PwC Reviews

Former Employee – worked at PwC full-time for more than a year

Pros – Stability. There's a clear path and you would have to set the building on fire to be fired.

Cons – Billable hours/metric centered - Don't strive for efficiency gains; it's better to work long and hard rather than work efficiently. Their goal is to bill lots of hours to the client.

Lack of intellectual capital - In my experience, colleagues were very dense.

Slow pace of development - Because employees are not the sharpest crayons, and there is constant hiring straight out of college, the bar is set very low. You are expected to learn how to do 3 things, and repeat these at nauseum before being entrusted with a new task.

Very little interaction with Partners/Principals.

Advice to Senior Management – Get rid of the dumb people clogging up the system. Move away from the stupid metrics. HR is USELESS.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at PwC full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good brand name - I got calls from recruiters within a week of joining the firm
Numerous offices
Ability to see strategy projects carried through to implementation
Decent health plan

Cons – Lack of support for MBA new hires and Experienced Hires. PwC offers minimal training once you're more than a year past college. New Managers hired from industry aren't trained to manage clients, projects, staff, in the context of Management Consulting.

Low compensation compared to other Consulting jobs. PwC lags the market on salary. Performance bonuses for each performance rating are about half what you might expect from a Consulting firm. Retirement plan is minimal and has a 5 year vesting schedule, so the vast majority of staff can expect to never collect on the employer contributions. The health plan is decent but the employee contribution is pretty high for a professional services firm.

PwC's client relationships aren't as strong as they should be, so strategy projects are often sold on price, rather than value. Strategy projects are routinely underpriced, cutting rates and staff hours allocated without reducing the scope of work promised to the client. For staff, that means that you're working double hours and not getting rewarded for it.

Expectations around utilization and how many hours you can bill per day don't account for the substantial differences between M&A type projects (very long hours, high pressure, short duration, unpredictable nature of when these projects come up), Strategy projects (long hours, 2-3 months duration, somewhat unpredictable demand), and long-term implementation type projects (more reasonable hours, duration of 12+ months, highly predictable demand). Overall, the expectations set for staff are based on the long-term implementation projects, so you'll have to make a tough choice between doing strategic projects that offer growth and learning opportunities, and staff-augmentation projects that hit your utilization numbers to keep you employed.

PwC has some interesting projects, but you'll sacrifice your utilization metrics, because the strategic projects aren't as well defined. Directors won't communicate a clear end date for your current project, making it difficult to get seamless staffing onto the next project if you're not 100% sure when you'll come available. Some Partners will try to hold on to a particular staff member even when start dates are delayed due to client reasons -- but staff is accountable for utilization and during those days or weeks on hold, your utilization will drop off rapidly. Because despite PwC's focus on ethical practices, more often than not you will be pressured to under-report your hours by as much as 50%. If you don't comply, you'll be penalized in your reviews, and if you do comply, you'll still be penalized because your performance (billable hours) is less than that of your peers.

Your mileage may vary -- the organizational culture within Advisory is highly inconsistent. I've worked for some excellent Partners and Directors who really support their people, and I've also worked for some Directors who lack the ability to communicate effectively and treat staff as disposable commodities. If you can find a great Partner or Director to work with, stick with that person as long as possible.

Advice to Senior Management – If you expect to recruit and retain top talent, make upward feedback a larger component of the annual performance review process for Partners and Directors. These folks have wildly inconsistent expectations of staff at any given level. The good ones realize they can't push staff to the point of exhaustion and burnout, but quite a few haven't made this connection yet.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at PwC full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Compensation, brand and that is about all.

Cons – Politics, Politics, Politics. Some of the most arrogant Partners that I've ever encountered. Always over sells to clients and then leaves staff to make it up as you go. Rigid work environment with no flexibility. You could be here today and gone tomorrow after they use you up and leverage your relationships. Left another Big 4 after 11 years to join PwC, what a mistake.

Advice to Senior Management – Overhaul Human Resources, force Partners to be "Partners" and invest in your staff. Eliminate all the metrics and crediting process, it has created a cut throat culture and everyone is looking to get out that is not a Partner.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at PwC full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – It only looks good on your resume.

Cons – Poor training when you start with the firm and throughout the year.
Very low pay for work required. You are not getting paid for tones of overtime. In busy season depends on the engagement expect to work between 70-120 hours per week. There are team that work 7 days a week for 15-18 hours a day for 3 straight months! Don’t be fooled by flexible schedule. There is no work/life balance,
Health Benefits are horrible. There must be one of the most expensive in the USA!

Very inexperienced seniors and managers in certain areas. Some are only three-four years out of school who do not have good people or management skills. They were promoted because they were good with Excel, got reviews from their friends or they kissed the partners or senior management ass. Just because someone is a great contributer if he/she lacks people or management skills they shouldn’t be with the firm!
Serious micromanagement! This comes from inexperienced managers who do not know how to lead a team. You have people unassinged and other people working 55 hours a week.

