Meet Mike Gendron
I’ve found DZH Phillips a great company to work for over the last 5 years, since being recruited on-campus at CalPoly, San Luis Obispo in October 2004. From the start I was given the opportunity to develop rapidly and find my niche of entity taxation, by working in all areas of the firm for the first two years.
I was happy to choose a medium sized firm because of the wide variety of projects I was assigned to from day one, which have kept my career interesting and my skills continuously developing. It was hard to choose a smaller firm as many of my friends and peers were accepting jobs with the Big Four firms, however, looking back now, all the recruiting stories I had heard turned out to be true. You always hear that working for a smaller firm provides more opportunities and offers a more stable work/life balance. All I know is that five years down the road I'm still working for the same firm having started straight out of college, whilst most people only stay two to three years at their first job.
The job requires long hours (about 55-60 hours per week) during the busy seasons, but that's to be expected at a CPA firm. The off seasons are great for anyone who enjoys time off as DZH Phillips provides a very generous PTO plan. This allows me sufficient time to travel, hang out with friends, and catch up with my colleagues on the golf course.