Company: PwC
Date: 2015-06-24
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Non-uniform promotion criteria
Pros: Working with clients
Access to lengthy training materials/pdf (good that it's comprehensive, but when you are out of time, everyone wants point form & examples)
You learn (mostly by yourself)
I think all these pros are available at other CPA firms or big 4s. Nothing really differentiates pwc.

Other good things are the excellent "software" the firm has for audit work - outsourcing, computer software to aid etc.
Cons: Promotion criteria from 3rd year associate to senior associate is not uniformly applied across the board - there were those who promoted by performing normally (not stellar) while those who put in the extra effort & had great attitudes were delayed. Many who even joined midseason and were not used to industry specific accounting rules were promoted from 3rd year associate to senior associate. 

Some teams have a much larger say than other teams that you've worked with who support your promotion. So it encourages politiciking and resources focused on this rather than actual quality work.

Upward feedback process doesnt get taken seriously. Rigid and anal senior associates get promoted to managers who lack the "people" touch to get things done.

compensation is linked to how much non-work contribution you made to the firm - hiring, volunteering, committee involvement etc. So in other words, this becomes officially on your job description if you want more pay and if you aren't active enough, your next level of compensation gets dinged. Look, if you want people to do all this crap, either lessen the work load or hire full time resources who can do volunteering, hiring etc. Even with getting involved in all this, one must push one's involvement to the max. 1-2 months of this isn't sufficient to get a higher comp rating. The comp would be equivalent to one who was inactive. 

Employees have lives. And their lives don't just revolve around their work, pwc & pwc & pwc.