Company: EY
Date: 2008-09-21
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

An excellent starting point and stepping stone
Pros: Ernst & Young offers a great environment to start ones career in the accounting/professional services industry. EY provides intensive training during your early years, and reimburses you for a CPA study course as well as exam and application fees. You will get a lot of exposure to many different industries, and will communicate with upper level accounting and management personnel (Controller, VP-Finance, etc.) even as a staff auditor. The people you will work with are, overall, very outgoing, team-oriented, and intelligent people. Community involvement is often encouraged. Being associated with such a well-known company is also great for a resume.
Cons: The workload for staff and seniors can be excessive depending on the size of the audit team, the time allotted for the engagement, and the client environment. Travel varies, but traveling for 60-70% of the year is not uncommon. Daily commutes in excess of an hour are not uncommon, and schedulers make no effort to schedule jobs convenient to where one lives. Staff have little input on their schedules, and the types of clients they work on. While a work-life balance is stressed, the client generally comes first. Even when one is on "vacation", they are expected to be available to the audit team for questions or small tasks. Efforts are rarely adequately recognized.