Company: PwC
Date: 2020-05-06
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Junior

Wouldn't recommend for anything other than accounting
Pros: I enjoyed my first year here which was back in 2016 when in-office administrative assistants had a more diverse workload that gave us transferable skills and an insight into how accounting and engagements worked. By the end of my tenure I can only cite the benefits, 40-hour workweek (compared to accountants who are often OT), and the high-profile firm I get to put on a resume as pros. They also like to tout about "diversity" and "women in the workplace" although nothing really ever changes; it just takes an hour out of your workday to attend a webcast every now and then.
Cons: First of all, our HR structure is just terrible. I worked at a smaller office, so maybe my overall PwC experience would have been different. I was not thrilled about covering for office services (receptionist) basically every day. It was not disclosed to me before I took this role, and I ended up covering the receptionist's lunches and would often cover the whole day in their absences while also having MY job to do. NOTE: PwC outsources the receptionist role so it was infuriating and I should have been paid this person's salary many times for all the time I spent doing this person's job. I enjoyed my coworkers for the most part, and was brought onto some interesting projects that never led to much. After my first year, I survived a round of administrative layoffs. My entire job description changed with no change in regard to compensation, but I was also given a lot less to do. I was overqualified and given little opportunities to do anything at all that required using a brain. They began a push for technology, which is good in theory, but virtually pointless for my role. Over the years I was on so many webcasts telling us to utilize technology, giving us an "update" just telling us to train ourselves on tech, or training us on something we'd never use again; lots of inefficient wastes of time to fill our time sheets. Unfortunately I saw several other admins like me throughout my market, young and out of college and taking this job just because it was a good (i.e. steady) job. I had a good manager, and this person knew I wanted to progress within the firm. I got my Master's degree part-time while working here and I was under the impression both myself and my manager were looking out for career progression for me. By the end of my role here, I had interviewed many times with both internal recruiters and hiring staff but it progressed to nothing. Nobody really cared about helping their own internal staff to succeed or the fact that I had furthered my education on the firm's dime; recruiters use a flowchart to narrow down candidates; an external candidate was chosen over me for another administrative role that would've been a horizontal shift for me. Looking back, I had slipped up on one internal interview question by struggling to come up with a work example, and it's laughable now because I really did not have much challenge on any given day. Those who succeed in admin here tend to move into coordinator roles or HR if they can progress, which I wasn't interested in. And those who stick around are usually quite content in their lack of difficult job duties, are usually older employees or do not have much ambition. Over time, I saw mostly accountants being moved into HR or marketing roles due to their "client service experience." It was like the firm didn't see any potential in me because I was in an admin role, and I probably spent too much time working here.