Company: PwC
Date: 2009-07-16
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Not great.  Ok until the economy picks up.
Pros: People are generally smart, hardworking, and diverse.  Have met some good friends whom I know will help me out down the road once we've all left the firm.  Great resume booster - all my friends who have quit have gone on to very satisfying and well-paid jobs.  Flexibility is nice - ie, good amount of PTO, ability to work from home, etc, etc...Firm used to be better at recognizing talent and promoting the right people - I think they've slipped the last 2 years, though.
Cons: Wow, where to start.  Most people - at least the staff and jr. managers - are unhappy and ready to quit.  75% of auditing is so boring its painful, so this is no surprise.  huge expectations with vague metrics - you work in a 'high performance/high reward' culture, but you are benchmarked against your peers at YE, so high performing is defined by how much the next guy/gal performed.  In short, your performance rating is random and you have only the slightest of ideas of how you'll be rated. oh yeah, and if everyone did 2 chartity events and you did 1 because you had to work late, oh well.  you lose. Compensation is deadful, but experience is part of the pay check.  You will work with impressive clients and specialists and people who really know their stuff - that sort of makes up for the crappy salary .  Sort of. - once it doesn't, time to go.  Seems as though associate to sr. associate promotions are all screwed up this year, so staff is angry and unsure of what to expect. i really think when the economy picks up, pwc is going is lose people.