EY reviews

-Extreme lack of staffing at the senior and manager levels. This means: a) seniors and managers still left at the firm are intensely overworked (65 hours/week during the off season and 75+ during busy season) and b) there are fewer available mentors for the new and experienced staff. Many projects have staff working directly with senior managers and partners because so many managers and seniors have quit. -Extremely long hours. Even during the "off season," 80% of people will be in the office from 8-7, and 25% from 8 - 8. Expect 12 hour days year round. -Disregard for personal life/time. I've taken 5 vacation days in a year and had to fight for the time off. Managers will ALWAYS complain when you are taking time off. -The firm will take everything you give it. If you work 14 hour days and never take any vacation, no one will bat an eye. You'll probably be given more work. -Pay is mediocre after the first few years relative to the number of hours you're working. -Extremely competitive. Jockeying for performance bonuses starts at the senior levels and continues through the ranks. Politics, gossip, and back-talk are intense. -NO TUITION REIMBURSEMENT FOR GRADUATE STUDIES/ADDITIONAL CERTIFICATION (beyond your CPA). All of the other Big 4 in Minneapolis will at least cover up to the IRS allowed tax-free tuition reimbursement ($5,250). EY does not pay for any of it. If you're planning to get a CFA, MBA, MBT, etc, look elsewhere or plan on getting scholarships, loans, or paying for it yourself. **Overall: Go in with your eyes wide open. Great place to start, bad place to stay.

* long hours, lack of flexibility for people wanting to have a healthy sleeping, eating and excercise schedule * petty, hypocritical, greedy, narcissist and egotistical partners * very poor health care options * lack of specialization and skill development opportunities for junior staff * rewarding of supplicant yes-monkey lackeys full of mediocrity, rampant favoritism * abdication of critical thinking in favor of rubber-stamp, box-checking mentality * not a place where top performers are rewarded based on merit * dificult lateral movement * haphazard and inconsistent mentoring, basically just so taht the mentor can collect his bonus * worthless in-house training sessions done for collecting checkmarks, not learning * too many direct admit partners and partners who do not share original EY culure * race to the bottom, instead of the top,- EY competes with temp-staffing agencies for contracts resulting in massive staff augmentation projects, where the EY staff is loaned to the client to do the work that the client cant do / bc the client fired their own staff * EY should be trying to compete with the likes of Bain in the fields of consulting. instead of Robert Half and Labour Ready * at least in a Temp Agency you get a choice of which city and which company you accept to work at, get paid time and a half overtime, and are not required to do unpaid extracurricular activities *in Uncle Ernie's sweatshop, you could be living in Manhattan, and get staffed in a back-office of some scandal-ridden, troubled bank that you dont' want to have on your resume as a client working in some podunk town in the deep woods of New Jersey...get paid for only 40 hours a week, when you are working 70 hours * MY ADVICE- you're better off taking an entry level compliance analyst job at a big bank or working for a temp agency that staffs big banks with a much better quality of life and work-life balance, less insanity and less backstabbing. you are not going to find many opportunities other than compliance consuting at EY.