I worked for PwC for more than a decade, so there were enough positives to keep me there, however, there is one significant flaw in the firm that can affect anyone at any time. Promotions to management grades tend to be made on the strength of length of tenure, technical knowledge and/ or networking, and not on management skills. Consequently there are often issues with decisions made by people who are not skilled in managing people and teams. You can be lucky to get a manager who has the skills or you may be unlucky. The most obvious sign that all is not well is PwC's decision to split the roles of Line Manager and People Manager, a role that is normally done by one job holder in companies where management skills are much stronger. Because this has been a long term issue, many of the most senior people are under-skilled and perpetuate the situation by hiring and promoting more people with poor management skills. The consequences are many and varied examples being- people competing instead of working as a team, being defensive and indecisive and decision-making lacking objectivity and adequate preliminary information gathering. This causes significant additional costs to the firm.
The practical implementation and maintenance of the firm's stated culture, that is in theory very good but in practice suffers from the same issues. When tested, senior people rather than juniors tend to fall short of standards.
Having said that, if you are lucky to get a good line manager,
ProsHigh profile clients, client facing work, the name PwC, the firm's reputation.
ConsPoor management; Ponderous costly internal firms services, Competitive culture, poor out of date systems.
There is a lot about the firm that is great. It is a great culture that values collaboration (below the partner level), that truly values diversity of its employees, and that is very collegial. The Advisory business has grown significantly over the past 5 years since reconstituting a consulting arm with the acquisition of BearingPoint, followed by other large acquisitions of PRTM, Diamond and most recently Booz & Company (Strategy& - which is, actually, a dumb name for a company that garners eye rolls and open chuckling among the staff). The firm has also made smaller tuck in acquisitions as well to fill in small, but important strategic capabilities such as Ants Eye View (for social marketing, social media strategy, and social listening), and BGT (for digital marketing agency work). It is a place where you can build a great career if you can deliver great work, excel at networking across the firm, and can build partner support. Exceptional employees are the "average" here, so if you aren't knocking it out of the park all the time then you can expect to only be rated in the middle of the pack, and receive nominal raises and performance bonuses. It has a strong brand in the market. The firm's latest brand health index rated it at the top of the other "big 4" firms (Deloitte, KPMG, and EY) as well as other non-audit/tax firms like Accenture. The Strategy& acquisition added significant strategy consulting capability to position PwC to compete with the likes of BCG, Bain & McKenz
• Actively involved in different stages of Project Life Cycle
• Participated in gathering Business Requirements and System Specifications
• Designed and Developed Database Objects like Tables, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Rules, Defaults, user defined data types and functions for this project.
• Maintained databases, performed software installations and monitored Database Performance.
• Thorough understanding of physical database design for constraints and data types for figuring out the sequence for modification (insert, update, delete) of data in various tables.
• Managing Logins, Users, Roles and User permissions
• Tested OLAP cubes for all business conditions
• Tested Complex ETL Mappings and Sessions based on business user requirements and business rules to load data from source flat files and RDBMS tables to target tables.
• Created the test environment for Staging area, loading the Staging area with data from multiple sources.
• Created Views for specific columns on a table to maintain privacy of a customer data
• Created Indexes to get the high level performance
• Performing the ETL operations to support the incremental, historical data loads and transformations using SSIS
• Maintained databases, performed software installations and upgrades, monitored Database Performance.
• Responsible for gathering Business Requirements and System Specification from users
• Designed numerous ad-hoc and custom reports using SQL Reporting Services
• Created various T
PwC offers good learning and networking opportunities which come with a high burn out rate.
Work / Life balance remains a challenge. Although it is taken seriously by the Firm overall, it suffers given project staffing needs. Even if special terms are agreed upon at hiring, you can find yourself on the defensive when the terms are not shared or recognized by your teams/Mgr.'s. Career advancement is sacrificed for flexibility. Project assignments can last weeks / months so the unexpected travel adds up quickly. This can be an issue if you have family or dependent care priorities.
Flexible and work from home hours are a myth if you work in Internal Firm Services (IFS/Assistant roles). There's a lot of talk about flexibility but IFS HR has aggressively readdressed/rescinded existing flex work arrangements.
It's no secret, and makes business sense but....Job security is another concern since the Firm is still working out "transformation" kinks. Internal roles are being standardized, outsourced or subject to further redesign/elimination. These changes are made nationwide. How they are interpreted and implemented may differ by market (region/city). Ex: some EA's have a Sr. Associate positions which may not be options for EA's in other offices (think exempt vs. non-exempt issues).
