















I worked at EY in the audit area for several years in the Sydney Office. Most partners are incompetent, too old fashioned or simply too lazy to go out and win sufficient work. Getting ahead in the workplace revolves around sucking up to those senior to you rather than being technically competent and hard working.
Most managers are too stressed completing their own engagements and making up the numbers to actually sit down and transfer knowledge to those junior to them; the limited number of seniors are constantly overworked, stressed and still getting hated on by management for not working hard enough. The Sydney office recently laid off numerous key staff that had very high productivity but probably weren't visible to upper management and got fired (due to their lack of political showmanship). Additionally numerous new graduates got fired after only six months on the job because the management have won no work to keep the pipeline full.
The salary for the amount of work you do is not worth the stress borne upon you as a senior. Its consistently below the market average for other private sector roles in say financial institutions or government. Recruiters have offered me significantly higher salaries (up to 30% from my EY salary) for equivalent audit roles.
One advantage is that the office is new and generally co-workers are intelligent and professional. Its once people start moving up the ranks into the senior level do you see the politics and backstabbing, especially as a female employee. Work life balance is non-existent and women planning on taking maternity leave should think twice - you will be left behind in almost all areas (management decisions, training, opportunities to attend industry meetings etc.) - there is definitely a boys club attitude amongst the partner, director and senior management levels.
Some benefits of working for the firm included discounted access to the company gym, drinks once a month and the occasional outing with the team you work directly with.