14 Pros and Cons of Working for Ernst & Young

Ernst & Young is one of the Big Four. In case you don’t know, the Big Four refers to the four biggest accounting firms in the United States.

The services Ernst & Young provides include assurance, tax, advisory services, consulting, operations, strategy, financial services, and technology.

What are the pros and cons of working for Ernst & Young? Keep reading to find out.

Table of Contents

Pros of Working for Ernst & Young
Cons of Working for Ernst & Young
14 Pros and Cons of Working for Ernst & Young – Summary Table
Should You Work for Ernst & Young?

Pros of Working for Ernst & Young

Let’s start with the pros of working for Ernst & Young.

1. The people are nice to work with

One of the things that makes a work day feel less stressful is working with nice people.

The people you work with can make or break your day.

At Ernst & Young, many employees can agree that the people are nice to work with.

The environment is overall good, and the employees leave feeling good about themselves and their coworkers.

Having good coworkers is always a positive aspect of any work environment, and it gets even better if management is positive to work with as well.

Fortunately for Ernst & Young employees, it is usually a positive experience when working with management.

2. Good work environment and culture

As mentioned above, the people are nice to work with, which makes the work environment and culture good as well.

A good work environment leaves employees feeling less stressed, which increases productivity and the quality of an employee’s work.

With better work quality and productivity comes happier clients and more work opportunities overall.

Unfortunately, like with any other job, there is always an exception.

A few employees have reported a stressful and negative work environment.

Although some have had negative experiences, the vast majority of employees say they felt valued as a member of the Ernst & Young team.

3. Ernst & Young has good benefits

Employees boast of unlimited paid time off and other good benefits when working for Ernst & Young.

Having great benefits can have a huge impact on the productivity and well-being of a business’s employees.

Studies have shown that businesses that don’t look after the health and well-being of their employees have lower productivity levels than businesses that do.

Happy employees equal a happy business.

Although many employees report having good benefits, some employees say that they could have more rest time on longer days during the busy season.

4. Great work opportunities

Ernst & Young has many opportunities for employees to move from lower positions to higher-paying positions.

Sometimes you have lots of travel opportunities, and other times the travel is slow.

If you are into job options that have traveling rather than staying stuck in an office, this might be a good fit.

Some employees like the travel component of the job, but other employees would rather just stay in one place.

If you can find businesses that have ways to move up, you have more opportunities to get higher-paying work.

Most employees like that aspect of working with Ernst & Young.

5. Good for hard-working individuals

If you don’t like to work hard and fast, then this job is not for you, but if you are a hard worker, then you will do well at Ernst & Young.

There are short deadlines, but if you can work quickly and efficiently to get the job done, you will do just fine.

Ernst & Young values their hard workers, which means you get chances to move up as long as you can handle the workload and work quickly.

6. Looks great on the resume

Working at one of the Big Four firms can be a valuable thing to add to your resume.

Even if Ernst & Young doesn’t work out for you, having it on your resume can help you get another job in the same field or industry.

At the very least, it looks awesome on your resume.

Many potential employers like to see what type of job experience you have had before applying to work for them.

They can find out the experiences, skills, and past jobs you have had all on your resume.

7. Lots of experience and job exposure

As mentioned above, working for Ernst & Young brings more experience in the accounting industry.

You can use that experience on your resume to get other jobs or move up in the company.

More job exposure gets you more opportunities for higher-paying roles at Ernst & Young.

Many employees have stated their likes of the experience and job exposure that working for Ernst & Young can bring, even if some of them don’t like the fast-paced work environment.

Cons of Working for Ernst & Young

Here are some of the cons that employees have of working for Ernst & Young.

1. Lots of hours during the busy seasons

Although many employees like the work environment, the busy seasons can be chaotic.

Many employees have complained about the countless hours and long shifts during the busy season.

Some employees have said that sometimes they have to work 20 hours on some days with no time to do anything else.

If you have to travel, it can get dangerous quickly due to lack of sleep.

Although the many hours can be a con, if you need the money, it can be a good thing.

You just have to make sure to take care of yourself, even if it means calling in sick so you can catch up on sleep.

2. Low salary compared to the workload

As we have said before, the workload can be a lot.

While some say that the pay isn’t too bad, the vast majority of employees say that the amount they get paid is too little when you compare it to the large workload.

If you can get into higher-paying positions, the pay-to-workload ratio gets better.

One of the biggest things employees recommend to management is to raise the pay rate or lower the workload to balance the pay-to-work ratio.

3. Employees are not specialized in specific areas

At Ernst & Young, the employees are all over the place with different skills and areas.

Some employees have to spend their time learning the skills required for the job and figuring out what they are doing.

That time spent on learning new skills could have been spent completing the job.

Unfortunately, employees are not specialized in the different areas of the job.

You could be working on financial services one day and then IT the next day.

Many employees agree that they could train employees for specific areas and make it a more streamlined process.

4. The work is fast-paced and low quality

Because of the heavy workload, employees are sometimes rushed to finish each project as quickly as possible.

Unfortunately, this means that sometimes the work is low-quality.

Employees have said that management doesn’t care about quality as long as the jobs get done quickly.

Unfortunately, the employees get the blame if things are not done correctly, even if they are not to blame.

5. Poor job training

Unfortunately, employees report that Ernst & Young doesn’t have much where job training is concerned.

Many employees are left struggling to figure out what they are doing in each area of services that Ernst & Young offers.

As mentioned above, the employees are not specialized.

This can add extra stress to the employees, the clients, and the company as a whole.

Some employees have said that because of poor job training, the performance of the company as a whole keeps going down more each year.

Poorly trained employees give more poor training to newer employees, and the cycle continues.

6. Can be political

Even though many employees have said that the overall work environment is good and the people are nice to work with, the job can be political.

Instead of being considered a high performer due to outstanding work, the high performer status is designated.

Basically, you are only considered a high performer if the higher-ups assign you that status.

Ernst & Young views its lower employees as expendable and replaceable, no matter how much work and effort you put into the success of the company.

7. Heavy checklists

As talked about in a previous section, Ernst & Young is heavy on checklists.

Rather than completing important work, employees are given meaningless checklists to complete.

This digs into your time to complete the actual work that is needed for the clients.

Oftentimes, if employees don’t get the checklists completed, they get in trouble even if the items on the checklists are completely irrelevant to the jobs and projects at hand.