Ernst & Young Reviews in New York City, NY Area

Pros

People, Quality and Growth are the cornerstones at the firm. All three are available at EY. Hard work is rewarded but luck (right place at right time) can be a factor.

Cons

Long hours can be difficult to handle at times. But sometimes that is more a reflection of the client than the firm.

Advice to Senior Management

Honestly they are doing a fantastic job at the firm. Great leadership through difficult times. Looking like they are on target to come out of the downturn getting stronger.

Pros

Working with intelligent people. Good quality and depth of resources.

Cons

Structure changed too often. Company more focused on process than content, especially when it came to marketing.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be in love with internal processes. Be more client focused.

Pros

Excellent Brand, great client base, excellent opportunity to work globally. Focus on people is strong given the nature of consulting

Cons

Can be a challenge to create and sustain a network which is crucial. Overwhelming number of initiatives/ out of hours

Advice to Senior Management

Try to continue to maintain the foruson people especially as the firm grows at such a pasce. As we grow try to minimize the administrative overhead so we can keep our focus on the client

Pros

People are very polite and friendly

Cons

The salary level is not very high

Advice to Senior Management

Very friendly, supportive people. Keep it up!

Pros

Money and experience - it is being outsourced

Cons

Toxic work environment - no trust

Advice to Senior Management

Morale matters

Pros

I was lucky to always work on teams that had pretty cool people. Not always the brightest, but hard working, friendly, and my direct seniors / managers were always lenient when I wanted to take vacation.

Cons

A lot of the work is just not that challenging. It is very repetitive, especially in audit. I know co-workers that were in certain groups that learned a ton (ex: DVC), however, I was placed on projects in a project management role. At the staff level, that means being a secretary.

Advice to Senior Management

Most managers are pretty cool. Even the partners I talked to always had some good advice. Honestly, a lot of upper management decisions didn't affect me, at least not my day to day job.

Pros

A big company that feels small, A lot of opportunity for growth and movement between different groups, and great colleagues.

Cons

I wish E&Y was more flexible in terms of work arrangements (i.e. telecommuting, job share, etc.) Benefits are average, not great.
My manager had terrible socials skills and I got very minimal feedback. I think my situation was an anomaly.

Advice to Senior Management

N/A

Pros

- Great Name on Resume, lots of experience among various big companies.
- Unlimited Coffee with various style in the pantry (for a good reason)
- Free dinners if you work more than 10 hours.
- Traveling at times.

Cons

- No desks available in 5 Times Sqaure, mostly booked by hoteling last minute.

- You mixed with many new people with little or no experience who are the same level as you.

- Is all about who you know, not what you know.

- Most folks are only good at Project Management skills, delegate, and more delegate.

- Kiss bud mentality to all partners and senior managers, for more proposal and projects so you can get their approval during annual round tables for promotion.

- All projects are overpromise, and over delivered, with long hours to re-work on things that doesn't make sense.

- Projects are underestimated with much efforts, to have a global intitiative developing a process, standardize methodology, and document, and train employees with a group of 20 consultants for 5 global units. You're talking about 8AM - 12AM with working on weekends, with weekend nights. An Asian senior manager in particular in the group work people like slaves to conduct his perfectionist rework for powerpoint slides on a friday night until 2AM.

- No work is good enough, because it's a churning procedure as the project goes...and it could back fire if the client does not agree with the results in the end.

- All the work above plus proposal works - if you want to look good to get promoted.

- All colleagues in the group are working like describe above, you won't be comfortable for long if you are in a project that is well managed. Since there are lack of people doing the work, you might get pulled in to do more work for other senior manager or projects.

- Avoid working for ITAS Compliance Solution Enablement if you work for EY. Other EY groups are not like the ones described above.

- The pay scale does not do justice if you look at the industry pay vs. EY pay plus the amount of effort and work involve. The more hours EY push you to do, the more the company gain for their chargebility, but zero bonus to your salary. The industry pays you more bonus $20k annually, with mininal effort, and EY pays you $1k for quadriple efforts.

- Most employess are burned out and in a bad mood, they are great people trapped in a bad work ethics.

- The group specialized in hiring military recruits, the inexperience who can put in super long hours day and night for chargebility.

Advice to Senior Management

Most important of all - FIX the work life balance in some Senior Manager working style.
Give incentives for the huge over 100% chargebility for pay for performance, you don't charge 250/hour to the client, and give nothing to the employee, at least a percentage from the utilization.

Pros

great people, great culture, and great experience

Cons

maybe proper recognition in timely manner

Advice to Senior Management

n/a

Pros

- can be a good name on a resume for anyone interested into pursuing accounting related roles outside of EY

Cons

- hours are LONG
- very unflexible work schedule. if senior managers or partners want you to work late - you're stuck!
- absolutely NO benefits from working late. all we get is an occasional "thank you" from the partners (for making them boatloads of money)
- very hard to break into any decent job outside of accounting. breaking into a bank or hedge fund into a front office role is nearly impossible. it's not a good place to start a career if you're ambitious.
- 401k match is one of the worst available
- no gym reimbursement
- forced to travel with little to no notice, months at a time
- the "people first" culture that they emphasize to potential candidates is non-existent...well unless you count the partners as people
- very little minority representation at partner level

Basically, every hour worked by an EY employee brings in x dollars to EY. Employees get a flat salary w/ no bonus. Therefore, to make the most money, it's best to keep staffing low and just produce the most work out of the limited resources available. So if you work 100 hours in a week, you are bringing in a lot of money for the company...none of which you will see a single penny of. This is great for the greedy partners, but what can you do...

Advice to Senior Management

- provide employees with some type of incentive for working the insane hours that they work
- stop being cheap and increase staffing
- be honest during recruitment process