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Entirely dependent on office, service line, and teams. I do think most Big 4 culture is relatively similar. Personally i think it’s nosedived in the last year plus due to the covid remote environment and unlimited PTO announcement. Seems like all public accounting firms are struggling with people quitting as the job market is hot and people are finding more value in doing things other than working 12-16 hours a day.
It’s not very good under current leadership.
It’s probably no better or worse than the others. I think it is fine.
Train wreck
Enthusiast
Depends on the group. Currently mine has become fairly toxic due to the combination of the “flexible” vacation policy and the nature of our work. Pre-policy change, no matter how busy, vacation was respected. Now, because vacation is “flexible”, you’re expected to work over your vacation. We’re also extremely underpaid compared to the other Big4, which was fine when our vacation was respected and the average day ended at 5:30pm but now it’s a massive strike against the firm culture.
I think most people have issues with vacation approval now than ever before. I had to work 4th of July break and I’ve already been told I need to work Christmas break. I worked last Christmas break as well. Whenever I want to take time off, there is always some client need. With the shortages, I’ve also been put on more accounts than previously and I’ll be asked to help on random accounts when I think I’m going to have downtime in my schedule. Salary wise I think our raises were great compared to the past but it’s probably what we should have been making pre-covid. Still think we are slightly underpaid compared to other big 4 based on what my other big 4 friends tell me. I think the increase in salaries was completely crushed by the fact most people work way later on a daily basis and 6-7 days most of the time. I had friends who had planned to be here a more years that quit during covid because they spent their entire day working. While being short on resources is probably a problem at all big 4’s, the ability to take vacations when you want is an EY only problem. Lots of people in my office would save up their year’s vacation and take off a month at a time so they could travel back home internationally. Now, because of unlimited PTO, you can only take off three consecutive weeks of paid vacation. If you try to take off 4 consecutive weeks, the last week is unpaid.
Never go just by the firm culture. Culture wise they’re pretty similar. Always try to find out about the group you’re joining because they could be two very different things. I joined another Big4, and while I liked the firm, the group was really toxic. The group culture and your teams will make it or break it for you.
Not good, at all, it’s very political over there
I’ve worked in several offices in FSO tax and I have always had a favorable opinion of our culture. I definitely second that culture is largely dependent on the team and/or office BUT I think that you also can impact the culture on your team(s) regardless of your rank. My current team and my previous teams have all been fantastic. No firm is perfect but I’ve been very happy at EY.
Just like any other big firm it's going to vary by office, location, service line, etc. When you have a firm that employs thousands of people across different states and countries etc, how could you possibly say the culture is good or bad and that be the experience of every employee that works there?
I agree with the sentiment here of it depends. All 4 firms are relatively similar, some have better lines of service/groups but depends on who you ask.
To understand the true difference, you’d need to ask one or more people who’ve worked at all 4 firms in each particular area/service, and with that they’d need to provide a rather objective opinion.