Pros
•In EY you're constantly learning. EY gives you free Udemy courses, internal digital courses, EY badges and so on. I enjoyed learning a lot. •Even if you're super productive, in EY you'll learn how to be double productive. Solving unsolvable problems will be stressing, but after the work is done you'll be satisfied •The office location is in the center, clean open space, free coffee, tea, modern equipment. You aren't even supposed to wash your dishes, cleaning lady come and do it for you. •EY has big budget, so you have free data on a SIM card, Windows laptop and iPhone, if something crashes, you can replace it easy. You don't worry about this routine at all. •Corporate trips happen on weekdays, so you are actually paid for the days when you socialize and drink •The interview process was led by HR absolutely great. I still remember the HR lady with fondness. She made me feel so wanted and appreciated •People around you are friendly and easy-going. They don't judge you or your background since you both work in EY. There's a big culture of mutual respect •There are lots of restaurants in that area, EY routine is very convenient •You are supposed to speak to all the other EY employees (even partners) informally using Ty instead of Vy •If you need some additional papers or legal advice and you're working in EY, HR is helping you a lot
Cons
•Too much marketing around innovative mindset, diversity & inclusion. Maybe it works this way in America but not in Czech Republic. In Prague there are 99% of Czechs. Foreigners literally struggle because people don't use English in the workplace at all. Also, if your Czech is not C2, you still won't be allowed to work on Czech projects. And if you won't find English projects, your KPI will drop. •Moreover, you need to search for engagements yourself. If you don't have a project to work on, no one will come to you and give your a new one. You literally must pull opportunities out of everyone •That's why bantering and networking in EY is more important then KPI. Managers watch newbies and force them to socialize. A simple visibility or hard-working at the office is not enough, you are literally supposed to lunch with someone every day, to intrude and know what everyone is doing. I know lots of introverts who feel really uneasy in such environment •Managers push teams to exceed limits. If the team exceeded expectations this year, they set it as a new normal, and force the team to hit higher targets. It means that you'll work even more in order to get a bonus. •As a Junior you do all the work, then as a Senior you more like manage projects and watch Juniors, and as a Manager you work on administrative stuff. So even if you like your work as a Junior, in the future you will be pushed to do some boring administrative work, this year the turnover was very high •Even if you find out that something in EY doesn't work as it must and you try to fix it , people won't change the way they're doing things. Your enthusiasm and vision that is different from everyone's is not appreciated •Moreover, if you're not happy with something, you better shut up. In such corporation you are supposed to blindly do what you're told to do. In some companies leadership is concerned about your relationship with people, career path... but in EY you're not welcomed to raise your voice. And that's comical because your buddy (a Senior) and a counselor (a Manager) will ask you about your struggles and problems. Unfortunately these questions are not meant to be for you, they are meant to understand what your weaknesses are and whether you fit the team. Then it can be a reason for dropping you out. When we had a f2f meeting with a counselor, he barely listened to me for he was busy playing with his phone. Afterwards he mixed up half of the facts of my life and made weird conclusions out of it •That's why all the EY questionnaires you get where you need to rate statements "I feel free to be myself", "People demonstrate teaming and inclusiveness", "I feel safe to voice my views even when they are different", "I feel included and supported at work" is nothing but marketing •The fact that supports it is that EY website lets employees run 360 evaluation. But while managers above you can give you feedback, you cannot rate them back. So managers are not interested in how they are perceived by employees from below •During the interview they tried hard to sell me the position and mentioned benefits. Let's go through them together. EY can give you MBA - true, but you must send TONS of proof in order to get it. Moreover, you must work at least three years to be eligible for MBA. EY can give you food vouchers - in fact yes, but this year the card doesn't even work, so lots of people can't even spend their bonus points. You can travel - true, but 90% of those who travel, travel in Czech Republic only, because most of the projects are local. You can get language courses - well, you must pay for them with your own bonus points. You can join the other team within EY - only if you know the right people and they want you to join them •What about the environment, you probably think that only geniuses work in the Big 4. I've met people who got to EY by chance, afterwards they were so happy to be in EY, so that they worked hard and despite everything got promoted. The other types of employees are those who seek approval from their bosses, they stay late (one stayed till 2am), they are happy to work and to become someone in a corporate world. All that for sure is unhealthy. In general, I tried to ask people what their hobbies were, where they invested money, what they did besides work and no-one really could answer that. And already at this point I didn't feel like being the next EY living at the office hard-working achiever... •So getting back to the salary - and this is why you want to get into the Big 4, of course. Divide it by the actual amount of hours you'll be in the office. Add overtime. Add the time when you will sit after 17:00 just because everyone does it and you need to fit the team and be visible. Add the time when you will be ready to go home and suddenly someone books your time after 17:00. After simple calculation the salary won't seem to be so high. •But the worst thing was the culture, at least in my team. People hung out in groups, we all never gathered up after work simply because we wanted. Basically people speak to each other because they have to be sociable. So everyone feels that this office friendship is kind of fake. Managers speak about money much more often than about relationship. During the onboarding process managers which must help you, never have time. There were newbies without work, they had to offer their help to everyone just in order to do something useful at the office. When you finish working in EY, colleagues forget about you, your manager doesn't keep up appearance anymore, in the last day they don't even print the papers for you, you do it yourself. HR office that was so helpful when you entered the company, doesn't move much when you ask them to provide you with more legal documents or consultation. That overnight behavior change was phenomenal. IMO, if you want to be perceived as a professional, show respect not only to people inside of the org but outside of it as well. You are a professional if you manage relationship well, not if you work in a company with letters E and Y.