I joined Aprio in part based on their outstanding GD reviews; however, I quickly realized these scores are inflated. You are pressured to leave a positive review for the company and HR closely monitors GD. It is really hard to feel like your review is anonymous, so it is hard for people to be completely honest. I received links to leave reviews from HR. From the beginning, that was a huge red flag. I think HR should actively use GD as a tool, but I think it is dishonest when they directly ask people to leave reviews. They should allow reviews to come naturally and address feedback honestly. I think they are deceiving themselves into thinking everything is rosey with their strategy. Eventually, this will backfire and they will only be able to say to themselves "well, we have great GD reviews".
The firm wants to be something it is not (a B4). The reality is, most of their clients are actually really tiny. You would be shocked how often the PBCs I received from clients were them writing out their income and expenses on a piece of paper (nothing wrong with this, but be proud of who you are). Almost all of their growth is non-organic and through acquisition. They bragged hard to me about their double-digit growth over the past few years. However, their growth is not that their strategy is better, their product is better, or they are somehow disrupting the market. No, the vast majority of their growth is through acquisition. They are buying their new revenues. There is nothing inherently wrong with this strategy, but the way they present their success is disingenuous. When you buy a firm, a lot of times you are bringing the people in that firm on board. You are not necessarily creating "new opportunities".
Finally, like a lot of companies, they are full of corporate speak. Corporate speak are things that companies say that sound good, but are actually meaningless or they don't truly believe. It is like checking a box.