Standard advice applies to EA job applicants at PwC. Ask how the role has changed over the past few years, etc. Get specifics to avoid post hire surprises: who you support (additional Pa
ProsBusy environment, learning opportunities
Conswork / life balance, morale
4.0
Management Consultant | New York, NY | Jul 18, 2019
Great people, culture, and benefits
PwC is a massive company and while the people, culture, and benefits and perks are phenomenal (health/dental, 401K matching, preventative checkups, life insurance, vacation policy...I could go on..) this job (especially in advisory) is what you make of it.
YOU will be fully responsible for your career and you will get as much out of it as you put in. So that means you will be expected to do amazing client work and manage your career (at the same time). Which means you likely won't be promoted on merit alone (if your heads down and doing your work all the time you aren't doing it right). So, if your client is amazing (yay!) or if your client is awful you will still be expected to really time manage the heck out of your life to do it RIGHT. That's not to say that you can't take sickkkk vacations with all the miles and hotel points that you rack up while traveling to client sites each week (you can!), but you will really need hone your time management skills to get this down to a science.
To do it RIGHT, in addition to your "day job" you have to find a great manager/director/partner to latch on to and involve yourself in business development initiatives (think extracurriculars like writing white papers, or writing proposals), form or join a community to focus on specific topics e.g. "Data Analytics", Digital Finance, etc.) or create/conduct training on key topics of interest among other things. BUT, in addition to that, you also need to make sure every partner/director/H
A typical day at work involved completing audit schedules and in some cases preparing financial statements.
I learned how to audit various components of the financial statements, analyze financial statements and to write points for management letters.
Management staff was extremely unprofessional and entertained grudges and hear-say.
Most of my co-workers were hostile. This hostility grew because I was able to do certain things like straightening my teeth and buying a house before they did. I suppose they wanted to determine my priorities. Some were hostile even because of the way I speak. Some were hostile to the extent that they indicated that my work was not good even before I started working. This was my first job so I knew it was malicious. The partners, especially my counseling partner did not investigate the matter as an auditor with investigative skills to ensure that the environment was improved.
The hardest part of the job was working in a hostile environment. In fact, most of the audits that I went on were poorly planned and the managers and seniors on the job did not appear to understand the clients business. As a result of that say it as an advantage to understand the client's business and how the audit could be improved. It was very embarrassing at times when I did not have the background information on the clients system because the planning etc. was not properly performed. In fact, some staff members were given the task so that they could hav
ProsGreat outings
ConsPoor personnel management function, poor appraisal system, salary increases not based on competence
Responsible for tracking completion of work and distributing 200+ customer satisfaction surveys each month; analyze results for trends and best practices/areas for improvement; report out to stakeholders
Input data into the forecast tool in an accurate and timely manner
Maintain inventory of missing data and follow up as directed by the Integration Support Director or Manager/Senior
Send standard communications to engagement teams, track their responses and maintain tickler to track timing for subsequent communications
Schedule and attend calls using Lotus Notes calendar with engagement teams by the Integration Support Director or Manager/Senior
Schedule meetings; which includes reserving rooms and setting up invites
Work and maintain group and personal email while responding to questions, new and urgent requests for work
Document minutes of calls with engagement teams and other stakeholders accurately and provide appropriate follow ups in a timely manner
The ability to create and share best practices to build efficiencies within the group
Organize information in DMS in an efficient and timely manner
Prepare data for meetings with SDCs to plan work scheduling
Track actual hours against forecast and provide data to Integration Support Manager/Senior for analysis when actual hours do not meet forecast in the geography
Provide reports as requested by the Integration Support Director or Manager/Senior
Transmit projects and other re
5.0
Field Service Technician | Tampa, FL | Sep 22, 2014
the best place to work awesome company
• Support firm pc including Dell, Lenovo and HP notebooks and desktops. Support scopes includes; windows operating systems windows xp, windows 7, Microsoft office, McAfee antivirus, virus troubleshooting, re-imaging and troubleshooting hard drives etc..
• Support firm email software Lotus Notes. Support scope includes; installing issues, configuration issues, and user guidance.
• Monitor multiple ticket queues; Printers ticket queue, New Hire, Multi-media, Video and voice conferencing, and Service center queue.
• Travel to many locations to provide technology event support for firm meetings and conferences.
• Lead technology trainer for new hires to the firm. The new hires training process includes; Configuring and troubleshooting new pc for the new hires and consultants, coordinating with Hr and Third Party labor for timely onboarding of employees and consultants. Conducting the new hire technology orientation technology deployment course.
