Company: EY
Date: 2010-07-28
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former

EY is just like any other big-4 public accounting firm.
Pros: Standardized levels of promotion means (at least at the beginning) that you can continue to move up. Always something new going on; constant learning, much like the other Big-4. You definitely want to be shuffled around since it'll make your experiences more diverse and (eventually) more marketable. Compared to competitors, I thought EY did a better job of inclusiveness among people with diverse backgrounds/race (though not as much as they promote), and people are generally friendly to work with.
Cons: Unfortunately the methodology is a little less technology based than other Big-4; which makes some pretty menial tasks a little more difficult especially at the staff level. Office politics predicts which clients you will be staffed on or what projects you work on so who you know and in what capacity counts. You will work crazy hours (50-70+ hrs) so get prepared to sit in front of a computer screen for a long time, and you may be asked to give up your weekends to come into the office too. You can only get lucky for so long before eventually you're staffed on a project where you'll be drained out. At that point you either decide to ride it out and go all the way or regain your sanity elsewhere. Everyone in public accounting knows its tough. Its not the dream job but the job you have until you make it elsewhere or settle at big-4 for life (accountants are inherently conservative and prone to not taking risk, including career risks).