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Hi All, I was approached by a recruiter to interview for a manager role at Strategy& based out of Toronto. He mentioned the base pay range for a new M will be CAD 145-155k.
Can someone please share:
1: What the interview process will be like?
2: Is the base pay in line?
3: If I go through, is there a signing bonus?PwC Strategy&
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What was your bonus to Senior in NYC?
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Peter Partner's Pockets
Our growth metrics are in revenue, so all partners care about is generating dollars, even if it’s at a “loss”. So while we’re growing, it may not be profitable growth; in effect we’re buying revenue by under-bidding so we can say we grew. That leads to cuts elsewhere in an effort to keep already-high expenses down.
If you think partners care about you think again. These business are run like corporations and only meant to benefit the shareholders i.e. partners
My RAC. I got 3k last year.
Partners are laughing....all the way to the bank.
OP and EY7 - I am a senior Tax partner (well over 10 years as a partner - I will leave it at that) and what you were told is not really accurate. We changed the pension two years ago for newly admitted partners going forward so that we no longer had amounts coming out of current earnings to fund retired partners. There was a payment in 2 years ago to deal with that but that was more of a one off then an on going cost. This was why we changed how the pension was funded; 10% of payments to retired partners came out of current earnings. We were finding it dilutive, so they updated the pension so that was funded out of existing funds. It doesn't surprise me that a Senior Advisory partner wouldn't tell you that Advisory is not yet accretive to the firm; that is not a good conversation to have. Again, that is just one part of the items we are paying for where costs are greater than revenue; but Advisory is a big one, so once we right that one it will really change the profitability of the firm.
EY6, I am a Tax Senior Manager barely making $140k while my counterparts in industry have at least $180k base + 20% bonus, what good life financially you are taking about??
There is a lot here to unpack; the firm in the market is "graded" on revenue. Vision2020 was a play to grow top line revenue; to be a $50B organization by 2020. It did not focus on profit or margin. For sake of ease, I am going use these interchangeably but there is a slight difference. PPEDDs on down get paid more the more profitable the firm is. The amount there is to distribute in PBBs is based off of profits. The more profits the more we all get paid. So yes, top line growth has been strong but we have had very high costs. As SM1 has correctly pointed out the firm has been spending a lot to get out technology to a much better place. This also includes well over $1B spent globally over the past couple of years to design and implement Mercury. We have also built an Advisory Service Line over the past number of years. That has been very expensive; it takes money to acquire talent, and that service line while growing is not yet accretive to the firm. Based on what has been spent and performance to date, we expect in another 1-2 years it will be. To make sure our people get paid, we have looked to cut other expenses; that is what led to the phone policy. Don't kid yourselves that the partners were making buckets of money because we slashed those expenses. The partners have been very hard on leadership to make sure that they are spending responsibly and not taking big raises for themselves. Also redesigning everyone office to be "office of the future" is expensive. We as a firm have been doing well, but we have been spending money to improve and to grow. The partners are aware we need to invest in our people too; our most important asset. We are working to make sure that happens; but 8% on average raises is really quite good and much higher than you'll see across corporate America. I can assure you that if you are able to make Sr Mgr and Partner/Principal you will have a very good life financially. It is worth the effort to succeed.
Sorry all the above are pep talks. I had a casual conversation with very senior advisory partner, he said the cost cut were to primarily fund the PPED pensions. The firm only cares about PPED,s
EY6 - From what I'm reading in this thread, and the complaints I'm hearing from my fellow managers and senior managers, is that the internal messaging is not well planned.
"We missed some targets, so your bonus is half of what it was last year."
*goes back to desk and opens new IE browser*
"Another year of strong growth: FY17 global revenues up by 7.8%"
Not all partners. The top 20 get 8% regardless. A bunch are getting cuts
Partner earnings
To increase the referral bonuses so we can hire people to replace those prematurely laid off last November...
We never got 25 for breakfast!
Maybe 30 years ago we did
Well - I'll give assurance perspective on this. First - average salary went up 8% or so - so while there is lots of folks on here complaining about low single digit raises - that is not the norm. 8% was average which means lots of folks with double digit increase. Second - firm is investing millions in technology i.e. Canvas, data analytics tools, mercury etc. third - talk to some of your clients - some things we've previously taken for granted (i.e. Ask your client how many folks get paid for cell phone - managers yes, seniors accountants no) are costs that have to be managed better.
Senior Manager 1, good to hear your perspective. I have been consistently a 4 or 5 and only once I got a double digit increase. I am Senior Manager in Advisory. Also with respect to cell phones I am not sure if they travel as in most of the time they are in their office so they use their office phones. Hardly they use their cell phones. So I think this is a cost that comes with that industry. If we start comparing perks we are still very behind from many of my clients. At basic most of them have free parking - not that we need it as we might be on client site. This is how I see cell phone for clients.
Yes agree with you partners want good margins for sure coz without a certain margin the deals don't get approved. It's just that unrealistic budgets are set up due to low fee high margin set up.
EY9 - You all need to read more carefully and understand the announcements better. Global revenues/top line growth is very different than profit. Your bonus/PBB is based on profits. Further, you point to global revenue; the way the firm is structured we in NY are paid out of what the US firm makes and its profits. Then each region is scored on how it did; if the firm has a great year but the Northeast sucked then the Northeast gets less money allocated to it. That works in reverse too; Northeast good year but firm is mediocre, Northeast gets more money. It continues to trickle down to as to how well tax did. That determines how much money there is to give for salaries. Even though the global firm grew revenues by 7.8% that in no way shape or form means you get a 7.8% raise. That not how the vast majority of businesses work. It all goes off of profit. So, I appreciate where the confusion lies, but leadership isn't going to put out messaging to everyone that says growth was great but costs were high because of X, Y and Z so profits are off. We are not a publicly traded company and don't need to distribute that kind of details to everyone. I would be more than happy to meet you and whomever else you are talking too to explain this in person and answer any other questions you all may have around this.
EY9 - you will find all of the partners outside of senior leadership critical of the costs of Mercury. They may. E critical too but their roles may not allow them to verbalize it. We estimate Mercury has cost $1.4B to design and implement. If you assume there are about 10,000 partners worldwide that means that it cost each partner $140K to design and implement. That is a lot of eff'ing cost.
EY10 I don't travel much. But in Advisory for people who travel it is always billed to the client the firm is not incurring those expenses