Company: PwC
Date: 2009-04-07
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

"Get Yours and Get Out"
Pros: PwC and BIG 4 accounting in general looks good on your resume. People know that those who put in a few years at the BIG 4 paid their dues by being constantly underappreciated for their work, overworked, and received no life outside of work.
Cons: The experience was much like a high school/college popularity contest, there is an imaginary circle in which your either on the inside (cool kid) or the outside (outcast). It does NOT matter what you say or do, once your in your in, but if your out your out. The fancy brochures that they publish that advertise the place as a place where you work hard but in return for your hard work receive excellent broad training that consists of getting a good general rotation of experience your first couple years that will serve as a grand career launching pad is a crock. As an insider the experience I have witnessed is far from it. 
The place seemed more like the Wild West than a reputable professional services firm. From day one you are pigeonholed into a group that you have NO control over being in. The name of the game is to simply acquire 'billable hours' as fast as you can. It does not matter if it's work you enjoy, are interest in, or will even help grow your career. The name of the game is simply being "chargeable" and "staying on budget". In the partner's eyes all billable hours seem to be created equal which includes such tedious and monotonous tasks as scanning, copying, data inputting, answering phones, and sorting through boxes. Plain and simple, the competition is brutal to get on meaningful engagements where you'll learn something useful. Especially if you want to get assigned to projects outside of your "group". Such behavior is often shunned upon and you are viewed as uncommitted traitor. 
   Their underlying objective seems to be to use you and abuse you and then search for some excuse to kick you to the curb by either "coaching you out" or firing you. When you write performance evaluations they merely gloss over the things you did consistently, thoroughly, and correctly. Instead they focus on your weaknesses in the "improvements" and "growth" areas as weaknesses that cannot be overcome and an excuse to discharge you. 
   The coaching and training are atrocious. You are completely on your own to carve out your own career path and receive your own training/development. Your coach and relationship partner will give you little to no guidance. They will meet with you once or twice a year (if they bother to show up) to say what you have done wrong and what you better improve immediately or your out the door. They take little interest in your career as an individual. You are simply employee number 00300165806 to them. The hands on training typically consists of a senior handing you a folder of documents and telling you to "have at it" and make sure you "understand everything" but at the same time have it done "on time" and "don't go over budget." 
   USC colludes with PwC to publish this absurd study that concludes the longer you stay in BIG 4 accounting the better off you are. I disagree. Unless you are one the really really cool kids inside the circle I think it's actually damaging to stay more than 2 to 3 years. You can develop better somewhere else in industry or government. Where you're able to get on more meaningful projects and see them from start to finish. Where your treated like an adult and not an overgrown child. My advice is to get your experience and get out…