Avoid the SDC if you can - destroyed me after less than a year - Anti-Money Laundering Analyst EY Employee Review

2.0
Jun 8, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- other lower level people are nice to work with - decent experience for first job

Cons

- management only cares about numbers and showed complete disregard to employees well being and work-life balance - management was very controlling and conniving. Basically they made us feel like we had to work weekends when our contracts are not written that way - pay is under industry average, they need to do this to keep their prices low - managers understand that many analysts are coming in here as their first job and take advantage of people’s good nature to squeeze their output out for all their worth -first I had mental burnout -second I had physical burnout -third I had emotional burnout - fourth I had an even deeper physical burnout And MANAGEMENT DID NOT CARE. They just pushed for more cases - the stress of my engagement sent one of my coworkers to the hospital. The partner on the project buried his head in the sand and didn’t think of not care for his analysts criticisms about the project - the senior manager pretended that he was sympathetic to the analysts but in actuality used our feelings to try to get us to work even longer hours - senior manager literally told us that we were going to maximize time on laptops over the next 2 weekends, even if we finished our work, we had to check in with the manager before logging off, again, ON THE WEEKEND, to see if the manager could find more work for us to do in order to maximize production -the intensity of my engagement created an “every man for himself” culture of spying and manipulating for the individual’s benefit. The more you assisted the managers to the detriment of your fellow analysts (who, for example, wanted to voice their frustrations with the project amongst another) to the benefit of the management -management would not hear analyst criticisms and feedback of being overworked. They just kept on asking for longer hours and more production -this job caused me panic attacks After I quit this job, the sheer stress on my body and mind capitulated. I was mostly in bed for 3 weeks because that’s how long it took me to recover and feel like a person again. -management is so used to dealing with burnt out college grads it’s their job to try to calm them down and keep trained analysts from leaving, and then promptly pushing analysts to overwork themselves again

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Pros

Great projects, coworkers and teams with interesting work

Cons

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5.0
Feb 21, 2018
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Pros

1. You will have a very hard time not falling in love with every single person you meet there. 2. Seriously, you will meet your soul mate(s) there. 3. Prestigious and looks great on the resume. 4. Your brain will grow a thousand times more powerful. 5. Forces you to conquer your fear of public speaking. 6. Fun team bonding and lifelong friends. 7. Stepping stone to high paying jobs. 8. Helps you work on perfecting your charm. You will learn from the most charming people how to really get people to like you. 9. HR really cares. 10. Big support network (IT, creative services, etc.). 11. Teaches you to be calm and in control.

Cons

OK, I'm going to be discussing all the taboo things, and there are a lot of them. In spite of these cons, I still admit it's worth a five star rating. 1. High performers are "designated" (you have very little control over your rating) by the partner group (can be a pro if you get selected. Seriously, I have worked with some of the supposed "fives" and they are not any different than my threes and fours. 2. Quality is extremely low. Sometimes I felt like I was working at McDonalds and not a professional services firm. The emphasis is on getting through work as fast as possible and expectations for quality are not realistic. 3. EY has a very hard time firing bad employees. If you get stuck with one it can be a nightmare. 4. EY has a heavy emphasis on wasting time. For example, there are lots and lots of checklists which have no value that you have to fill out. Also, they wasted money and time on creating "Canvas" which is literally slower and more awkward than the previous workspace tool, GAMX. There is a heavy emphasis on "reinventing the wheel" and fixing problems that aren't broken with even worse solutions. Instead of wasting money on useless tools, that money could have been spent on your employees in the form of compensation. Like I said, EY is really focused on attempting to look as though value is being created when in fact it is not. 5. Lots of meetings. Appearances are very important. 6. Employees on global 360 accounts get better treatment. 7. Some employees (executives mostly) tend to overemphasize how important this work is. Let's face it, if it was really glorious work then we would have action figures. 8. Looks are very important. Seriously, if you are a girl, you will get promoted based on how hot you are (the quality of your work is largely unimportant). If you are a guy, you are treated a little better but there is still a sexist undercurrent in the environment. This is advice you won't get from HR obviously, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. 8. You will be forced to eat hours. 9. Your ethical compass will start to get weaker. 10. You will get a little cynical. 11. Lots of driving and travel. 12. "Family men" and married couples with children are more likely to be promoted. If you want to be a partner, you have to be married (few exceptions). 13. You will work on vacations. 14. Loss of relationships with family and friends. 15. Some backstabbing and credit-stealing (but not very common). 16. Comp is below market but that's to be expected. 17. Employee retention is not something management is interested in. This makes you replaceable and expendable (yes even as a manager, unless you have been "designated" as a high performer by the partner group).

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