Company: PwC
Date: 2018-03-14
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Confirmed

Disappointing throughout
Pros: In general, PwC does a good job in taking graduates and putting them through a structured training programme, regardless whether you’re an auditor or on some other pathway.
Very senior management are finally getting that non-audit assurance work – particularly in technology areas – is going to be vital to help balance the loss of traditional, endless audit engagements.
The firm has a good vision and likes to think that it is different to the other Big 4 by caring for its staff - but the poor implementation of that vision and of the people-related values is where things fall apart.
Cons: An individual’s experience of life at PwC is entirely down to the whims of the particular partner or the area of the organisation in which they find themselves. The partnership model and the ‘Partner is God’ mentality means that the UK firm can feel like it’s riven with internal feuding and middle management careerism, especially in new technology areas. The demand for rapid growth from the senior leadership has led to a mass import of new partners, none of whom have been exposed to, or perhaps care enough, about the ‘people values’ that PwC claims to espouse. 
The firm does a terrible job integrating experienced hires, especially those at Manager, Senior Manager and Director level.
Those factors are leading to low morale, a level of stress & anxiety related sick leave that I’ve never seen in any organisation, and a level of staff turnover that’s surprising and/or worrying – despite the laudable vision of wanting to be the ‘go to’ organisation for new technology assurance. All organisations can expect a level of staff attrition, but when the younger graduates and ‘star performers’ are leaving barely three years in (and going to the competition), it’s clear that peoples’ day-to-day experience of working in the firm is far from positive.

Issues have been identified but nothing concrete is being done about it. No one leaves a firm because the Knowledge Management system is rubbish or the coffee is too expensive. But if their day to day experience is poor; if the level of feedback is shocking - one quote from a Director to their team was: “You need to make this less [expletive deleted]”; if middle management (Senior Managers and Directors) stop focusing on an excellent client experience and spend their time developing their internal network and their own careers; if a ‘banter culture’ persists (leaving men and women in tears)…..then the cycle of recruitment/disillusionment/turnover is going to continue.