Company: PwC
Date: 2014-05-28
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Work Hard All The Time, Play Part-Time
Pros: PwC is great at rewarding their employees with great perks, holiday parties, bonuses, and training is also very good.  The company puts a lot of focus into the employees, in building relationship partners and mentors.  They are also very good about having developmental meetings and organizations or clubs for employee development.  There is also a lot of flexibility in working from home, so if you have a family this is a great place to work.
Cons: The big challenge working with PwC, is that you constantly here leadership tell everyone to maintain a work-life balance and to focus on the family first.  Let's get for real, you are expected to work more than 40 hours and don't be afraid to work weekends, because it is an unspoken expectation.  If you do not work from home or work more than the 40 hours, there is a silent "labeling" that takes place.  So you have to be willing to sacrifice work for play and working hard will not get you to the top.  Moving to the top is all about what political faction or clique you chose to join.   The rewards and perks are very nice, but you have to look at the trade off.    A lot of the problems depend on whether you work for the ESC office or if you work for the practice office.  The practice office allows more flexibility to develop employee skills, versus the ESC, which mainly does relationship building as a requirement.  Secondly, the problem with PwC, is that they are constantly globally sourcing positions into other countries.  Since 2010, they have been reducing workforce in the US for supposedly increasing efficiency in operations.  Unfortunately, those who are left in the positions after the outsourcing has cleared, the remaining staff members are burdened with challenges of quality checking work or "auditing" 3rd party processes.  The focus has shifted, which has resulted in at least 10 "redesigns" and reduced the level of positions in the US market.  Positions that are there now, will not be there in the future.  If you accept a job, be comfortable that it may not last for more than 3 years.