Ernst & Young Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Pros

great place to start career
great people
top clients

Cons

Long hours
compensation average compared to other 3 firms

Pros

the company's focus on people, quality and growth

Cons

i can not think of any specific cons.

Advice to Senior Management

keep it up!

Pros

Experience, experience, experience. The clients you work on are usually interesting.

Cons

No work life balance...no recognition by management that everyone is overworked right now.

Advice to Senior Management

I would start being honest with your seniors - having a 2 day retreat at a hotel to say thanks means a lot less than an extra $2k at the end of each year.

Pros

-Bonus for receiving CPA
-Great People
-Great Learning Environment

Cons

-Long Hours
-Compensation
-Work life Balance

Advice to Senior Management

Higher salaries will result in not as many people leaving the firm.

Pros

Great learning, Helpful people, huge experience

Cons

compensation, bonus, benefits, groupism, long hours

Advice to Senior Management

Need to compensate as per qualification

Pros

1) Career Advancement - Lots of advancement opportunities within the firm and outside the firm.

2) Knowledge - I enjoy working with people who are very good at what they do. I have learned a lot in my relatively short time there.

Cons

1) Long hours - the busy season can be tough. You are expected to work 50 hours minimum during the spring (February-April) and fall (August- October) busy seasons. Some people work in the 70 hour/week range during the height of the season. However, I believe most people go into this job knowing and accepting this fact.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve compensation as the economy improves. This is not to say that their compensation is not fair or appropriate relative to competitors, it would greatly improve morale.

Pros

EY is the best place to start a career for a reason. The firm offers excellence advancement opportunities and exposure at an early age and depending on your skill level you may have accelerated opportunities for growth.

Cons

EY currently does not do justice to its high performers and has suffered in recent times by not being able to provide a meaningful performance based compensation package to its high performing managers and seniors.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop a performance based comp plan to motivate your youthful generation of talent. The Firm must also manage to overcome the post SOX 404 stigma that has labeled big 4 public accounting firms as regulators to their clients.

Pros

Stiff learning curve
Good exposure to various industry.

Cons

Salary per hour is far far away from reality.
Ineffective review process.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider changing an approach to retain high talents cos they are the ones your pension should be entrusted with, not mediocre performing politicians.

Pros

Potentially good client assignments
Good learning experience
Trainings are helpful
Good networking
Coworkers are similarly aged and have common interests
Possibility for travel

Cons

Arbitrary scheduling decisions
Structure is too regimented
Promotions are automatic, no incentive to work harder
You have limited ability to work in industries of interest

Advice to Senior Management

Might be a good idea to focus more on why people come to EY in the first place. The job is becoming very disconnected from reality in terms of pay and expectations (hours, commitment, etc.).

Pros

You can receive a lot of Trainings, you will have chances to work for big clients, Travel policy is good

Cons

Don't expect to be respected at work, lot of political to deal with ( you will have to align with some people if you want to do well)

Advice to Senior Management

Be nice to your employees, change your corporate culture and make E & Y a better place to work at