senior auditor

staff auditor

staff accountant

it auditor

senior accountant

Sikich

Sikich is a good place to work. There is a great deal of support for gaining additional certifications and for continuing education. There are a wide variety of written areas to branch out into. 

Management is pretty stingy when it comes to pay and benefits. Go in eyes wide open, and know that you won't get anything more than what is promised in writing. The people presenting the initial employment agreement and the people determining your raises are distinct. Partners are of a typical "me first" mindset, and will immediately signal that raises aren't forthcoming. 

This is a shop that lives and dies by billable hours. However, this is poorly considered in light of the vacation policy. I found myself constantly stressed out over making billable hours, unable to take much vacation, and not particularly enjoying my time off for fear that it was eating into time I needed to make the goal - which amounted to about 80% of a full-time schedule. 

Retirement contributions are far below standards for an established firm. Health benefits are mediocre. There are moo bonuses If this is important to you, maybe it's better to keep looking. 

Finally, you will work with some smart, kind, and gregarious people who genuinely care about their clients and their work. You will have a hard time leaving because of them.

A  typical day at work would be logging in remote or going in office for a reserved cube space, checking emails and updates for any teams meetings upcoming or timely answers to returns. We were asked to only work on 1 to 2 returns at a time so Partners were often timely with answers within a few hours or a day. Going into the pool of tax returns with low difficulty filters for us interns. Opening files and reading through tax return packets and noting any missing or illegible information. I learned and read through prior year and current year tax returns, learning about different state returns and business returns. Management overall was friendly, I just happened to get a distant manager with short check ins and we didn't speak in person even if I was in office. Workplace culture was fun, with a week at headquarters in Naperville for orientation meeting out of state branches in person, going to fun after work places. The hardest part of this job is the long hours of reading and interpreting tax returns especially if they are a new customer with no prior year example to work off of. The most enjoyable part of the job was free food and drinks at company events after hours. 

I have only a few professional regrets and leaving Sikich was the biggest one.

From HR and benefits that were employee-focused to subject matter experts in leadership, employees were supported in every aspect of their work life.

As an employer, Sikich expects the best out of its employees.  The work  can be hectic, challenging, and even exhausting, but it's not a one way street.  They ask much but give much as well.

With what was a client-facing role, I was given complete ownership of relationships with my client.  While other companies may claim to do this, it's akin to being sent into a meat grinder day after day.  Not with Sikich.  In every situation, regardless of the challenges, my team, manager, and partner-in-charge had my back.

If you're lucky enough to land a spot at Sikich or are already there, I encourage you to ride out the challenging days and times of the year.  Leadership will make it worth your while.

The only reason I didn't give 5 stars is my role was specialized and there were limited opportunities for advancement.  That said, I was still rewarded with very competitive compensation and had access to every resource an employee could want.

This was the first job I have ever had where the employees were treated like ADULTS!  It was wonderful!
Lots of work/life balance...you could pick your own hours, all the equipment you needed was at your desk!  I’m talking printers!  Label makers!  Office supply orders with no questions asked! (Within reason - of course!)
I was able to purchase a personal laptop and a great printer for my home use at Sikich’s discount!  They took installment payments right out of your check!

Day 1, I said day 1 - you got 15 PTO days, 5 Sick days, 2 thank you days and 2 days to use to volunteer at a charity.

It was like a dream.

Managers changed in our department and we were no longer treated with respect or adults.  Things turned sour overnight!  An example...something technical need to be done and I stated I knew how to complete that task.  He just stared at me!  I then asked him as nicely as possible if he had ever read my resume.  Dumbfounded, he scoffed and said NO and why would I!  With him being brought in as a new manager of people I would have thought he’d want to know strengths if his employees.  He disagreed!!!!

A pleasant place to work, encourages team work - but teamwork often leads to one person getting blame for error.  

I learned a lot at this company, but had very little training.  Had to learn on my own with notes provided from previous employee.

Management is friendly, but not always up front with employees.  

The workplace culture reminds me of high school - there are different groups of people, not one large team.

Hardest part of job is being told to do jobs in a specific way and there should not be any "preferences", but with all partnerships there are individual preferences which if not followed, you are told to correct.

Most enjoyable part of job is the steadiness of the work.  Work is generally coming in at a steady rate and when you like what you do, then the days fly by.

They seem great when interviewing, however, their lack of communication and ability to deflect responsibility can make it a real eye opening experience.  If you have the skill set to work for a large national firm such as this one, you'll find something better at a company that will actually value your talents and skill sets someplace else.  In my experience, Sikich is not a team oriented company, their executive management team is severely lacking communication, trust worthiness is not their strong suit and the catch phrase, from what I've been fortunate enough to experience, is "let me circle back on that" which is another way of letting you know they can't help you because they have no idea what they're doing.   

Your standard accounting firm complaints: too much work, undervalued middle management, overworked/underpaid staff; HR and upper management like to taut how much they care about the staff under them, but it's really about your billable hours in-between the ungodly amount of meaningless meetings. Most of the middle management does want their staff to succeed, but the constraints of the work and clients make it impossible. "Unlimited PTO" instead of earned accrual system that you're lucky to think you might get to use. I slept in panic thinking of having to go to work the next day and dreaded driving in each day. I sincerely hope they've improved since the merger.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Sikich truly cares about their employees.  They don’t just give you vacation time. They make sure you use it, as they understand the importance of work/family balance.  They have excellent client relationships. I loved my time there. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
I believe the most stressful time was tax season. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is very relaxed yet busy work wise. It has a family oriented culture. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
My day as a payroll specialist was basically doing payrolls for many clients.  There were very busy days and not so busy days. It depended on the payroll schedules of the clients.

Lots of "perks" but it is just smoke and mirrors. Most everything given by one hand is quickly (and deliberately) taken away by another. Communication is terrible! Policies are implemented but then changed several times because upper management can never agree on anything. Tons of employee turnover at every level. They offer a great paid time off program and continuing education but it is very difficult to find the time to utilize either since the expected workload is so ridiculously high. Don't believe the propaganda they force feed you! If the firm was so great, they wouldn't need to constantly remind us of it.

I found this job to be one of the worst jobs I have ever worked for. You do all the work for the person who doesn't work hard at all to get the recognition. Work long hours and weekends just to be told it wasn't good enough. The boss would take extended lunch breaks, come in late and leave early, be on personal calls all day, and would get all the gratitude and recognition. Was never looked at as an employee, more like a janitor. I would never recommend this place, not even to my worst enemy.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Senior auditor 61 salaries reported	$87,431 per year
Staff auditor 37 salaries reported	$75,732 per year
Staff accountant 2 salaries reported	$71,000 per year
It auditor 39 salaries reported	$101,051 per year
Senior accountant 8 salaries reported	$90,275 per year

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