Company: EY
Date: 2010-12-15
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former

Little work-life balance, and variable quality in work/colleagues
Pros: Global firm
Has a good reputation (within the accounting field)
Open door policy
Some opportunities for good mentorship 
Extensive training in beginning and leading up to big promotions
Exposure to upper management
Positions enable a lot of responsibility
Learn to work with many different types of personalities, especially difficult ones.
Cons: In tough economic times, the emphasis on people and quality of treatment falls by the wayside
Quality in terms of people is variable.  The high performers frequently get overworked and burned out and the middle performers coast along.
Not comparable pay-wise and vacation day-wise with other Big 4 firms (such as PwC)
Difficult to transition laterally to other divisions/groups
The disparity between charged hours and actually worked hours is a firm-wide problem that is known but not acknowledged.  It is the elephant in the room.  
The firm does not strike a good balance between sales (i.e. promises to the client) versus the demands/needs of their people, resulting in poor treatment.
Unprofessional behavior at times between upper level management and young staff (crossing the barrier between the friend zone and colleague)