposed amount. Lots of cost overruns and budget/project updates. -Lots of turnover! Protiviti is hiring masses of amounts of staff. Some will sink and some will swim. They are hoping experienced hires bring in more business. -401K benefits are comical. Essentially all you get matched is 33% for each dollar up to 6% of salary. No incentive there. -Health Benefits are average -Rigid review/evaluation process. I would recommend do bare minimum. Any overachieving will not result in faster promotions or higher pay. -Titles are insignificant. Protiviti titles are not comparable to Big 4 titles. (e.g. Manager at protiviti is more like a Senior associate at Big 4). -Antiquated Expense reporting system and travel booking system. -Very robotic mentality and culture.

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Protiviti Response
11y
Thank you for your feedback. We invested heavily in our entry level on-boarding programs over the course of the last two years. We are now focused heavily on improving our experienced hire on-boarding programs. We anticipate our program rolling out in phases over the course of 2015. It will include both a standardized in person "welcome" experience and an online, interactive portal with personalized workflows and social networking. Our goal is to quickly network our new hires into their Advisor and HR teams who will support them in their transition. We will also provide workflow that will guide their experience and point them to the trainings and tools specific to their needs based on their individual profiles. If you would like to be involved in providing feedback on this program, I encourage you to reach out to your local HR lead and they will ensure you get plugged into the project.

Explore other reviews about Protiviti

5.0
3 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good WLB Great Bosses Health insurance & benefits are awesome Very flexible workforce Easy to climb up in promotions

Cons

Pay is below standard (Although I feel you still get paid decently for the area) If you're put on a production project, be ready to feel stuck. Management is very lost on where they want to head into the future. I am worried this company won't last much longer (Former arthur anderson) Can feel clique-y at times amongst peers (but this is not a problem of the company specifically)

3.0
29 Mar 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

1) Chicago office has a good culture, overall. It’s not perfect but most of the people are great. 2) Work-life balance score has been solid (about 5+ years of insights here) 3) Although it was not great this year, Incentive compensation has overall been pretty good over the course of 5+ years. Much better than big 4 in my experience.

Cons

1) Since 2023, the culture hasn’t been great for a variety of reasons (mainly due to sluggish performance and growing too fast) 2) It feels more like a temporary staffing agency versus a consulting firm for a lot of the time. 3) There has been an awkward push for a return to the office and more business development focus that is in stark contrast to what most Protiviti people value. 4) Most people I talk to say they are not motivated by most of the MDs they interact with (this is significant in my opinion).

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