• Train new team members or current team members changing roles to perform daily team responsibilities mainly New Hire Advocates, Multi-Media support, and printers support.
• Support over eighty firm approved printers in the Tampa main office. Support roles includes; replacing toners, performing level troubleshooting, coordinate and escalate repairs to vendors technician.
• Support mobile devices including firm provided IPad for partners, blackberries, androids, IPhone and wireless cards.
• Contributor in maintaining and documen
The compensation and benefits for PwC cannot be beaten (22 days vacation after 2 years; vouchers for socially responsible and healthy behaviors, offsite and in-house training, funding professional qualifications, flexibility, healthcare options).
Be wary of the long hours and management games that occur as you will be treated like a resources and have to fight for yourself on numerous occasions. The hours are very reasonable outside of the busy season (September-February) where you are expected to work a minimum of 50hours in a week key word being minimum have personally worked 16 hour days before.
The education at PwC is second to none giving you plenty of help and guidnace on what training cna be performed and providing enough CPE credits to any CPAs.
Co-workers are fantastic and a young bunch with average age being approximately mid-late 20's this leads to numerous outings outside of work hours int terms of company paid happy hours as well as regular drinks/social events to attend.
Hardest part of the job is definitely playing the politics of the company as not being out-rightly honest in stating that staff experience is not replaced like for like resulting in increasing workloads and management who do not understand the pain as you cannot talk openly and honestly about it otherwise it is seen as a weakness.
Most enjoyable part is definitely team dynamics with such a young set of colleagues there is constantly something happening or just a good atmosphere
ProsBenefits, Compensation, Training, Flexibility, People, RAPID Career Development
ConsMandatory long hours, Acute pain is not addresed by Manangment, Political game, busy season
High level task, Long hours and team chemistry importance
PwC has great training and development for new hires and interns. The company grants access to material and e-courses for CPA credits and overall learning. Top down management is in sync and works very well. Advancement opportunities keep lower level staff hungry to move up and excel.
A typical day (Busy Season Audit) would include no less than 12 hours behind a computer and client interaction.
Co-workers were great in most cases but in some cases they could create barriers for learning and or on the job learning due to time constraints. Depending on co-worker willingness to train interns, one could find themselves just treading water instead of grasping concepts that would allow for forward progress.
The only tough part of the job was convincing yourself that this was the path you wanted to take for the first 6 years of your life ( the case where the engagement team was really hard to work with). Deadlines present made on the job learning a challenge sense the Manager could not afford to have an associate and an intend not working,
The most enjoyable part of the job was the times where you had a great engagement team who would allow the interns to take on much responsibility which fueled my motivation. Even though task demanded much more skill and mental capacity, prevailing was not an issue because you felt apart of a team. I love it when a manager has faith in you and just knows you will get it done.
ProsAccess to knowledge, networking, industry access flexibility
Consstandard industry personality traits, HR, slight employee abuse, judgement criteria/ evaluation techniques and fitting HR the model/ perfect employee
I am a Persoanl Assistant to a Partner, 2 Directors 3 Senior Managers, HR Manager and assist HR and Tax Team
I really enjoy my role at PwC as it is varied due to the fact I look after Partners/directors from different lines of service this incorporates me being involved in many aspects of the business, from designing client proposals to assisting with the HR processes such as Pay review,staff moderation and onboarding procedures of new staff. I am a coach to the other secretaries bringing then up to speed with word, formatting and branding documents and I feel a very valued member of staff. I enjoy working as a team to get things completed accurately and on a timely basis.
My day to day role varies considerable I am at present the P.A. to the People Partner, The Assurance Director, The Tax Director and three additional senior managers and the HR Manager including administrative and secretarial duties for the HR team and the Tax team.
This includes providing proactive diary management, with complete control of the Partner/Directors and the three managers diaries on a day to day basis, organising travel and hotels both domestic and international, including detailed itineraries when appropriate. I arrange meetings and conference calls including inviting attendees, booking rooms and catering as necessary. I enter their timesheets and expenses on a weekly basis, producing WIP reports for the Tax team on request, I assist with producing client bills and cover letters to send out to the client, and I produce the Tax Letter of Engagements. I also assist with with client powerpoin
ProsThe people I work with is a plus as they are a great team and its always a joy to come to work.
