Pros
1. Brand name 2. Huge amount of clients to work with 3. Off in lieu for OT...oh wait it is gone
Cons
1. Horrible hours, no such thing as off peak, Feb to Mar you are rushing ECI/tax provisions, Apr to Jun you are rushing REITs and Trusts tax returns, July to Dec you are rushing corporate tax returns. Other time of the year you are doing queries, advices. Basically what other companies split into different departments, you have it all :) 2. Horrible salary and progression: you may think the progression is good, that's just good marketing from the companies. If you were to calculate your hourly pay, the only time you can catch up with people in MNCs is when you are a partner. Last time partnership takes 15 years? Now it easily takes more than 20 years. Why? The market is just so big, when it is so saturated, no new partner positions will open up. 3. Bonus and promotion lag: Out of the big 4, only EY waits till end of Oct to promote you and give you bonus :) In the past, EY has TOIL but now it has been scrapped. So you are getting the shortest end of the stick. 4. Support for SQP: 4 days per paper vs 10 days for some other big 4s. Really supportive :) 5. Value of work: Almost none. Just rolling last year figures. If you really want to learn, you have to put in extra hours because there is just so much to do, you just wanna complete the tasks fast. When you are caught deciding to complete the task and go home at 1am vs understand the concepts and go home at 3am, the choice becomes rather obvious after a while.