PwC reviews

3.7

68% would recommend to a friend

(75,244 total reviews)
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Mohamed Kande

78% approve of CEO

60% positive business outlook

PwC has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 75,244 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The PwC employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

75K reviews
2.0
Aug 9, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The firm gives out a good amount of vacation time (for example, we had the week off in July) and is flexible on sick days if they aren't abused. Mostly nice, hard working, patient people. Decent first job, if you have a degree and coherently speak in an interview, the job is yours. No DT. Small amenities like monthly cake, etc.

Cons

Long, endless hours. Incredibly menial work. No real skills obtained, you only learn to work with firm-specific software and transferring data between excel files, so you don't really get transferable experience. There is no thinking involved, and trying to understand things simply comes at the cost of your own time; you are NOT an auditor here. You receive the work, you are instructed on where to put what piece of data, and then you repeat it 100 times. The most finesse involved is being clever with your hotkeys. A lot of micro-management - you will have at least 4-5+ superiors, and, surprise surprise, there is a "feedback" culture. Your enjoyment of the job will literally depend on what team you are placed on; some teams have a very relaxed environment with standard 8-hour days, while others will work 60 hours and be denied vacation time (yes this actually happens). The pay is abysmal, as it's "entry level" and the brand name allows them to pick their preferred price on your labor. Don't sacrifice your time and efforts for the "name." Big accounting companies and even local firms are catching on that PwC SDC =/= PwC practice office. If you are applying here, you should only do so because you need cash flow and a year of experience.

1.0
May 17, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They use food as the opiate of the masses.

Cons

THIS IS NOT THE REAL PWC! Many people are tricked into coming to the Columbia, SC location of PwC. This is a Service Delivery Center. You are drastically underpaid, have less benefits, and do very meaningless work to support the real PwC resources. Other PwC offices look down upon people who work at this location and do not value your opinion. Management is very awful at this location. They lie to your face and do whatever they can to not promote you. If you are struggling or need guidance, they rather tell you to look for a new job rather than try and help lead you to success. There is very little room for growth. They don't care what your career aspirations are or if you do not enjoy the work you are doing. They staff people on projects just to fill the projects. They want people who keep their heads down and do the work without asking any questions. If you have a brain, do not come here. If you have any self respect, do not come here. If you want to start a career, do not come here.

5.0
Oct 20, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Number one accounting firm globally with the best brand recognition. Great company to work for when it comes to gaining knowledge, getting exposure to Fortune 500 companies (which opens doors for future opportunities), very fast path up the ladder (i.e. can make Director/Sr. Mgr in pretty much a guaranteed 9 years or 8 if early promoted), opportunities abound to travel domestically, international 2 yr tours are always available (Europe, China, Tropical Islands, etc), you'll work with the best and the brightest due to the very stringent recruiting process, large annual pay increases (generally between 5-12% annually then add 5% on top for each promo year which occurs every 3 years so could be up to 17%), bonuses get good at senior assoc level (between 4-8k annually), tuition reimbursement, 401k and wealth builder (match 25% of employee contributions up to 6% of salary plus PwC makes an independent donation depending on your level, seniors get 4% then 5% at mgr), flexibility can easily be achieved on most teams, options for reduced work schedules (i.e. 80% schedule), student loan repayment of up to $1200/yr if you're below mgr level, 5k CPA bonus, decent healthcare options, after 2 years PTO of 176 hrs plus 96 holiday hours, unlimited sick time, etc. PwC is also not afraid to spend money on client facing employees when it comes to trainings, travel, dinners, etc. I've stayed at some of the nicest 5 star hotels and eaten at the best steak houses in NYC among other cities. If you make the right relationships with some of the partners you can gain mentors for life, even after you leave PwC. This is a place where future CFOs and CEOs are made and minted if you can stick it out.

Cons

Yes, there is a price to pay for all the amazing benefits PwC has to offer when you are client-facing. This is a culture of workaholics and high achievers that are laser-focused on building their careers. Therefore, there's an unspoken expectation among all levels that you put in extra hours on the regular. You might assume that 8:30-5:00 with a 30 minute lunch is a standard 8 hr. workday but that's unheard of here. You get funny looks and/or comments if you walk out the door at 5pm. The standard is closer to 8:30/9am to 6-6:30pm and that's only during our slow times. Busy season can be from 8am-10/11pm as a standard for weeks on end, and while this generally only lasts 2-3 months it can be much longer depending on your clients and their year-ends. It's a deadline driven industry and due to that the stress levels can be so high during busy season that you suddenly find you're unable to sleep at night due to anxiety or you begin to understand what depression feels like when you've always been a happy-go-lucky person. Many partners and senior managers have broken marriages or are divorced. Additionally, the new US chairman, Tim Ryan, has an aggressive cost-cutting strategy which resulted in a string of layoffs in 2017, benefits being cut, bonuses being taken away right before Christmas, among other unfortunate things. There was little to no communication on these changes, even to local partners which really was disturbing and caused a lot of turmoil and poor morale in the firm over the last year. If you are one of those rare unicorns that can put your foot down and find a way to balance personal life, family and a career here then that’s great and I have seen it done. It’s just extremely difficult and you have to be comfortable saying ‘no’ in a culture where it’s expected you say ‘yes’.

Viewing 40 - 42 of 75,244 Reviews

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