ConsThe benefit package is not great only Managers and above get bonuses and no health cover
It seems that whoever is in charge of procuring clients for PwC's market research division is unable to do so effectively. For this reason, you can be sent home with no notice at any time despite doing a good job. A recent project finished in December and workers were told to be available for a new one in Mid-January, this new project has now been pushed back with no new start date and January is looking very unlikely. Communication is terrible. Often workers will have to email or call several times and still not receive a straight answer regarding their shifts or status with PwC. Workers are breadcrumbed by management, told that something will be starting 'soon' so that they will stay with PwC. Workers are not valued because we are temps and it's perceived that there will always be temp workers available, so loyalty is not rewarded. Similarly, productivity is not rewarded. When workers do a good job on a project, delivering it within budget and ahead of time, their reward is to be sent home. Meaning that by working effectively, you are essentially putting yourself out of work! Some workplaces offer their staff bonuses for good performance, or perhaps some free pizza or just a well done, but not PwC. Unlike other departments at PwC, this role is minimum wage and when there is no project on workers are not paid. It's not clear why this department of PwC is managed so differently from others. Management does not take constructive feedback well, often taking it personally and ov
Main responsibilities including, but not limited to:
1) Performing audits of financial statements and conducting financial reporting
2) Meeting with companies’ management and chief accountants to corroborate evidence regarding financials, internal controls and significant business cycles
3) Sharing knowledge among colleagues and ensuring team is up-to-date with latest developments in the fieldwork
3) Managing audits for several clients and delegating responsibility to junior staff members.
Every day brought new challenge as I used to work on several audit engagements simultaneously. Typical working day required me to go to clients' premises and meet accounting representatives and those charged with governance in order to conduct various audit procedures. As a part of audit procedures, I asked probing questions regarding financial accounting and internal processes within the audited companies.
Work experience in auditing allowed me to acquire immense accounting/auditing skills, which are of paramount importance for my further career in diverse finance industry. Career in PwC was a great opportunity for me to engage and collaborate with so many different people from different lines of service. In addition, the work experience strengthened my teamwork, communication and influencing skills that are of significant importance in financial sector. “Putting myself in clients’ shoes”, was one of utmost valued behaviours within the firm that helped me to build strong relat
En typisk arbetsdag under högsäsong så kommer jag till jobbet runt 8, kollar mina mejl och sätter mig i en taxi och åker ut till den kund som vi ska arbeta med under dagen tillsammans med mitt team. Vi kommer ut till kund och har ett par planerade möten under dagen och resterande tid så reviderar vi färdiga bokslut där olika delar är fördelade efter tidsåtgång och erfarenhet inom teamen. Andra pågående uppdrag vilar inte utan man bollar ofta flera projekt samtidigt, både externt och internt under dagen. Strax innan 17 så åker vi tillbaka till kontoret. Läser mejl igen, löser det som går att göra via mejl eller bokar upp nya möten med klienter samt arbetar ikapp det som inte hunnits med under dagen.
Jag har lärt mig otroligt mycket och som revisor så slutar man aldrig lära sig. Projektledning är något som man snabbt kommer in i och på PwC så har man högt till tak, öppna dörrar och en teamanda som jag inte haft på någon annan arbetsplats tidigare. Allt är upp till dig.. Vill du och kan du jobba mycket så får du det, behöver du gå tidigt så är det också ok i de flesta situationer så länge som du tar ansvar för ditt arbete.
Säsongen som revisor är väldigt varierande, på PwC har du komp timme för timme vilket inte alla revisionsfirmor har. Detta har lett till att jag jobbat 40-80 timmar/v under högsäsong och sen tagit ut 8-10 veckor ledigt under ett år.
Intresset från rekryterare är stort och att ta nästa steg mot controlling redan efter några år är inte ovanligt. Är d
ProsFlera bra förmåner inom allt från träning till städhjälp. 35h arbetsvecka på sommaren, kompledigt för övertid utan gräns (eller pengar)
ConsDåligt med resande, dragit in på massage (dock går detta under sjukförsäkringen)
Easily the worst collections department I have ever worked in
I worked at the Southampton Office in the collections team, taken on a ‘Temp-Perm’ contract. Friends in the sector had warned me about the collections department at PWC and said how ruthless it is - but I thought it couldn’t be that bad. The week I started I was given ‘training’ by a permanent member of staff who did very little other than look on Facebook all day. Temporary or temp - perm members of staff was treated terribly. I had to take my laptop home to work on the collections I hadent managed to get through in the day but despite being with an agency - PwC expected you to do the extra time for free! I raised a concern about invoices not being received by alot of clients but was shot down by one of the team leaders and the collections manager and told it was my fault for not asking the client why the invoice hadent be received! There was a ‘Cull’ of temp staff monthly where out of the blue on a Friday afternoon they were taken out of the office one by one and told not to come back on Monday.. They deceived temp - perm staff into thinking there was a job vacancy after you finished your temp contract when in fact they get rid of you before you have any rights as an employee. At one point a gentleman took a day off holiday and was called and told not to come back - they wouldnt give him a reason why so he came to the office and sat in reception and said he wouldnt move until someone explained to him what their reasons for getting rid of him were - but the collectio
ProsBlue chip company on your CV
ConsBad management, bad ethics, bullying and bad pay
Great teams to work with, comfortable workplace, but with heavy workload
Risk Assurance-BI Developer
A typical day at work:
Most of the time--Arrive at client's office at their time of starting a day's work (and unfortunately, some clients' companies are far....). Communicate with clients in the morning or afternoon, and implement the BI application according to the discussed requirements. Go to the client's canteen or cafe nearby for food. Report to senior manager at the end of the day. End work and go back home when the client is about to shut their office's door.
