Company: PwC
Date: 2009-08-12
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former

Glad Its Over
Pros: I learned so much every day at PwC.  The resources for sharing information are incredible and most of the managers & partners are extremely knowledgeable.  There are endless opportunities for CPEs, including hundreds of on-line trainings available "on demand."  I don't know where else I could have learned more, both technically and about corporate America, than I did during my time at PwC.  Spending more than two years at PwC makes a resume incredibly strong; the majority of public & private sector jobs requires or strongly prefers Big 4 experience.  In general, there was a great teaching environment where most colleagues were willing to answer questions and lend their expertise to each other.
Cons: When the economy was strong, the culture at PwC was great; there was a strong focus people and on job satisfaction.  It is amazing how miserable it became after the economic downturn.  A compete lack of transparency developed and the staff became paranoid about lay-offs.  You can work as hard as possible, but if you don't suck up to the right people, it is difficult to succeed at PwC.  Evaluations are highly subjective and the staff does not get an opportunity for to tell their side of the story.  If there is a dispute over evaluations, staff can go to HR and get branded as one who cannot accept feedback.  In short, if your manager does not like you or would like to blame anything on you, they can write whatever they want in your file and there is no recourse.  In addition, flexibility was eliminated and it was nearly impossible to ever use vacation.  Even if PwC cannot afford raises, it could at least make employees feel appreciated and valued.  Instead, it began to mistreat its employees because it knows the job market is poor and thinks that everyone will just tolerate the situation to stay employed.  Leaving PwC for a corporate job definitely improved the quality of my life.