Company: EY
Date: 2009-01-15
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

First impressions of a career at Ernst & Young.
Pros: The opportunities are endless; moving about the country or about the world is always a possibility as is moving between department lines.  What you start out doing is in no way indicative of where you will be within the next two years at the company.  There is also a terribly dramatic learning curve where you will walk away a few months into a new position not realizing exactly how much you have learned.  It proves to be a very rewarding experience when looking back and realizing that all of those hours you put in have more than paid off in the long run.
Cons: I believe the most significant downside is the busy season related to the audit practice.  You are not being compensated any more and are putting in almost twice the hours.  Also, everyone is promoted on the same schedule unless you are learning or performance challenged and then you are "counseled out" which just seems like an ineffective way of doing things.  I feel as though I am much more competent than my peers yet I am on the same promotion schedule as them, which seems to be a joke.  Finally, the pay is competitive but not that great in reality.