Choosing a Firm

Choosing a CA firm to work for is a confusing process. All the firms are anxious to tell you how good they are, and after a while it all starts to sound the same. With charisma and a little luck, you will be sitting at home some day soon with several letters offering you employment, and a decision to make. How are you going to make that decision? What will be the deciding factors? How can you differentiate among those firms?

We've been interviewing applicants and talking to graduate students for over ten years now, and we've had quite varied responses to those questions. One candidate pulled out a two-page worksheet with names of all the firms written across the top and 24 categories down the side. Others simply shrugged their shoulders and said 'I really don't know'.

You should know in advance that we have a bias. We think that our firm would be a great place for you to work and our objective is to convince you of that. You should also note that the things written below are generalizations. To make best use of them, you should apply them to your situation. Everyone is different with different priorities. We encourage you to work with these ideas in a way that suits your particular needs and priorities. We've made lots of notes and not surprisingly there are some quite common responses. There are six criteria that we have heard applicants mention more often than any others.

1. A PERSONAL YET PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT
2. EARLY RESPONSIBILITY
3. VARIETY OF WORK
4. TRAINING PROGRAM
5. LARGE AUDIT EXPERIENCE
6. CAREER PATH

As a general rule, we would suggest that you would have heard mainly the first three factors stressed by small firms, and mainly the last three factors stressed by larger firms.

The smaller firms will tend to have smaller, more close-knit and informal offices. Their clients are also mainly smaller businesses, so staff members tend to get a higher level of responsibility earlier in their careers. It will be a long time before you get to the point of making any important decisions on the General Motors audit for example, but within three months of joining a firm you may be in charge of preparing financial statements for Joe's Corner Store. Also, there tends to be less specialization when serving smaller clients; staff will do accounting work and tax work in addition to audit work.

The larger firms tend to stress their training programs, and suggest that without them you will never be a CA. They point to their larger audit clients and stress the challenge of dealing in that big business environment. They point to the long term opportunities available in their specialty departments and in their offices across Canada and around the world. They suggest that smaller firms are generally not able to provide theses opportunities.

We will make the argument, and here is where the bias comes in, that there is a type of firm that can score well on all six factors and that is a medium-sized national firm. As you may know, or from my statement can easily guess, Grant Thornton is a medium-sized national firm.

Let us describe what our firm has to offer in the six categories:

1. PERSONAL ENVIRONMENT?

Our largest office has approximately 120 staff members and our smallest 12. We have no need for a formal, bureaucratic system. If you want to talk over a client problem you don't need to pass the message to a supervisor who speaks with a manager who consults with the partner. You go to the partner and say: 'Karen, can you help me with this problem?'

We strive to maintain just enough structure to keep our offices organized and running efficiently. Our people, be they entry level staff accountants or partners, tend to be down-to-earth with no pretensions. We treat our staff members as individuals, not employee numbers. Our work environment could perhaps best be described as professional but pleasantly informal and personal.

2. EARLY RESPONSIBILITY?

Within your first twelve months you can expect to complete financial statements, tax returns and supporting files for several small to medium sized clients on your own, and will be moving on to larger and more complex audit files where you complete sections with a team. Within twenty four months there is a very good change that you will have the experience of planning, supervising and completing your own medium-sized audit engagements from start to finish. Grant Thornton's client mix allows a new hire to do meaningful, interesting and challenging work at a responsible level, virtually from day one.

3. VARIETY OF WORK?

Absolutely! Our client base includes some of the largest and best known public and privately held companies in Canada, and some of the smallest entrepreneurial enterprises. No matter which office you join, you will get your share of the mix of clientele in that office. Consider what a small client needs from a CA firm vs. what a large client needs. The very smallest client may have no one in the organization who knows a debit from a credit. The client probably doesn't need an audit; he or she needs a financial advisor, almost a part-time controller and someone to pull the annual financial statements and tax returns together. You will be involved in providing that service. The very largest clients have all kinds of sophisticated accounting help on staff to do their financial accounting and often most of their tax work. They need an efficient audit and you will be involved with providing that service as well. You can expect to be given a mix of assignments covering the spectrum of audit, accounting and taxation, not just spend all your time doing the same audit procedures over and over. The quality and variety of experience available to a new hire at Grant Thornton is second to none. It is probably our strongest advantage relative to other firms.

4. TRAINING?

Grant Thornton offers an extensive training program which is designed and coordinated by our national Professional Development Department. Early in your career, the program helps prepare you to handle clients' assignments and helps you develop the comprehension, diagnostic, problem solving and written communication skills necessary for success in the CA School of Business. After you qualify as a CA, it continues the development process, helping you refine and polish your skills and grow in professional maturity. The national program is completed by local-office training sessions and on-the-job training through supervision, coaching and review of work performed.

5. LARGE AUDIT EXPERIENCE?

As previously mentioned, Grant Thornton's client list includes some of the largest and best-known public and privately-held companies in Canada. You will have the opportunity to gain experience with one or more of these clients as part of the wide diversity of assignments available to you.

6. CAREER PATH?

Grant Thornton is a full-service firm with a breadth and depth of services comparable to the big 4. We are constantly searching for staff members with interest and aptitude for a career in all specialty areas. With the continuing growth of Grant Thornton, the number of available specialists' openings is steadily increasing. Specialization is a very attractive career path option with Grant Thornton. In addition, Grant Thornton has offices coast to coast in Canada and, through its internal affiliate Grant Thornton International, around the globe - your career path can take you to any of those locations.

We hope that this has been useful to you. We've tried to put into perspective some of the issues involved in your decision of which CA firm to start your career with. Our bias is very obvious; it's up to you to sort out what is important for you. You may well find that Grant Thornton clearly offers what you need and want in a CA firm; that it fits with your style and career aspirations.

It's an important decision and we urge you to make it carefully.

Yours truly,

Your Grant Thornton Recruiting Team