There are a lot of politics and a lot of favoritism here at EY. Entry-level positions don't feel it much, but you can definitely feel it as a manager or director. On the surface level, we talk about a people first culture. On the inside, the company always puts the client first and works you very hard in order to meet deadlines. My bosses don't seem that sympathetic to do amount of work that I do.

Great place to start your career. You will get a varied and wide-range set of skill-sets as well as learn to deal with a culture of politics. If you can handle the stress and competition of working with your peers, then this is definitely the place for you to learn the "ropes" of business.

I was hired in 2007 in Business Advisory straight from my undergrad. My starting pay was $55,000 with a signing bonus of $2,000. My relocation bonus was $1,000.

In 2006, my salary as a Tax Accountant was 60K. You do get a pay raise if you have a CPA or if you have a masters in Tax.

When you are inbetween projects, you are highly encouraged to work on talent development. You can go to training sessions that will prepare you for the next level of your career in the audit field. The training sessions aren't the most thrilling in the world, but they definitely are informative and will give you some valuable skills that you can carry with you to any future career.

Dress is business casual in the office. The only time I find myself wearing a full suit and tie is when we go out and meet with clients.

I was hired in 2004 as a Tax Consultant straight from undergrad for a salary of 47K. My signing bonus was 2K.

You can have an excellent career at EY; however, you need to know how to play the game. You need to be able to handle the extremely competitive environment, know how to handle politics, and really make an effort to stand out. You will always be up for review, but if you have worked hard and have created value, you will be greatly rewarded.

A very competitive, results driven environment. I love the challenge and feel that other companies focus too much on "equality" and "harmony among all the employees." i thrive under this "semi-cut-throat" environment. Give me the challenge, and I will rise up to it.

People know my firm and know the reputation. If you can make it here, then you can definitely make it in any other company. The culture is very competitive, and even if you work hard and have strong talent, you need to learn how to work politics and have a Manager or Partner take you under his or her wing. If you can handle the stress, then you can succeed in this environment

There is a huge divide between the Ernst partners and the Arthur Young Partners. There has been a push to get partners to mentor the analysts and Seniors in the company, but the push has been very slow and there is little involvement amongst the partners.

Do not work at this place if you apply for admin or support staff positions. This is a results driven environment, so if you are not directly contributing to the clients, then you will get no respect. You will receive no thanks, no credit, and no promotions as an admin

Your opportunity to grow in Business Advisory is very strong. If you don't meet the standards of our practice, then you will be let go pretty fast. If you meet the standards and exceed them, then you will move up within the firm. The tough part is that if you are not placed on a project where you can take ownership of the work and excel, then you will not be promoted. So it pretty much depends on your luck with projects. If you are lucky enough to get on a high-profile client, then you better work very hard so that you can get promoted with the work that you do for that client.

The sharing of knowledge is highly encourage at EY. If you work very hard, and show that you can bring great value to the company, you will have access to senior managers or even partners. I think the great thing is that it is very rare for you to have access to Partners. Therefore, you know that your hard work is being appreciated when the Partner recognizes your achievements.

I think the best thing about this company is that the people here are all extremely intelligent. The environment in the office is casual, and we're allowed to wear polos and slacks. In tax, I usually work about 45-50 hours per week. During the busy season, I'll definitely stay around 60-70 hours a week.

I work for the Business Advisory practice at EY. The company growth is:

Advisor (2 years)
Senior Advisor (3 years)
Manager (3-5 years)
Senior Manager (3-5 years)
Partner (greatly varies)

As a tax intern this summer, I was provided ample experience in the tax practice. However, finding work was sometimes difficult and spread around disproportionately, as I ended up with days of no chargable work while others received overtime everyday. In the end, I did not have enough passion with tax to continue with it at this point, and I feel that you must have a true interest in tax to be a tax professional, and those that I worked around certainly had that passion. I did not.

Travel seems to completely depend on luck. I have been staffed at the office for pretty much my entire career. On the other hand, one of my peers who was hired with me has pretty much traveled around the world on client engagements. I would love to get staffed on those projects, but it really depends on your availability and when you are in-between projects.

If you have a good GPA (3.5 ), strong leadership experience, and a record of showing initiative, you will not have difficulty in finding your way into this firm. It's not a piece of cake, but it certainly is not extremely difficult to get in.

There is a lot of training opportunities and promotion opportunities at EY. They certainly emphasize growth and learning, and to be promoted, you must show your willingness to learn and your desire to grow.

As an tax intern in New York, EY pays ~$24/hr.

EY truly emphasizes their "people first" culture. As much as the work may be tedious, the people are truly awesome. Even as an intern, they take a lot of time to make sure you understand your role and your work. The people definitely made it a more casual and "fun" place to work. Also, the company is quite relaxed on dress, requiring business casual, so you could wear polos and khakis in the office. (If you are at a client, you may be required to wear a suit.)

Accounting does not thrill me. I plan on working here for another year to two years to learn about the "language of business", get my MBA, then take my knowledge and experiences into industry. Don't get me wrong, the people here are great, its just that Tax just doesn't get me up in the morning.

We definitely have some varied hours over here. It completely depends on the project that you get staffed on. I've only worked a couple 2am days, but some of my colleagues have been burnt out from working till 4am every day of the week during the busy seasons! It's a little extreme, and the competitive environment makes you not want to stay and help out because you know that it will be your turn to stay up that late very soon.

I work in Tax and we work a usualy 9am - 6pm everyday. During the busy season, we can work our 12 hour days and I've even worked 7 days a week before. The cool thing is that during the busy season (and spending all-nighters at the office), the dress code is not followed at all. I had my hoody sweater on and comfy jeans to compel me to work through the early morning hours of the day.