Pros
All big four come with their own share of perks. At EY, that included fancy trips to get training for a week, overtime meals, discounts on your phone bill, and reimbursement of your personal phone line. You can learn so much as long as you are asking the right questions from the right people. Career opportunities are good as long as you can keep up with the fast pace and long hours. Also, SOME of the people were very fun to be around. It certainly made the long hours much more pleasant.
Cons
Too much politics. I don't know how many times I heard the whole "have you talked to your counselor?" suggestion when it came to simple things such as being worked to death. You are just another number under their belt to get the tax returns out. You are constantly under pressure to outperform every single other staff out there, and if you turn down work because you are already working 13hrs/day during December for a client whose bill code is not open yet, you will appear to have "open availability" and be resented for not adding another 30hrs worth of work to your schedule. Budgets are a joke. Everyone eats their time so they are not the one to blow the budget, which then leads to smaller budgets next year, which means new staff who charge their full time get questioned about their efficiency or their capabilities... it's a vicious cycle. The people above your are not always your friends. Some will have no problem putting you under if it means they will not be questioned about the budget or presentation of things. Some will also never take the time to train you because the are 'too busy' (aren't we all?), so make sure to ask for constant feedback or else you will wind up with a poor review at year end that could have been avoided if you forced your seniors and mentors to be more .... well .... seniors and mentors. #rantover