Sometimes--Arrive at PwC's office at 10 a.m. Look for a seat maybe if new employees come and occupy the tables. Design and make demos and documents for the next bid, or implement tools for internal use. Report to the senior manager at the end of the day. A lot of the times, literally, about 10 p.m or 11 p.m....Because the workload is heavy and they have strict limitations about how many employees they can hire.
What to learned? To deal with priorities under heavy workload, and to communicate with all kinds of clients.
Management? I think it depends. I was luck to be in teams with an easy-going senior manager. And he always stays with the team if they need to work overtime, which actually happens a lot....But I've also seen other managers with a big temper that loves to shout at their associates all the time.
The company has a full set of internal IT systems for all kinds of activities related to communications and management.
Workplace culture: Generally about doing ou
ProsFree food and taxi for some overtime. Free fruit every Wednesday.
I highly stressful work environment with limited oversight and a lot of responsibilities towards the succes of the bussiness.
A typical day would include the following:
Reviewing junior staffs' work files, coaching junior and other senior staff, budgeting projects, managing client resources and arranging audit projects. Performing timesheet reviews, approving budgets and expenses and managing staff bookings. Communicating deadlines with clients and report to the Directors of the company (as I report directly to the Director) on a daily basis. Review accounting records and auditt files and compiling audit files and financial statements to report to management and following up on exceptions and crisis management.
I believe I contributed to management by showing the importance of appreciating staff and being involved in the development and coaching of junior staff.
My co-workers are very experienced and is fun to work with. In the profession it is difficult to afford time for social events and social discussions, as we all have to work 90% + productive and we all have extremely high productive work days to finish our duties.
The hardest part of the job is time management, always working late and not being able to obtain leave as client commitments are to important.
The most enjoyable part for me is the part where you develop younger article clerks, coaching and developing them to growth into qualified CA's. The interaction with clients and the fun of sharing your technical knowledge with other, e.g clients, staff, directors and other charged with governance.
The company I work for is e
ProsExposure to various industries, Excellent technical support structure available, Excellent client profile exposure
ConsLong work Hours, Difficult to plan & obtain leave, Overbooked Schedules, Poor Reward System vs Responsibilty
Questions And Answers about PwC
What is the work environment and culture like at PwC?
Asked Jul 12, 2016
Current climate is completely untrustworthy with an emphasis to downsize.
Answered Mar 6, 2019
Used to be an excellent company full of happy people, but now another company that has offshored technology, leaving a backstabbing management team an unsure future for many. I rate it "Avoid". Too bad.
Answered Mar 6, 2019
How are the working hours at PwC?
Asked Jun 30, 2016
Minimum of 9 hours a day but 16+/6 days a week during busy season
Answered Oct 22, 2020
12 hours a day is a norm! and of course, one works on Sundays default to ready up for Monday meeting/ reports! If you get Sat work free, god bless - run on the Hudson!
Answered Jun 6, 2018
What is the interview process like at PwC?
Asked Jul 20, 2016
I did not go through the whole process of application since I did not like the work setup but the HR is very respectful
Answered Dec 8, 2021
Detailed and Fair
Answered Mar 15, 2017
How long does it take to get hired from start to finish at PwC? What are the steps along the way?
Asked Jun 15, 2016
I am interned at that company, which is typically different with the process in united states.
Answered May 10, 2017
Took 2 days to be contacted for employment.
Answered May 9, 2017
What benefits does PwC offer?
Asked Jun 15, 2016
As a consultant, I received a straight hourly rate. No vacation. No typical employee benefits.
