Company: EY
Date: 2020-09-23
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Confirmed

Below average Big 4
Pros: The benefits, management training, and opportunities to work on unique projects for a wide variety of companies are obviously the biggest draw to any Big 4 company. Nothing is different at EY.
Cons: In many ways, they seem to be followers in the industry. When I arrived at EY in 2014, they were still operating on Lotus Notes and were miles apart from other companies in their IT capabilities (I came from Deloitte and can verify that firsthand). For example, share point sites for collaboration and teaming were not existent. Every office was using their own templates. No one coordinated with each other. It has since gotten better but only because they had to if they didn't want to be left behind the competition. Even when it comes to benefits they provide, they follow the other Big 4. They never lead.

With the recent layoffs of Senior Managers across the US in all departments, the firm is providing several months of paid employment with EY to find new employment, which is fantastic. However, it is disappointing that the effected Senior Manager group was not provided more clarity and guidance. If the message is that this group could not get to the next level due to the forecasted growth (or lack thereof) of the practice, then why not have an open conversation with these Senior Managers a year ago and speak honestly with them to give them a chance to develop into better business development personnel and sales people. Or to allow them better mentoring and coaching to develop that skillset so they can help the practice grow and allow them an opportunity to become Partners. My experience is that most of these people were 4-6 years into being Senior Managers. The firm obviously invested a lot of time and money into developing these young leaders - why not give them a kick in the butt that they maybe needed to grow into the leaders you want, rather than just pulling the plug?? Disappointing on many levels.