PricewaterhouseCoopers Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Pros

Incredible brand leading to great opportunities to develop business. Smart people who understand what they do and how to help clients. Good resources with commitment to growth. Lots of communication. New transparency around compensation shows proactivity in responding to people issues. Leadership does reach out for opinions from down in the ranks.

Cons

Partner compensation program creates unhealthy competition instead of collaboration. Partners who make it clear it is all about them -- not even as a group, but about themselves personally. Uses a one-size-fits-all perspective when many of its business units have different needs. Administrative requirements create a crushing burden.

Advice to Senior Management

Communication not just the "what" is happening (which is done really well), but the "why" it's happening -- and not in platitudes, but in details. (Have seen some improvement.) Try to understand that financial issues that don't affect partners affect individuals who, for example, need to bring lunch to work every day just to get by -- every dollar counts.

Pros

-client and quality of work exposure
-people who work here
-training available
-professional development is a huge priority here
-morale

Cons

-salary needs to be more competative to some

Advice to Senior Management

-get the salary bands alittle higher to make it more competative

Pros

Salary, Work Life Balance, People

Cons

Unstructured schedule at times - would prefer more routine like job.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep benefits and rewards at a high level

Pros

Great opportunities
Good place to learn new skillsets
Great place to work if you don't have a family or social life

Cons

Little work-life balance
Compensation should be more competitive
Performance review process always changes yearly-confusing

Advice to Senior Management

Come up with better strategies to ensure employees are compensated for their level of contribution.

Pros

There are good people and fun activities planned by both the teams and the firm. People here seem to be reasonably intelligent and despite a competitive culture, it doesn't seem like people want you to fail.

Cons

It's very tiring here. It's not as bad as an IB house, but people are still on uppers to fit in the hours on a lot of client work. You will probably burn out reasonably fast if you're doing work rather than selling it. The lack of rest and being "on" all the time will take a toll on you or at least it did on me. I find that I can't really care about keeping on top of things in my industry because by the time I get a few free moments I just want to sleep or stare off into space. The busy time of the year will take over your life.

Advice to Senior Management

It's hard to not be depressed here, and it seems like everyone's always trying to convince themselves that they're ok or having fun. People brag about their hours worked sometimes I guess as a way to not face how seriously demoralized they are. It's insane how different people are on small engagements when you see how people really feel and how tired they all are.

Pros

- Work with very intelligent, motivated individuals
- Gain a broad range of experiences across many industries
- Experience many different work situations; makes you a rounder individual
- Work on high exposure projects / clients
- The name on the resume is truly a great thing; made finding a new job one of the easiest searches in my career

Cons

"Work/Life Balance" is this fun phrase senior managers desperately want you to believe if they repeat it to you over and over; fact of the matter is, it's basically nonexistent. While you are experiencing another "great opportunity" for your career traveling to some remote part of Kentucky 4 or 5 days a week for months on end, I certainly hope you don't plan on having any life in your hometown. It's a perfect fit for you if you are single, have no friends, and enjoy waking up at 4am every Monday morning to catch a flight for the rest of your life.

Senior management is the loudest in the room when times are good, but when times are tough, suddenly they're secretive, secluded, and very hush-hush. They'll make all sorts of press releases and announcements when they're doing good deeds (not to mention a literal parade march up Market Street to hand-deliver a charitable donation to Mayor Nutter), but suddenly keep quiet and secretive when partaking in the not-so-good deeds, such as performing layoffs.

It is a very 24/7 culture - be prepared, even while on vacation, to respond to your Blackberry. On that note, it's probably best to not even take vacation, because it counts directly against your utilization metrics for the year (a very important factor in your year-end reviews).

Also be prepared to hear the phrase "high performance culture" in every communication you get from leadership. I used to think that this meant that I worked with the best and the brightest, and while that is true, I finally realized this was simply code for "white collar sweatshop". Pay seemed decent at first, but when all quality of life factors and 80 hour work weeks are considered, it is a pittance. Management will occasionally try to keep morale up or make you feel that you are being fairly rewarded by giving small bonuses or, more bizarrely, an iPad; I'm sorry, but an iPad doesn't really make up for the number of late nights, holidays, and weekends employees are expected to sacrifice in the "high performance culture" of PwC.

Internet traffic is monitored by Ethics and Compliance, so never visit a blog like re: the auditors (or any site that would dare badmouth PwC) on a firm computer. While I never experienced this personally, several of my colleagues received threats from Ethics and Compliance for reading that blog.

Advice to Senior Management

Arrogance needs to be toned down -- charitable donations are a great thing, but it's not necessary to march up Market Street to hand-deliver the check to the mayor. There were plenty of press releases for that shenanigan, but interestingly there was no news (even internally, until well after the fact) when dozens of employees were laid off over the past few years. People notice when their close colleagues suddenly disappear, and it only makes management look weak when they try to hide bad news.

It's fine to expect staff to work the hours that they do - this is a demanding profession - but they should be compensated fairly (and I'm not talking about an iPad to make everything OK). Perhaps turnover would be far less than its current rate if this was the case.

Pros

PwC Advisory projects provide great opportunity for leadership and career growth, if you take advantage of them. Lots of interesting projects - some more stressful than others. Management is great about making sure employees aren't getting burned out.

Cons

- Low visibility/interaction with higher senior management
- High employee turnover
- Travel schedules (50-75% travel or more)
- TIe-in to audit & tax results for advisory's bottom line

Advice to Senior Management

We understand that Assurance and Tax run the show numbers-wise, but the upper management should make more of an effort to reach out to the Advisory folks.

Pros

Had so many career opportunities at PwC - a new project/role as often as I wanted. They really train their supervisors so generally, great to work for. Respectful professional culture.

Cons

Really really a lot of work. Long hours, travel, high expectations. If you seek out high achievement and are willing to work for it, this is a good place to be.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep having an open door. Keep being relatively transparent in updating partners and employees. Keep allowing partners to have input on decisions.

Pros

You are presented with incredible opportunities to advance and network with people from all over the country. Advancement opportunities and plentiful.

Cons

This is public accounting and it is demanding. That being said, you must learn how to balance your work and life - the opportunity to do so is there, you just have the make it work.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is in a real tough position due to the intensive workloads and demanding metrics they must live up to. My groups management was superior and I would not change a thing.

Pros

Having the company name on your resume will always look good.
You will work with some interesting people.
Partners are very approachable.

Cons

Leadership is not capable of leading a consulting practice. More often than not I worked on data entry projects with Tax, Audit and other "Consultants" in order to stay chargeable. Because the Partners and directors could not sell work (smart guys but horrid social and sales skills), most people from managers and down worked on projects that were way out of the scope of which we were all hired. After 3 years, I became a far better bull-shitter than a consultant or auditor. I believe my technical skills actually took a step back!
The annual performance review process was carried out in a haphazard fashion and was overly political. It was a joke.

Advice to Senior Management

Fire the sales and marketing department and sell the work yourself. Learn how to be consultants and how to manage talent. Don't make auditors and tax consultants do 2 months of 12 hour days of data entry for random firms and try to convince them that it is "a great developmental opportunity." The "flavor-aid" just isn't that good.