Company: PwC
Date: 2010-12-16
Overall rating: 5/5
Employment status: current

It great... for a Big 4 firm
Pros: You work with motivated people. Mostly that motivation comes through fear, habit or ambition, rather than true appreciation for what you are doing, but it sure beats working with/for people who go to work to kill time until they get to leave. Granted, those people still exist, but the culture is such that those types of people are rewarded and will end up leaving the firm. 

I work with bright people on things that are interesting or intellectually challenging. So, the work is doable. 

Compared to other big 4 firms, I feel safer knowing that we had fewer layoffs and bigger raises than many competitors. Much of that is attributable to luck I am sure, since we lost fewer large clients to the financial crisis--PwC audited BOA and JMPC, not Bear Stearns and Merrill. 

Culture is conservative and focus is to perform quality work. I feel like we spend a good amount of time getting the right answer rather just a documented answer-which makes me more comfortable working here. 

I get great exposure to senior levels up the pyramid given my current level within my specific group--which is much more flat and avoids the more bureaucratic structure other may experience. 

My compensation is fair and I feel like I have people for whom I have worked that I can rely on to present my case at year end for reviews.
Cons: Public accounting is pretty miserable work. Little benefit to society comes from the work. It's a cynical view, but I view this profession (public accounting: audit/tax) as a regulatory or cost-of-doing-business tax paid in order to get capital to do REAL things in the economy. So, it's not often that I get to go home at the end of the day feeling like I've contributed to society. 

On a more material level, the benefits are horrendous. The best medical plan for a family is >$500/month and still doesn't include a co-pay for emergency room visits (a change they slid in from the prior year's plan without warning even when raising premiums $100/month). So, stitches for my toddler cost me $700 (after deductible and 10% of the remaining balance) even though I'd spent around $6k in premiums. 

No Roth 401k like some Big 4 competitors. I don't understand why there aren't more of these. And contribution match is laughable - 0.25% of what you contribute, up to 4% of my income. Pretty standard for Big 4, in that 401k are very bad because they expect you to leave anyway after a few years.