Company: PwC
Date: 2016-06-14
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

If you are smart enough to do your due diligence on the CSDC, you are too smart for this job
Pros: 1. Free food
2. Flexibility
3. Social life
Cons: Congratulations, you are moving on to the next phase of the interview or you have already gotten your offer and you are contemplating... Is CSDC the PwC I've been dreaming of? Why is the recruitment procedure different?
 Here is a word of advice from someone who has been there! You are reading this negative post thinking:

1. This post is old, things must have changed
2. The author of this post is not a bright, motivated individual and I can do better
3. Regardless of the reality, I can move through the rankings really fast and transfer to "core" so  I can endure the two years of misery
4. It's something I want to put on my resume. 

Here is my rebuttal for all.

1. This post is outdated: I am writing this post as of 6/14/2016, as long as Norm Brower is Managing Director, culture and system won't change. Mark my words

2.  The author of this post is not a bright, motivated individual and I can do better: I graduated from a top 20 university MagnaCumLaude, I am a pro exam taker (never below 99th percentile for SAT, ACT, AP, MCAT), extremely motivated  and driven. I know 'stats' don't correlate to how smart a person is, but everyone around me probably agrees that I am at least book smart. So yes, you can do better but I am not dim witted either. 

If I am book smart, then why did I take this job? Because there were no posts to properly guide me, like this one. Some things no one told me when I accepted the job:

a. Most undergraduates enter the firm as associates (exempt). But you will enter the firm as a senior analyst, analyst, or specialist (all non exempt). 
b. People who are at core (those exempt associates) look down on you and treat you like second class citizens.
c. The work is dull and mainly copy/paste (that is if you do have work to begin with)
d. This didn't happen to me, but you might end up "on the bench" for 3+ months, which is a nice term for "wasting your life staring at the monitor for 40 hours a week."  Now this is a problem for those who want to grow and learn 
e. Performance evaluations (snapshots) don't matter. You have to be on Norm's radar. It takes a lot of politics to be on Norm's radar (which leads to point f)
f. Too much focus on "internal" projects: These are projects that rarely add value, people fight over and just for the sole purpose of getting on Norm's radar. 

3. Regardless of the reality, I can move through the rankings really fast and transfer to "core" so  I can endure the two years of misery: 
a. It takes two years to be able to apply. If that two years doesn't fall on August or January, you wait two years + extra months until August and January. 
b. Even after you wait until 2 years + August and January, a transfer is not guaranteed. Most people don't get it unless they have connections in core
c. You can't move through the rankings fast even if you work assiduously on a client engagement. Believe me, I've taken calls at 6:30 p.m and the director wanted a deliverable by 11:59 p.m of the same day. Even with this attitude, you won't get promoted if you do not have a technical background (which is how you get on Norm's radar). Bear in mind, the director asks you these not because he thinks you are competent, but because he has no respect for CSDC employees 

4. Companies you want to go to (MBB, Deloitte etc) know that the CSDC's employees are second class citizens. Your resume boost would be equal to that of an office assistant's at core. You can't hide that you are from the SDC because of the title analyst.

Lastly, I would like to add that even if you do get a promotion and become a senior analyst, your salary increase is $2000/ yr, non negotiable. If you transfer to a new office (even NY), you take your salary with you to New York. Transfer does not mean pay raise. 

Bottom line, still high turnover rate and management makes you think you will have amazing work, but they can not live up to their words