flown-the-coop said:
I reiterate what I wrote yesterday regarding the Big 4 and the large consultancies being way, way, way too focused on diversity, equity and inclusion before anyone ever coined DEI.
20+ years ago Deloitte made a hard press to get on and move up on the Forbes(?) Best Places to Work. In order to juice points, their womens initiative was preached 24/7 and I was seeing more and more females plucked ahead of guys for better assignments, more prestigious non-client responsibilities (including the womens initiative committee itself), european style maternity leave (not paternity). I left in 2004 and though I have not kept up as of late, I know all the firms were all in on BLM.
tl;dr not surprised to see this given how much influence the hiring companies have over the accounting program at TAMU and others.
This has continued at all the B4. PwC was actually coming out and saying they cared more about diversity than competence. KPMG was getting close but not admitting it. Anecdotally, I will say that the students are actually starting to realize it's not worth it to join the B4 out of school like it was 20 years ago. They are doing internships and realizing the big firms are now tailored to promote those who coast but check diversity boxes, so lots are coming back to campus and saying they want to go elsewhere so they can be rewarded for being good at their jobs. I'm actually amazed that the message of "be rewarded for good work" is actually working to pull people away from the largest firms. It's just one small sign of sanity creeping back in.
