Not worth it! Lots of BS and slavery! - Senior Consultant EY Employee Review

1.0
Mar 4, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get exposure to different clients, projects and you can grow very quickly in a short time period It is an established firm and has a good reputation, looks good on the resume You learn how to work in teams and how to get things done effectively Lost of happy hours and networking events

Cons

Work-life balance does not exist, they might send you anywhere if there is a resource need Not all the projects are fancy or cool, most of the work involves "review or reconciliation" of something They hire cheap smart labor out of college, and make them work crazy hours. Most of the employees just burn out after a year and quit the firm all of a sudden. It feels like a giant machine that grinds people, you are just a number in the system. There are lots of politics around getting into projects. The senior managers and managers want to work with certain people. If you are smart and capable they will try to use you as much as they can. If you want to move to other service lines, most of the time they give you hard times. Either your partner does not let you go or the other partner does not let you in to his service line. They do everything to get you hired like fancy recruiting events, toys with company logo, speeches on fancy projects and exaggerated career opportunities. Most of the employees get frustrated after couple of weeks and say "Did I join to do this type work?" The company does not care about what you want to do with your career, it is all about what they need from your skill sets or background They want to utilize you as much as they can and also make you work overtime. Performance ratings are lowered down at the end of the year. Even if you kill yourself and do a great job in all of your projects, you will not probably get the performance based bonus Most of the reviews in Glassdoor seem fake to me, because in reality many employees are complaining about the firm. Employee satisfaction has gone down this year based on the internal people survey results.

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5.0
Jun 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

good people and nice kinda

Cons

also good people and very nice

5.0
Feb 21, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

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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