Company: EY
Date: 2008-06-19
Overall rating: 5/5
Employment status: current

Look beyond the pay.  No kidding.
Pros: No two days are the same.  This works well for people like me, who have extremely low attention span and are easily bored.  The variety of work and clients, opportunities to do different things and not having to go to the same desk day-in-day-out are what have kept me here for so long.  

Despite the incessant cold calls from recruiters (at present the rate is about three per day), I have not felt compelled to consider any other opportunities simply because I have not stopped learning and growing - every engagement brings to you a different skill set, technically and otherwise.  When you are working with a bunch of competitive, Type-A personalities who are also the smartest minds in the profession, you are bound to learn something new every day.  Now compare that to a private sector with a bunch of nine-to-fivers.

The only way you can get the best out of the firm, though, is to put your hand up.  No one is going to notice you if you don't speak up.  But when you do, the rewards (albeit non-financial, apologies to those who are money-hungry... you are in the wrong profession) are great.
Cons: The inside jokes is that work-life balance is encouraged, as long as you keep it in that order.  Yes, work-life balance is nonexistent despite significant efforts by the upper management.  It's the nature of the profession - you don't clock in and clock out and get by doing the bare minimum of work.  You actually have a set amount of work that you need to churn out, irrespective of how long it takes.  Guess it's really up to each individual to put their foot down and make it work.