Koch reviews

New graduates and interns, this is a horrible place to start a career, unless it's the only job you get in the world, please leave fast. With the company's reputation it's not even a decent resume builder. Big 4's and other accounting and finance firms offer better. For those who have already established themselves in the tax field, it's a great stepping stone. However, if you value work-life balance and want or have a family, this is probably not the place for you. Acquisitions, liquidations, change in companies structure happens every day and you will work to death and put in hard and long hours. Be ready for a lot of changes, they will even change your personality. For minorities (internationals and other races) it's a pathetic place to work, a lot of discrimination, favoritism, retaliation, hard to get a promotion or get a bonus and there is no diversity. "You are on your own". The management at Koch encourages us to be vocal, to share ideas, to ask questions, to challenge them but when you actually do it, they permanently label you a troublemaker. You will also spend a lot of time correcting management errors and mistakes but they will act like and say you actually did it. Always watch your back, "play the game" and know you are under an office microscope. Very high employee turnover rate, they fire and hire people every single day. The company is understaffed and the offices are overcrowded (consultants are squeezed in a small, stuffy conference room). Almost all the tax software's and systems at the company are frustrating, slow and old fashioned. Lastly don't get carried away/misguided by all the media hype about the company, it's all publicity and political: Koch "sponsor the Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Summit", "dropping criminal-history from job applications", "We are not in politics to boost our bottom line," "Donation to the negro education fund". Some will agree, some will not and that's okay, this is just my personal experience so far.

Extremely low base salary and extremely low bonuses (if there even are any) No work-life balance; law firm-like work demands, but laughable and insulting compensation Extremely arrogant and dishonest management and leadership Class-like/caste system of haves and have nots "Good old boys" network (if you are not a perverted male or beautiful female, forget about advancement) People are terminated constantly for small personality clashes with their petulant supervisors Cult-like atmosphere I was recruited to work in the Koch Industries tax department many years ago. I was told that my offered base salary, despite being 50% under market, would not matter as I would receive bonuses that would equal or exceed 100% of my base salary if I met or exceeded expectations. My performance reviews indicated I met or exceeded expectations every year I was employed at Koch yet my year-end bonuses never exceeded 20% of my base salary (which itself was 50% below market). Each time I confronted my supervisor, he always had an excuse like "the company is not doing that well this year" or "management is trying to cut back." In reality, my supervisor just lied, and he and the other tax leadership gave the same line to each tax attorney who walked in the door. My situation has been repeated dozens and dozens of times over the last decade. Koch works its employees (especially its younger attorneys) to death, treats them like garbage, and then punishes them further at the end of each year by giving them low bonuses. It was heart-breaking to see how people really believed Koch would keep its word and then were constantly disappointed, after having left good-paying jobs elsewhere to move their families to Wichita. Retention and attrition are absolutely terrible at Koch because of the dishonesty regarding compensation, work-life balance, employee morale, etc.. Many tax recruiting agencies/headhunters will no longer recruit for Koch because they know Koch is simply dishonest in its recruiting practices. I finally decided to go elsewhere after enduring the hypocrisy for many years. I left and my compensation at my new employer was over double what I earned at Koch, and that is with working 25% less, having much less stress, obtaining and using four weeks of annual vacation, among many, many other perks. Do yourself a favor, do not believe Koch's hype, spare yourself the misery and disappointment, and find a job elsewhere. You will be very grateful you did not make the mistake of going to work for Koch Industries.