Ernst & Young Reviews in Boston, MA Area

Pros

I got work on alot of stuff and did some really cool things.

Cons

Cant think of much other than that some of the people are boring.

Pros

A good platform if you want to leave in 2-3 years.

Cons

Demanding hours. Some people can be difficult to work with.

Pros

Learning, working with smart people, career development, increased responsibility early, exposure to industry, exposure to upper management, exposure to top clients/companies.

Cons

Compensation, long hours, playing to and balancing the many demands of upper management, office politics, missing ski season, administrative tasks

Pros

1. global
2.supportive team
3.good learning opportunities

Cons

1. no life/work balance
2. not competitive salary
3. promotion baised

Pros

Good people. Opportunities to development are there- you just need to find them.

Cons

Confusing development process- sometimes there seems to be no rhyme or reason to promotions and performance process.

Pros

Prestige, and hopefully one day it will be worth it. Higher salaries than other entry level jobs but that is because of the work it takes to get the position

Cons

The hours are disgusting. No lives for people starting out here. The stress and the lack of free time literally leads to health problems for employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Ease up. People wont want to stay to grow into upper positions because they will resent the company.

Pros

EY does offer great benefits

Cons

You're expected to be available around the clock minimally via Blackberry even as an hourly associate and are not compensated for your time-

Your are micro-managed to the point of your mgr coming around to check your PC screen to verify what you're working on-

If you are well-liked, EY's time-off policy is great, but if not, you're expected to be the first one in and the last one out; regardless of the situation-

Advice to Senior Management

Micro-managing is not a way to boost employee morale-
Try spending a little less time on perfecting "the brand," and a little more time providing pertinent training to staff who aren't CPA's-

Pros

The people are incredibly talented and the opportunity for varied work is endless. I spent time at a variety of clients in the Northeast and had customer-facing experience from the get-go. Salary and benefits are competitive and flexibility for outside projects is readily available (within reason). I don't think I could have gone to another industry and gotten as much responsibility and experience so early on. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity work there right out of college. It's a wonderful place to start a career.

Cons

While work-life balance is the ultimate goal, you are ultimately at the mercy of project deadlines. Late nights, weekends and last minute fire drills (even ones that could have been easily prevented) are numerous. A good team is key and with limited resources, you don't typically have a choice in picking who you work for. If you are on the compliance side of engagement work, you might have a more routine lifestyle but more mundane work. The more exciting work will most likely have you traveling and working very long hours. There are constant trade-offs. Masters degrees outside Accounting are not generally monetarily-supported either and for those of us looking to pursue MBAs, we generally have to choose between a part-time degree with little to no outside life for 3 years (since between long hours at work and evening/weekend classes, it's hard to have a balanced personal life) or leaving the company altogether to pursue a full-time program.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to sponsor MBAs, even partially. Your turnover will be significantly reduced and you'll not only retain the talent you've invested thousands of dollars in training, you'll make the company more attractive to the talent that you'll need to continue building out your Advisory business.

Pros

Upward mobility, opportunity to do many things in many different areas of tax, resources and name recognition of a large firm. Most people are very driven, and the opportunity to network within the firm is great. You have extensive client interaction, and really the opportunity to take all the work you can handle.

As an attorney, EY is a great place to learn a lot about tax and gain great experience, which will undoubtedly improve marketability down the road.

Cons

Note: this review is from the perspective of an attorney that joined the firm to hopefully do tax consulting work.

First, compliance, and a ton of it. There is no way around it at EY. The diversified staff group system, where you are required to have x amount of hours in x amount of different tax areas, many times just means you will be doing federal compliance, then int'l compliance, then state and local compliance.

Second, some of the people here have NO LIFE. They literally stay at the firm all night, their friends work here, if they can find a girlfriend, she probably works here too. In the event that you have to work for someone like this, your life is over until the engagement ends or you somehow get out of it. As an attorney, this can be tough, because many times the work will be mundane and tedious (printing, making pdf files, processing, etc.). During busy season, you will have no life.

Third, the ARMS system. This is totally worthless, but you spend a lot of time dealing with it.

Fourth, you really have to be aggressive and persistent to find the good work. If you can't find it, more compliance to stay chargeable.

Fifth, the office is pretty stiff. Everyone is nice, and I like working with them, but there aren't many people I would like to get drunk with after work. This isn't a major concern, but its nice to have that when you need it.

Pros

the people are the best reason to work at e&y

Cons

the hierarchy is one con, because the company is so big

Advice to Senior Management

be more fair with your promotions for the CBS team