PricewaterhouseCoopers Reviews in Sydney, Australia Area

Pros

Great resources, Great people, technology is good and improving, great corporate social responsibility and effort and support. Pay is OK

Cons

Can be long hours, but you feel rewarded for putting in a big effort as you achieve a lot. Variability in some teams

Pros

Looks good on your CV

Cons

Constant travel and ridiculous hours.

Pros

get CA and get out, good on resume

Cons

no recognition
no reward
very heavy hours
politicised process for promotion

Advice to Senior Management

see above

Pros

Getting to work on big name clients is amazing! The knowledge sharing culture is fantastic. Some partners can come across as unapproachable but managers are great.

Cons

Pay is bad for my qualifications. Time pressure in audit can make work life balance difficult.

Advice to Senior Management

Real work life balance! And promised maternity leave in addition to legislative requirements please? More social events. Don't just subsidise gym but other sporting/fitness commitments.

Pros

work and life balance initiatives
paternity and maternity leave
overseas opportunities are available
secondment opportunities
global network of firms and international opportunities

Cons

pay
political
ifs is not considered important
sales focus and emphasis
no standardised proposal approaches
no global interactions with other firms
audit and independence conflicts restrict consulting opportunities

Advice to Senior Management

be more globally connected and allow for international teams
more globally recognised training support
funding for MBAs
bonus structure could be better

Pros

Great people, interesting work and nice location

Cons

Pay levels are too low

Advice to Senior Management

Walk the talk with work life balance

Pros

Opportunity for progression withing the firm.

Cons

Lack of financial reward for hard work.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicante with and reward your staff.

Pros

PwC generally manages to recruit some fantastic people, and as a result it can be a fantastic place to work. Other benefits may include global mobility / secondment opportunities and exposure to big brand names (although both of these are dependant on your choice of line of service and industry group – People opting for middle markets tax groups obviously would not enjoy the same extent of opportunities in these two areas).

The firm has been pushing various flexible working and work/life balance messages & initiatives – the efficacy of these will, off-course always be dependant on the individual actually taking advantage of them, and to a lesser extent the people they work with.

Training is benefits is an oft quoted benefit – my personal experience has been that this may be a slightly exaggerated benefit, but this is simply my subjective opinion. I have no doubt, however, that PwC does act as a great training ground overall, whether you opt to use it as a stepping stone, or whether you see yourself there long-term.

Cons

- Difficulty in measuring quality of output - not a PwC specific issue, but in areas such as audit it is easier to measure quantity than quality - as a result, some people do have the slightly cynical view that recognition and reward will link to quantity rather than quality. This is not quite true and certainly quality is valued, but unfortunately it is not always easily measured, and as a result, rewarded. This, combined with the fact that PwC is a very large organisation, means that, with some exceptions, progression often comes down to the amount of time you have spent with the firm.

- Cyclical work flows – dependant on your line of service, industry group and time of year – For auditors, certain months can be highly demanding, and leave little time for a personal life, and some staff may feel that there is an expectation that they will work long hours. But equally, there are quieter periods, which do offer the opportunity for much easier hours or time off. Again, not really a PwC specific issue.

Advice to Senior Management

A suggestion with many issues, but... Clients should be charged extra when we are required to work until (or past) mid-night to meet their deadlines! And some of that compensation should flow to the staff... Well, its a nice dream anyway!

A more practical suggestion: relax or increase caps on leave in lieu of over-time - during quiet periods it has no cash flow impact, so is a relatively cost effective way (in cash flow terms) to reward staff for their efforts.

Pros

opportunities and experience. working with talented people

Cons

no work life balance, you are sold to the company

Advice to Senior Management

...

Pros

Big 4 firm, great people, good support structure, good access to knowledge

Cons

Crappy pay, Long hours, 50% partners are great, 50% are shocking and have zero leadership ability

Advice to Senior Management

Start to treat junior staff with more respect and recognise the work they put in