Company: EY
Date: 2012-04-18
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Good place to start out, not a good place to stay
Pros: Ernst & Young employees are the most personable and genuine of any of the Big 4 firms.  Almost everyone I have met has been warm and welcoming, and I always say that I work with people who do accounting, as opposed to accountants. The "baptism by fire" experienced by new hires can be overwhelming, but the steep learning curve means that you learn a lot in your first year.  The prestige of working for one of the Big 4 will get your foot in the door at a lot of employers.
Cons: You have almost zero control over the clients that you are put on.  If you surveyed 50 new hires and asked them about the hours they worked, how they liked their teams, how they liked their clients, etc. you would get 50 VERY different answers.  One person could be on a client with a September 30th year end and another client with  a December 31st year end, meaning that they would spend half of the year in busy season (i.e. working 70+ hours a week including weekends).  Another person could be on one client, year round, that works 40 hours a week and not a minute more. Ernst & Young (and the other Big 4) will tell you that you just need to "talk to someone" about your dissatisfaction, but who that "someone" is is very unclear. Counselors are also randomly assigned, so your counselor may have no interest in interacting with you or helping you with problems.  Your "People Consultant" (HR contact) often doesn't have the leverage to help you get off of a client that you dislike.  But again, it's a roll of the dice - many people have smooth sailing, and many people don't.