Company: EY
Date: 2008-06-30
Overall rating: 5/5
Employment status: current

Great opportunities in a flexible enviornment
Pros: Ernst & Young offers a significant amount of opportunity for development and career advancement.  Unlike industry, you will get promoted to senior or manager when you have proven yourself capable and not just when a spot opens up.  The path to partnership is clearly defined, and there is a support structure that can help you determine what you need to do to progress along this path.

EY (Big 4) is a great compromise between the yearlong 90+ hr weeks of investment banking or other more lucrative opportunities and the more limited opportunities offerd by 40 hr week jobs.  You are given as much responsibility as you can handle and get the opportunity to work on high profile assignments early on.  You can get involved in business development if you have that desire.

The employees at Ernst & Young are generally very intelligent and capable professionals.  It nice to be able to count on all members of a team to pull their weight.

Ernst & Young promotes a "people first" culture which I wrote off as recruiting jargon when signing onto the firm.  However, it seems to be something that is embraced by leadership - at least based on my expereince.  Employees are expected to operate at a high level and produce, but there is a lot of flexibility given in meeting those obligations.  Working from home or shifting time in the week to meet personal obligations is normal.  EY also works with employees with permanenet flexible working arrangements.  This flexibility seems to be much greater here than what it seems to be at the other Big 4 firms based on my impressions / friends at other firms.

Oh, and raises are generally good (10%+)
Cons: There can be a lot of pressure as a lot is expected of you.  It can be a competative working enviornment at times.  

Some employees can be whiners.