EY Employee Review

Salary - B | Culture - A | Management - A | Coworkers - A

Pros: Excellent growth opportunities and learning, collaborative team culture, strong brand reputation, supportive leadership, and access to diverse projects.
Cons: Long working hours, high expectations, tight deadlines,

prioritize employee well-being with realistic deadlines, improve work-life balance initiatives, and ensure transparent career progression opportunities

Salary - B | Culture - B | Management - | Coworkers - A

Pros: 1. You will have a very hard time not falling in love with every single person you meet there. 2. Seriously, you will meet your soul mate(s) there. 3. Prestigious and looks great on the resume. 4. Your brain will grow a thousand times more powerful. 5. Forces you to conquer your fear of public speaking. 6. Fun team bonding and lifelong friends. 7. Stepping stone to high paying jobs. 8. Helps you work on perfecting your charm. You will learn from the most charming people how to really get people to like you. 9. HR really cares. 10. Big support network (IT, creative services, etc.). 11. Teaches you to be calm and in control.
Cons: OK, I'm going to be discussing all the taboo things, and there are a lot of them. In spite of these cons, I still admit it's worth a five star rating. 1. High performers are "designated" (you have very little control over your rating) by the partner group (can be a pro if you get selected. Seriously, I have worked with some of the supposed "fives" and they are not any different than my threes and fours. 2. Quality is extremely low. Sometimes I felt like I was working at McDonalds and not a professional services firm. The emphasis is on getting through work as fast as possible and expectations for quality are not realistic. 3. EY has a very hard time firing bad employees. If you get stuck with one it can be a nightmare. 4. EY has a heavy emphasis on wasting time. For example, there are lots and lots of checklists which have no value that you have to fill out. Also, they wasted money and time on creating "Canvas" which is literally slower and more awkward than the previous workspace tool, GAMX. There is a heavy emphasis on "reinventing the wheel" and fixing problems that aren't broken with even worse solutions. Instead of wasting money on useless tools, that money could have been spent on your employees in the form of compensation. Like I said, EY is really focused on attempting to look as though value is being created when in fact it is not. 5. Lots of meetings. Appearances are very important. 6. Employees on global 360 accounts get better treatment. 7. Some employees (executives mostly) tend to overemphasize how important this work is. Let's face it, if it was really glorious work then we would have action figures. 8. Looks are very important. Seriously, if you are a girl, you will get promoted based on how hot you are (the quality of your work is largely unimportant). If you are a guy, you are treated a little better but there is still a sexist undercurrent in the environment. This is advice you won't get from HR obviously, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. 8. You will be forced to eat hours. 9. Your ethical compass will start to get weaker. 10. You will get a little cynical. 11. Lots of driving and travel. 12. "Family men" and married couples with children are more likely to be promoted. If you want to be a partner, you have to be married (few exceptions). 13. You will work on vacations. 14. Loss of relationships with family and friends. 15. Some backstabbing and credit-stealing (but not very common). 16. Comp is below market but that's to be expected. 17. Employee retention is not something management is interested in. This makes you replaceable and expendable (yes even as a manager, unless you have been "designated" as a high performer by the partner group).

Management won't listen to me so there's not really a point in giving them advice.

Salary - A | Culture - C | Management - A | Coworkers - C

Pros: Compensation is very competitive, good perks (commuting allowance, wellbeing fund for personal expenses, gift card "bonuses" based on performance)
Cons: This could be more of a critique of consulting or Big4 consulting in general, but you never feel comfortable or "safe" working here. I had several friends get laid off during my short tenure. You have to fight for good projects, and it's not uncommon for senior managers and partners to request a 7 pm call. One time I was told on a Friday that I'd be traveling Monday morning. But the biggest thing I was never told was that there can be very long stretches (we're talking months) without any work to do. And the worst part of that is that the main measure of performance is billable hours. So you can be sitting around begging for stuff to do, and the fact that you don't have anything to do will be used against you in performance reviews.

Don't try to hide the fact that the hours and travel schedules are bad.

Salary - A | Culture - A | Management - A | Coworkers - C

Pros: - Very good people and Management. Communication and reaching out to teammates will be your key to success. Co-workers in the region were incredibly friendly and very helpful, Management does want you to succeed (especially those who worked their way up through the firm). - Competitive Pay, good bonuses when offered, good health care and other benefits, Coverage of work expenditures (travel, parking, food, Phone/internet) - Decent perks like $1k for Wellness activities, gym memberships, etc. - Stable Career Growth and outlined progression path
Cons: - No work Life Balance as expected - Busy Feb through Sept (Oct) & varies by client - Tech/Software is surprisingly cumbersome and unintuitive. Will be using Excel, GoSystems (bad software), and in other house software's which are being updated (legacy ones are outdated and a pain to work with though) - Varies by team, but some clients are well organized and streamlined, while some have no reference/guidance. Will often be thrown to sharks. Use your teammates

Please streamline data flow from Excel to K-1s & returns. We should be able to import the filtered & categorized excel data directly into both the K-1s and the 1065 returns within one single program simultaneously. Also GoSystems is the single worst tax software I've used on any level, It doesn't drill down to the correct data entry points, doesn't map to diagnostic errors well nor explain their causes, doesn't have great resources for guidance, and has far too many bugs and quirks that are not tracked by the firm (we should have an open tracker for these. Instead bug solutions only known by experienced staff by asking). Start testing other options

Salary - B | Culture - B | Management - C | Coworkers - C

Pros: 1. $1000 well-being fund per year 2. Can learn much from coworkers 3. Improve your communication skills and excel skills in a short period of time 4. The culture is good. Most coworkers are friendly. 5. Good H1B sponsorship.
Cons: 1. How long you can stay depends on your luck. Even if you are a high performer for the most of the time, you will be put on PIP once you encounter a manager who doesn't appreciate your work. 2. Due to the bad economic environment at this time, you will be fired once you are put on PIP. 3. Micromanage. But this is common within accounting firms. 4. I burnt out without knowing it during busy season. I wanted to commit suicide for three times at EY. Leaving Big Four audit saves my life! 5. Auditing is meaningless. If you like reading and thinking, you will doubt the meaning of your work every single day.

EY is no longer building a better working world. Whether you have confidence with the future or not, you have to pay for all your decisions.