Company: PwC
Date: 2012-09-13
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Company is good, but opportunities outside the standard accounting track are limited
Pros: 1) Generous vacation package (start at 3 weeks, get 4 weeks after 2 years).  If you're hired as a manager you get 4 weeks right away I believe.
2) At least in my department (which existed outside the normal assurance engagement team model), work hours were flexible and you could work remotely.
3) Work is fairly autonomous - there's not a lot of micromanaging so you basically structure your day how you best are able to tackle the task at hand.
4) If your goal is partner in an accounting firm, working in another smaller accounting shop, or doing consulting, then PwC is probably one of the best companies you can go to, because you are very marketable when looking for new jobs, and the culture they embody trains you quite well in those disciplines.
Cons: 1) Busy season and overtime in general.  For two or three months out of the year you will be working at 60-80, if not more, hours per week.  This goes for most lines of business, although my experience is only in Assurance (auditing).  Overtime throughout the year to some degree is expected.  This is fairly standard for a Big4, but nonetheless it can significantly disrupt your life, especially if you have kids.
2) Constantly connected.  This is the dark side of flexibility.  With a laptop and a blackberry and the expectation of overtime much of the year, it becomes very hard to separate yourself from the seemingly endless stream of tasks in what seems like an ever-shrinking amount of time.
3) For those who are not accountants and who work in what might be considered "supporting" tasks, like programmers/developers, IT, business analysts, project managers, etc, there is no clear advancement structure in PwC because these roles are non-standard.  The best bet you have is to get your experience and then go find another job somewhere else.