The headline may sound like a joke but that’s basically what departing RSM Australia CEO Jamie O’Rourke told Australian Financial Review in an interview:
Mid-tier accounting firm RSM Australia will not join its rivals in picking off partners from the struggling big four firms as it believes the competitive workplace culture fostered at the top four could damage its carefully curated ethos. [Emphasis ours]
O’Rourke said the firm’s focus on measuring the performance of teams over individuals “creates a culture where people are looking out for each other”, as does its preference for developing its own leaders over hiring externally for senior positions.
From: “Big four culture makes partner hires unattractive: RSM chief executive” in Australian Financial Review
O’Rourke called his firm’s culture “quite unique” and went on to brag about complimentary comments he hears from hires who’ve worked at other firms. “Whenever anyone joins us from another firm, I always ask them, ‘what’s the first thing you notice about RSM?’ And the common reply is that: ‘everybody’s trying to help … whereas where [they have] come from, it’s actually quite competitive internally’.”
Sounds to us like he’s laying it on a little thick. But a quick glance at r/AustralianAccounting unearths several positive — or at least neutral — comments about working at RSM versus Big 4.
While you’re here, check out RSM Australia salaries on Glassdoor.
If anyone in Australia with experience at either RSM or another mid-tier firm is welcome to reach out to let us know about your experience. Good, bad, or ugly.
I was at RSM and EY in the US…it was a world of difference in culture.
Today I joke about how I learned “not to lead” at EY at my current role, meaning I learned that not respecting people and treating them like trash is no way to lead a team…even if it’s the “worst” person on the team. Of course every Big4 isn’t the same, every experience is unique, every office is different, and every group/service line is different….but scroll through the sub on reddit or go on fishbowl and you’ll see a similar experience by a lot of people at EY.
I’ve worked at 3 of the big 4 and have been at EY for 15 years (and counting) and I actually liked a lot of the people I worked with at all 3 places. Things have definitely gone downhill though in the past 8 years or so.
RSM is probably big enough that it wouldn’t apply to them, but I actually don’t think B4 partners/directors/managers transition very well outside of the Big 4 if that’s where they’ve spent their entire career. I’m at a middle of the pack top 50 firm and it’s just too much of an adjustment, I have almost never seen it work very well.
Having worked at larger firms in the past, you just have such an abundance of resources in terms of staff, experts in fields to call on, etc. You’re able to be a manager in the true sense of the word, but when you move down a rung (or two, or three) you need to be a little more of a doer. Too often people that climb higher in B4 just become middlemen connecting A to B, and it just doesn’t translate.