Company: PwC
Date: 2010-09-01
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

Senior Associate from smaller office
Pros: Colleagues are fabulous - in general they are intelligent, motivated, and always willing to help out.  Having worked in a larger office and a smaller office, I can say that the cameraderie in the smaller office was far better.

A wide range of work opportunities is available, with the potential for global mobility too.

Pay is reasonable and holiday seems quite good - 25 days with the opportunity to buy or sell an extra week.  There's also an additional day at Christmas that is given, so it's possible to have 39 days off in a year (30 days + 1 day at Christmas + 8 bank holidays).

There is lots of scope for flexible working, as long as the job gets done.
Cons: Progression brings extra reward, which is considerable towards the top of the tree, but in the middle it doesn't seem adequate compensation for all the extra hours spent at work.

As would undoubtedly be the same with any large professional services company, it's not very good for people who want to stay still and not progress any further up the career ladder.  The unwritten message could be summarised as 'upwards or out'.

The annual objectives process is quite onerous and is often not very helpful.  It is supposed to link in with progression/reward, but the way it does so is not transparent.  (Over recent years the firm has, however, been improving in this regard, but there is still a way to go.)