Pros

Excellent mentorship/counseling program, good feedback system, I always felt like my manager was looking out for my best interests. Definitely a place where you can chart your own growth and make requests which will be taken seriously.

Cons

Wasn't terribly fond of co-workers - many were nerdy, not as intelligent as I would expect in high ranking positions, or some were rude. Work life balance is often an issue.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue ensuring you hire the best and brightest - this is what the E&Y reputation consists of, but in some areas, I'm not sure it is true.

Pros

ernst and young is a global company having 140000 employees worldwide which brings a lot of diversity and ideas to the table.

Cons

being interested in consulting , ey prefers accounting as compared to consulting and because of that a technology consultant misses the opportunity to showcase his set of skills.

Advice to Senior Management

Consulting work is not for the timid. You must be respectful but also command respect from others.
You be able to maintain composure and provide answers under all circumstances.
The analytical mindset is common to most, if not all, E&Y personnel.

Pros

Great company. Management is encouraging and supportive. The company is socially aware and offers a great life /work balance

Cons

Not enough cross training into different departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Work with placing an employee in the dept they work best in.. It's better for them and then company on a whole..

Pros

Fast paced learning environment demands high performance and top quality.
You will learn more in your time here than any other Company you can work for.

Cons

Hours can be miserable.
Promotions are very seldom based on aptitude or performance.
Pay is downright criminal for what we do.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on keeping your employees happy through fair compensation and work/life balance. The name on the resume is nice but remembering the name of kid is important too.

Pros

The name of the company and what others think when you leave to go elsewhere is great.
You get to sometimes (though that is now changing) work for big companies and that is great on your resume
You get to know and network with some famous people
The training thats available is great if you actually have the time to do it
The knowledge centers and databases actually can enrich you if you download and store enough for future

Cons

Management in this particular sector , Advisory is a extremely poor (save 1 or 2 partners)
Most of the partners dont know what advisory services means and when you speak to them you can see the lack of depth. Clients are noticing this day by day and they are losing clients
Politics - Crazy housewife politics between the partner group.
Business is run like a sole proprietorship - If they find they are not able to sell at global rates they make everyone work 45 to 55 hours weeks to compensate - 45 hours weeks has been constant now when the employment contact is actually for a 40 hour week.

Advice to Senior Management

Change most of management, Run the business like a business and not like a boys club, Instead of saying that you care for people let your actions show it. For most of the partners - Its time you retire as you are old at the game and you are not ready to reinvent yourselves.

Pros

Great opportunities and a variety of different fields of expertise, people first culture (Sometimes), seems like most managers grasp this concept, flexibility.

Cons

Sometimes expectations too high and unreasonable. Pay is less than peers, while working more, although positioning yourself for more income in future.

Advice to Senior Management

Global policies seem to push out people first philosophies, although sometimes local management seems to forget the importance. Would suggest more of a focus on this locally. More clear and direct feedback would also be helpful.

Pros

The people really are what made the internship great. From Day One you are treated as a first year staff and you receive the same level of training and expectations that they receive. Also you get to work on a variety of clients and get exposure to how different teams work and you are given a variety of assignments and tasks.

Cons

Although I did not do a Spring internship, it would seem that the work life balance would be very difficult during the 2-3 months out of the year every year for busy season.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to pursue the top students in universities and also continue to invest in your interns because it is the internship experience that will really win students over to Ernst and Young.

Pros

EY does a great job of recruiting on campus, and the people I worked with were competent and hard working but like to have fun. I had some great opportunities during my tenure, and I grew professional and developed some great technical skills.

Cons

After working 400 hours of overtime my first year (which was also the 1st year of SOX), we received no bonuses at all. EY continues to be the only Big 4 accounting firm that does not reward its employees with bonuses. On top of which, one night out with college buddies, I discovered my base salary was $5k-$15k less than my peers. I brought this up to partners, and it was laughed off. I took it up to HR, and was told they were going to look into it. I waited a year to see if things would change, then I left. Now I am working for a competitor, loving what I am doing, making $10k more and taking clients away from EY. My friends still there are working harder than ever, received no raises or bonuses this year, and are very miserable. But hey, partners still kept their million dollar salaries and country club memberships!

Advice to Senior Management

Do a better job at rewarding your people, or when the economy turns around, you are going to be left with no seniors or managers.

Pros

Training, Methodology & Tools, Great People, Flexibility (they take this serious)

Cons

Promotion process is questionable, have seen the practice morph into a 'consulting machine', salary is lower in comparison to others

Advice to Senior Management

Performance based rewards for your superstars! Be more appreciative of those that have been on long term projects.

Pros

Rated number 2 accounting firm as best place to work.

Cons

Communication between departments lacking. Right hand didn't communicate with left hand causing confusion. Lack of management support for difficult engagement issues. Honesty and integrity to quality work not highly valued. Management lacks genuine interest in all staff unless you belong to the small club of favored ones.

I have worked for big name companies my entire working career so, have those corporate cultures to use as a comparison to E&Y. I was extremely disappointed from the interviewing and hiring process to my last few days with the company. Lack of professionalism, organization, simple decency, and proactiveness in the business approach was all too characteristic of my time at E&Y. Unfortunately, I have to say that it was absolutely the worst experience of my career.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a novel approach and balance interest in the profit line with developing and maintaining progressive staff.