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.

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

It will look good on your resume. They offer unlimited sick leave and an extra day off for most national holidays.

Cons

A lot of weekends and late nights spent working without compensation or expression of gratitude. You will not be asked for your opinion or for your ideas on how to improve the work process. Insensitive managers. Everyone is just looking out for themselves.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop treating your employees as slaves. Even slaves have feelings. Hire people with legitimate bachelors degrees and promote the people who deserve it.

Pros

Big brand and recognizable world wide. Potential opportunities to do assignments in other countries. Large organization leads to pooling of resources and materials.

Cons

High turnover, mostly everyone overworked leading to satisfactory level of work quality. Staff can be political and will not take time to train junior staff. Too much bureaucracy with admin staff who are extremely political and will not accommodate staff unless they see self gain.

Advice to Senior Management

Inflexible admin staff leads to more tiresome bureaucratic activities which harbors less time spent doing activities which matter. Admin's function is to help or support staff to facilitate a fluid experience for all.

Pros

Team environment; intensive training; excellent research tools; diversified career paths

Cons

minimum hour work weeks during busy season; travel can be overwhelming and is not always (or normally) to the coolest towns

Advice to Senior Management

n/a

Pros

Great resume building opportunity. Incredible potential to work on complex and interesting clients and enhance your career.

Cons

I average a 60 hour week, even outside of busy season. No matter how you slice it, 60 hours a week is not "flexible," and if you are lower level and have a family, it is very hard keeping up with others who can work all night because they do not have family obligations. There is definitely a mentality of "just get it done" with senior management. They don't seem to care about their people or the fact that to save money they are spreading our schedules thinner.

Advice to Senior Management

Watch out for your people- we know we are underpaid and overworked.

Pros

EY promotes flexibility and inclusiveness. There are lots of opportunities to work on different clients and industries, including potential global rotation opportunity.

Cons

It’s a very conservative firm. There are hardly any out-of-turn or double promotions, strictly length of service and performance based.

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage more fairness and give more insight to the promotion process. Raise the salary levels to be more on level with other Big 4.