Company: EY
Date: 2015-07-20
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Confirmed

Beatings will continue until morale improves
Pros: Great brand and great client recognition for work in Risk Advisory, Finance Advisory (e.g. Chart of Accounts design, Hyperion, etc.) and almost anything in the Financial Services industry.

General lack of hierarchy creates great opportunity for advancement if you're willing to put in the time and are capable of the work.

Parental leave leave policy is great  - especially the paternity leave (if you actually think your team will actually let you get away with taking it)
Cons: 1) EY pays to get people in the door, and then stagnates salary.
2) A culture of being polite and positive at all costs (NOT being supportive)
3) Audit culture, through and through
4) Sign your life away when you join
5) Modern business socialism

1) The longer you stay, the more underpaid you'll be relative to your peers both outside of and within the firm. Even as someone who was consistently ranked in the top 10% of peers since joining (average year end rating rounds up to 5), and promoted multiple times, my pay was 10% less than the average shown on Glassdoor for EY, and >30% less than the average for my role shown by Kennedy.

2) EY is an passive, indirect place. You'll only hear bad news once it's too late to do anything about it, and leaders only admit that OTHER leaders fail.  I've yet to hear a partner give an honest admission of a mistake they themselves made.  Also, the only warning about any kind of behavior you'll get will be similarly indirect (i.e. Best case: "That was an interesting choice, why did you do that?"  - or, more likely [in a note from an unknown internal regulator] -  "YOU ARE OUT OF POLICY AND WILL BE REPORTED TO FIRM LEADERSHIP. READ THIS 8,587 PAGE DOCUMENT IMMEDIATELY TO  SEE ALL THE WAYS IN WHICH YOU MUST BEHAVE TO STAY WITHIN POLICY. RESPOND TO ACKNOWLEDGE RECEIPT")  It's far too much to ask to get a simple "If you do 'this' again, then 'that' will result".  And remember, EY is ALWAYS watching (even if they're not talking about it), because the greatest risks to the firm lie within the firm.

3) The Audit & Tax businesses are so far removed from the Advisory business they've become mortal enemies.  The Advisory business is hamstrung by our audit relationships, especially with [A] Technology firms (Oracle, Workday, Salesforce.com, etc.), and [B] PE/VC firms. However, we are too afraid of what the PCAOB will say to work with the business to exit the audits and transition to advisory relationships. Also, we prefer to use rules and regulation to drive our business to growth through compliance, rather than through meaningful incentives and support. All stick, no carrot.

4) EY loves talking about going above and beyond to support the firm, reinvesting your "nights and weekends" to support growth and build your practice. It's the only way you can earn a 5 rating (failing to do free work = career stagnation).  Regardless if you exceed 100% effective utilization as a senior or a manager, if you have ONLY 1-2 substantive internal projects and 2-3 pursuits that result in a win, you must prepare to be considered just a slightly better than average performer (4 out of 5).  If you're a partner that roundly misses sales targets, however, you're in the clear.  

5) The Equity Owner/Non-equity Owner divide is massive.  As a non-equity holder, you are responsible for all your decisions, including decisions other Partners/Principles convince or coerce you to choose (i.e. if you say yes you then assume responsibility).  If you are a partner, you're ok, because it's the non-equity holders that make the mistakes.  Non-equity holders are a shield to subsidize and protect poorly performing equity holders.