Company: PwC
Date: 2019-12-04
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Mis-sold Graduate Scheme with poor salary
Pros: 1. Great people - I've made some really good friends who I socialise with regularly.
2. There's the opportunity to work on some really interesting projects, although these are few and far between
Cons: 1. On average Associates only spend 50%-60% of their time working on client projects. The rest is on Business Development, Internal Roles or 'On The Bench' (ie doing nothing)
2. Getting on to projects is all about networking (which is not how the scheme is advertised). As such, every time you try and get on to a role it is like you are applying for a new job again.
3. The promotion process at the end of scheme is very opaque and getting in to a team you want to join is much more about who you know then how capable you are
4. The pay is the worst of the Big 4 and doesn't really rise in the first two years, even after the two years it barely rises (31K starting - 33K - 38K after scheme in London). There's no genuine bonus scheme - it is largely flat across all Associates (no motivation to stand out). Graduate pay hasn't risen in six years.
5. PwC talk a lot about culture and care in mental health but they don't carry this out in practise - I've seen associates get ignored and threatened when they have brought up issues surrounding their mental health.
6. The Graduate training is poor - heavily focused on soft skills, which although useful, needs to be balanced with more technical/digital focused skills.