Company: PwC
Date: 2009-01-08
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: current

PwC - A great stepping stone to a high profile position
Pros: PwC provides its employees with a competitive salary, bonus structure, and benefit plan.  But the best reason to work for PwC is for the opportunities that will come once you leave PwC.  PwC provides young professionals an opportunity to learn and grow in a fast paced environment and to see the way that many different businesses operate.  PwC provides its employees with the opportunity to work with numerous Fortune 500 companies.  It's rare that a 20-something would have the opportunity to work directly with senior management at some of these companies, but at PwC, that's commonplace.  PwC provides expansive training to its employees, but the best opportunity to learn is on-the-job.  And, the experiences at PwC prepare its employees for a successful career with one of its clients or at a similar Fortune 500 company.
Cons: The biggest downside of PwC is the work / life balance, or lack thereof.  PwC tries to portray itself as a proponent of work / life balance, and they do a good job of preaching it, but when it comes down to a project team, it's impossible to have such a balance.  Given the environment in which we work, when a client calls, we have to react now.  Blackberrys are a small price for PwC to pay, for the value that they get of their people being available "24/7" for urgent client needs.   It's hard to take a step away from PwC and still be successful and highly thought of.