Ernst & Young Reviews

Pros

-Subject matter expertise of co-workers
-Inclusiveness and collaboration
-Opportunities to work on federal policy formation and implementation

Cons

-Little to no appreciation for good work
-FSO cut-off from the rest of EY

Advice to Senior Management

While focusing on firm growth, also look at satisfaction of its employees. While on one hand there seems to be a strong 'people' focus, that does not seem demonstrated by actions of the middle management.

Pros

Great exposure to different clients and different businesses. Very good training and preparation for incoming staff. Gives room for personal development.

Cons

Culture is very local amongst staff and seniors.

Pros

FSO Advisory practice has a tremendous growth and comparable pay

Cons

Other than FSO, they are all the same big 4: low pay, no care, and no time for yourself..

Pros

Worldwide Recognition
Ability to move to other E&Y offices on secondment or job
Talented Management
Helps in Professional Development
Excellent Work experience

Cons

Salary is a bit low
Inconsistency in different E & Y Offices regarding salary and working procedures
amongst some other issues

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership skills should be aligned to global level
Management should try to implement working techniques used at E & Y global offices

Pros

Lots of opportunities to learn new skills. You just have to make sure that the skills you are learning are skills that you can take with you when you leave public accounting (unless you decide to get on the partner track).

Cons

Long hours. Lots of time can be spent discussing regulation that is often irrelevant. Lots of checklists and other cumbersome tasks.

Advice to Senior Management

Appreciate the open door policy of the partners. Partners normally set a good tone. Keep up the good work and realize that there is a life outside of public accounting as well.

Pros

friendly environment, transparent policies, good future prospects. the culture there was great; the company seemed to be focused primarily on results and not the level of effort its employees put in.

Cons

mundane; i found the work repetitive after working there for a while. decided to move on to try new things. i regularly got the same client assignments and as a result found myself doing the same things over and over again.

Advice to Senior Management

overall, i thought management was great in the sense that the were fair and always open to new ideas. my quibbles were mainly with the nature of the job and the accounting profession as a whole.

Pros

it's a good place to start your career as a professional. you will have an opportunity for rotation in other countries as well.

Cons

there are lots of politics going on. the better you are at politics, the faster you get promoted. 1st year 2nd year staffs are so spoiled.

Pros

1. The people you work with really make the job, they are mostly younger or roughly the same age as you are.
2. Free lunches, dinners, and happy hours.
3. Pay for the CPA and an OK salary coming out of school.
4. Learn a lot in a short amount of time

Cons

1. There is virtually no work life balance.
2. The promotion structure is inflexible.
3. At the senior levels the pay is very poor for the amount of work you do.
4. Sometime you have to put up with a bunch of A type personalities.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop being a follower and be a leader in the industry. If you want to retain your people you need to serious and not just do whatever the other Big 4 are doing. Also, the whole "stay 8 years and you'll be making more then those other people" mentality is a terrible rational to stay.

Pros

Great learning environment. Forward thinking. Cutting Edge. Subject matter experts

Cons

Challenges with work life balance. Corporate jungle

Advice to Senior Management

Continue listening to your employees opinions

Pros

Learning and enhancing technical skills.

Cons

The pay for accounting profession is really low as compared to other fields of study. And Big 4's overwork their staff, too hierarchical work culture. No work life balance.