[Meesh]

I received an offer from a regional public accounting firm in Advisory and an offer from the consulting firm, Protiviti, in an Internal Audit Consultant role. Both offers are in big markets in the north east. I’m not sure which offer is better for experience and career growth (first job out of college), although I’m leaning towards Protiviti as it is the bigger name (so I have been told).

Does anybody have any thoughts on Protiviti in terms of training, experience, career growth, exit opportunities or the organization as a whole? Are they a good organization to start my career with? Should I accept the offer from the regional PA firm instead? Any advice or suggestions would be extremely helpful! Thank you in advance!

[fuzyfro89]

Looks like both jobs are similar… internal audit advisory?

In that case, unless you are convinced you will get better experience OR will be happier with the lifestyle in either place, go for the better name. Protiviti is interesting in the sense that they do not have external audit clients and are purely a consultative firm… as far as I'm aware.

You didn't provide much detail on the type of work you'll be doing (IT audit, operations, financial, etc), but just something to think about if you have thoughts/ideas/plans for the future in terms of what you might be interested in doing and if either firm would be good for that. Congrats on the offers, and also realize that it's not too difficult to switch firms if you find something later that interests you.

[TNCPA16]

I used to work for a company that outsourced some of the internal audit work to Protiviti. My experience with them was not a particularly good one – they had a lot of turnover (never had the same team year over year) and their work product was subpar (in my opinion). Every time we would review their work, we would find pretty major errors – like missing in-scope applications in their testing, did not test key areas, etc. They also seemed a little behind the times – for example, their IT auditors would print off workpapers and handwrite notes. Personally, I'd go with the public accounting firm over Protiviti…but, who knows, you might go there and have a great experience. Just my opinion 🙂

[mw798]

Protiviti has an awful reputation for the quality of their work and for the quality of life of its employees here in the north east. There's a staffing company here and all half the recruiters who work for them are former Protiviti consultants. I would stay far away from Protiviti.

[tomq04]

Does it make a difference from city to city, the “northeast” is a pretty broad place.

REG- (1) 76
FAR- (2) 64, (5)74, (7)83 (Over achiever!)
AUD- (3) 70, (4) 75
BEC- (6) 75

[mw798]

I should say that my comments are limited to NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. Protiviti has a pretty bad rep.

[Tony]

I was head hunted by Robert Half ( I think they own Protiviti), and the recruiter, actually became a good friend. He told me to stay away from them…

BEC: 73,78 79
AUD: 60, 60, 70, 80
FAR: 49, 64, 71, 82
REG: 68, 68, 73, 78

DONE.... OMGFG DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well 2 ethics tests to take.

[jboulos]

I actually work for Protiviti in the north east, and I really like it. Work-life balance is way better than most consulting firms, and the people are much more genuine in their interactions. I have no regrets, but (like every job) it is not for everyone.

[Henry63]

Our company did not have a good experience with Protivity. I believe we ended up scraping most of the work they were hired to do.

BEC - 85 (10/16/14)
REG - 86 (11/25/14)
FAR - 88 (01/08/15)
AUD - 91 (02/12/15)

[Author]

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