Politics, politics, politics throughout the hierarchy! Its who you know not what you know to get ahead. Promotions are based on relationships much more than actual contributions! Very sad for a big 4 firm.
There is extreme arrogance among certain employees. Its like a competition instead of a team. This is not very conducive while working on a project.

Lack of intergrity among managers during the review process. Managers are free to make up what they want with little say from the employee!
Extremely unappreciated employees and a huge turnaround. From 150 people in my starting class after 3 years only 11 people are left!
I am very suprised of the level of immaturity and unprofessionalism of some senior management members, even partners!!!

Advice to Senior Management – Give out a more vacation days, better benefits, and pay over time
Kissing up does not mean you are doing a good job
A good number of the managers and partners needs to go back to school and learn to act like human beings again, Employees should also be treated with respect as a resource of the company.
Need to improve HR department and employee evaluation since good/hard-working people get thrown under the bus and lazy people who are friendly with the right partners are left alone and get promoted even though they are idiots.
The words flexibility don't mean anything until they are put into action. Share some advice with upper management.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at PwC full-time for less than a year

Pros – You learn a lot about accounting

Cons – The problem with PwC is that if you want to have a life or a family this isn't the place. PwC is full of people that are committed to their work and/or want to land a sweet job somewhere else after making manager

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at PwC full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – - You don't do anything from May through September.
- Everyone in the group abuses their corporate card's.
- You can "work from home" after a couple of years, which basically means answer calls from the golf course.
- You won't find that you're alone in your frustrations and dislike for the group as everyone feels the same way.

Cons – - Very political annual reviews. If you're not one of the 5% management likes you're career is over there. Also you spend 40 hours making your file and in the end management spends 30 seconds reviewing it as their decisions are predetermined.
- The work performed could be done by a 5th grader with basic knowledge of excel. This is not a banking group and not a management consulting group. If you want to do banking or consulting look elsewhere.
- You have to perform hours of "handties" which are basically using a color pencil to check every number on a page with thousands of numbers on it. Require ZERO intelligence.
- For half the year you work as hard as your iBanking friends and make half as much.
- Annual bonuses are a JOKE.
- The office moral is terrible. Every other week a coworker leaves and everyone else there is interviewing and trying to leave.

Advice to Senior Management – - Stop with the political reviews and promotions
- Consider actions to take to curb turnover.
- Try to boost office moral but other means than happy hours where everyone talks about where their interviewing.
- Assign people to projects / clients they're interested in.
- Eliminate the current deployment method and restructure it so the right people get assigned to the right jobs.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at PwC full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Having the largest Big 4 brand on your resume.

Cons – I've worked for 2 of the Big 4 Firms and this was a terrible experience. They will misled you with false expectations, promotions, salary and hours. The Partners will never put anything in writing so it cannot be used against them along with having closed door conversations that impact your career and income. You have no control on what happens to you at this Firm due to politics and unethical behavior to clients.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at PwC full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – My Peers were really among the "best and the brightest." They have an amazing training system and a learning system which will alow you to take any course in their intranet you choose. They have anything and everything you might want to learn. They also have a great referral program which will earn you cash. They offer great benefits, unlimited sick leave, recognition for reaching goals and many opportunities if you would like to get involved in commmunity service.

Cons – There are many older people which refuse to get with the new generation and prefer to do things old school, which hinders getting the job done quickly (which is what you are always expected to do, everything is a fire-drill). They claim that they promote from within and fill most of their positions with people from within, but if you are more qualified than someone which has tenure for a position, dont even try to get it because they wont even consider you, until you have atleast a couple of years proving how good you are. Of course the 360 degree feedback they use virtually makes it impossible because regardless of how good you are there will always be 1 person that does not like you for whatever reason. And that when put up against brown-nosers will cause you to lose every time! Fake people thrive here. There are so many onder cover racist people. We had to pay 80.00/ month for garage parking. Many people were given the opportinity to become Senior Associates or Managers if they passed an exam that they were not given any time to study for. Also turn over is high among Associate, Senior Associates,a nd even Managers.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop being so uptight, snobby and actually listen to what people are really saying. Stop working to push people so hard to the point where they crack (beg for another role) or leave. Work with people and HELP them reach their goals. And when you as management make a mistake OWN up to it and dont throw your support crew under the bus! Get rid of old school Managers/Senior Managers/Directors that do not belong there. Oh and stop hiring idiots for roles that dont suit them. :)

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at PwC full-time for more than a year

Pros – Exposure to a lot of work, industries, ambitious people

Cons – NO work-life balance, cut throat environment.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at PwC full-time for more than a year

Pros – big company, great for your resume

Cons – unfulfilling work, antiquated corporate culture, felt like I wasn't doing anything positive for the world

Advice to Senior Management – Give more responsibility and purpose to employees

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company