Ernst & Young Reviews in New York City, NY Area

Pros

Great opportunity for a career growth.
Good leadership

Cons

Very difficult to change departments

Pros

Flexibility, work/life balance, learning culture

Cons

work may become stagnant, depending on which department you are working

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be cheap in giving annual raises

Pros

- Knowledgable colleagues
- Access to educational material
- Interesting IT-related problems

Cons

- When it comes down to it, Ernst & Young is not focused on becoming an IT Consulting firm that develops software but rather helps implement/evaluate it. This is either a good or bad thing depending on your background and what you are comfortable with.

Pros

There is a ton of room to grow
Clients provide great opportunity to network
Vacation time is ample and encouraged

Cons

Salary could be better considering the amount of hours worked
Work is sometimes tedious and boring

Pros

Feedback culture
On the job coaching

Cons

Growing pains within the Advisory practice
Top heavy

Pros

People oriented culture - they take care of you through sick and thin
Still has pensions
Advisory is the key focus for growth for the firm
Colleagues are great to be around even outside of work

Cons

Sometimes the audit heritage comes through too much (QRM process for projects and scheduling events during the week when advisory is always traveling)
Benefits such as 401K match and medical plans could be better

Advice to Senior Management

E&Y senior leadership decision generally seem thoroughly thought through. It still seems that we are not integrating across the different service line as well as we should. There is overlap between the groups which claim certain offerings and not everyone is 'playing nice in the sandbox' yet.

Pros

You will be put in the best position to gain knowledge and experience.

Cons

It seems very clickish at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Make every worker feel comfortable.

Pros

Great place to work always.

Cons

Hours can be long.
Travel can be chaotic

Advice to Senior Management

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Pros

Growth, learning, network, benefits and people

Cons

Compensation could be improved to be competitive in the market space

Pros

-Prestigious brand; clients are Grade-A across all service lines in NY office
-Incredibly smart and friendly people at all levels (staff thru partner)
-People are willing to teach and explain just about anything
-Given lots of responsibility and respect as an intern; interacted with client many times, sat in meetings, and even asked questions - I was treated like a Staff 1, not an intern
-"Family"-like atmosphere, specifically at the industry level; people are proud to work for EY
-Firmly against "eating" hours
-Recruiters and partners have proven that they have my best interests in mind, as made obvious by their candid advice and sharing of experiences
-Experiences shared by full-time professionals show the firm truly does live up to its promise to give its people the ability to grow professionally; Audit professionals can take on Advisory projects during the slow seasons

Cons

-Politics definitely exist, though perhaps less so compared to other Big 4
-Being at the bottom of the totem pole, especially on a large team, means needing to adjust to the work style of your superiors; while this isn't necessarily a "con", it is certainly a challenge and can be stressful in certain instances
-Litigation issues which have tarnished the brand, as well as the audit industry at large

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to focus on developing your people at all levels - you have tremendously smart, friendly, and social employees who want to see the firm succeed and earn new business. Continue to look for feedback at all teams, across all industries, and at all levels. Make sure that budgets are realistic in order to reduce stresses associated with meaningless (non-monetary based) profit measures.