PricewaterhouseCoopers Reviews in Toronto, ON Area

Pros

great company to start a carrer
name recognition
excellent opportunity for career advancement
future is very bright
CA designation is world reknowned

Cons

low starting pay for work
can become boring
significant travel is involved
no benefits for car and other perks are lacking

Advice to Senior Management

Managment should think about promoting qualified CA to principals and pay them for what they are worth as not everyone can become a partner!

Pros

great name and brand
great learning experience of how things shouldn't be done

Cons

incompetent management
lack of ability to prioritize, see what's important and ability to communicate expectations
complete lack of time management and coaching abilities

Advice to Senior Management

stop looking at what the other 3 firms are doing, although KPMG and Deloitte are clearly at the forefront - start thinking for yourself, innovate, recognize talent and innovators, if you want to move to be #1, but at the same time don't reinvent the wheel - look at what's available in the market in terms of tools and solutions and use that, instead of building things that break

Pros

Work/life balance is good. Emphasis is on delivering work and not on face time.

Cons

Senior management can sometimes be clueless about what middle management is doing. You need to make a lot of fuss to get promoted as inertia rules all over the place.

Advice to Senior Management

To the partners - be sure you know what your managing directors are doing. A lot of good people leave because their managers don't care about them.

Pros

- Opportunities to try other business areas to enhance your skills
- Really good senior management team where you can learn a lot of the management skills and techniques
- Diversed group of people (You don't need to be an Accountant.)

Cons

- High competition for promotions or salary increases, it's based on who you know and who you have worked with that will really get you what you want aka. the game
- It is an expectation to work OT, this is part of the performance review
- Vacation also counts towards overall utilization, this will hinder the performance review
- Depends on the offer letter, make sure to sign ones where you can carryforward your vacation. Sometimes there are ones where one cannot carry forward 1 year vacation
- Lack of resource management (it is getting better!)

Advice to Senior Management

Be fair to your employees, compensate those worked hard and worked smart. OT should not be an expectation of the performance review, if one can get the job done within the expected hours - that's working smart.

Pros

good opportunities to learn new things; good support for obtaining professional designations; good background for you to look for another job in industry

Cons

not easy to pursue career advancement; long work hours and lower compensation / benefits; un-qualified staff in the team

Advice to Senior Management

Management should consider and respect your staff. Compensation should be commensurated with the staff's experience and skill set. Management should encourage open communication within the team but not only listen to those management want to listen.

Pros

Good family benefits; Good fitness benefit

Cons

Low recognition of accomplishments; poor leadership within Research and Marketing departments

Advice to Senior Management

Better recognition required

Pros

PwC is a very busy and challenging work place. The people whom you work for and with are all very well educated, professional and cultured.

Cons

Room for growth is very limited for administrative positions. Learning and development and also very limited. Administrative staff are often overlooked when new learning and work opportunities are of interest.

Advice to Senior Management

N/a

Pros

As an intern, the role was both challenging and rewarding. There was a balance between learning the tactical skills of an Associate, and the skills required to be successful in a consulting practice.

Cons

Only drawback was that senior leaders tended to be more focused on their engagements and deliverables, rather than on coaching and developing interns. Just part of the industry.

Advice to Senior Management

Junior and Senior Associates represent the brand, and to do so requires they fully believe in the company - not just the remuneration for making a sales or new contact.

Pros

PWC experience is important and allows you to move forwared in any industry

Cons

It is time consuming and you have to put long hours

Advice to Senior Management

na

Pros

Well known name
Global company
Training opportunities

Cons

Unfairness in promotions
Very long hours with no overtime or bonus
Low morale
Incompetent partners

Advice to Senior Management

I have worked for several offices at PwC in different countries. Overall, my experience in the US was positive – very smart people and a lot of learning opportunities, however, a lot of top talent either has left or thinking of leaving Toronto office. Morale in this office is very low, even at coop student level. There is a lot of favouritism and annual review process is inadequate - partners pretty much do what they want and how they want, regardless of the company policy. The client service started being affected as well - managers and seniors have to run after partners to get FS to the clients on time. This is a waste of employees and client's time and efforts. I have never seen something like this from a professional services firm. My suggestion to the senior management of PwC Toronto office is to “clean up” the house at the partner level and act on the complaints and suggestions, rather than close their eyes as if everything is OK. This is creating a bad reputation amount employees and clients, and can affect not only other Canadian but US offices who deal with very large multinational clients. I would not recommend Toronto office of PwC to any of my friends and would not choose this office as my service provider, until they satisfy me that they put measures in place to retain and appreciate talent as well as strive for excellence in the market place.