senior associate

manager

associate

audit associate

senior manager

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 powerpoint slides for tax presentations including FATCA/AIFMD etc and am responsible for sending out such invites together with electronic client mailshots on regular tax updates/issues on topics such as FATCA, the Budget and webcasts.  I also assist with tax proposals and quotes as and when required.  I assist the HR team by organising interviews checking the interviewers calendars, making contact with the interviewee, booking meeting rooms, arranging video conferences for global candidates, travel for 2nd interviewee candidates with individual interview schedules, carry out numeracy tests, marking and informing HR of results.  I assist with the collation and filing of the new staff on-boarding documentation, entering relevant details on the HR People soft program.  Assist with the application of non-local housing licences.  Take minutes at the fortnightly Recruitment Team meetings and circulate agenda/action points to the team.  Organise all HR meetings in calendars including staff reminders for appraisal deadlines, moderation meeting dates.  I sit in on staff moderation meetings for each peer group making notes directly onto the staff records in share point, entering the data ‘live’ allowing the feedback and staff rating to be fed back to the employee almost instantly, saving on typing up minutes after the event.

I maintain the client contact data base, updating it as and when required. 

I also helped with organising the tax staff strategy day event – cross island, the HR strategy team building day and the annual AGM.

Working with the Partner, I carry out secretarial and administrative duties, such as client proposals (using Adobe CS6 indesign publication software), client service plans and FAF’s in word 2010.  I am the office word ‘guru’ and am often asked to help with various word issues which staff cannot resolve and am responsible for ensuring documents are brand compliant.  I have carried out some ‘lunch and learn sessions’ for other secretaries assisting them with the use of styles/section breaks and other reoccurring issues in word documents which come up especially when updating client service plans.  

I liaise and work with secretaries in the wider team, actively sharing knowledge through training sessions, I have taken on the role as a coach to two of our junior receptionist/secretary to assist them with their development and to bring them ‘up to speed’ and to be more confident when producing documents and to ensure they meet the PwC branded guidelines.  I provide cover for PAs and secretaries during sickness and leave, including reception cover.
 
On a daily basis, I update the Director and Partners voicemail and receive phone messages for them and the team members, taking detailed messages and handling queries where I can or referring them to the appropriate person.

I carry out the standard office duties such as handling Evelyn’s post, couriers, filing, photocopying and archiving and assist the Client Service Executive with the correct, soft and hard copy filing of the CDD take on documents, ensuring they are signed by both the Tax Manager and Director so that then an LOE and client code can be set up in preparation for billing.

There is not really a hard part of my job but you do need to be continuously organised and proactive so that you can prioritise my workload as I wear many 'hats' and am in demand from many lines of the business.

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 over-reacting. Communication on certain projects has often been so bad that different managers are telling staff different things about the same issue and then getting annoyed at them when they make 'mistakes'. Managers seem to have favourites who always seem to get work when there is limited work available. Often these are relatives or friends. To add insult to injury, payslips are often late, missing or incorrect. I have had to call numerous times to report being paid short. Nothing is done about this. You are simply paid the outstanding amount in the following weeks payslip, which means you are taxed at a higher rate. There has barely been a week where someones payslip has been 100% accurate. 

In sum: Stay away from this job if you have bills to pay, children to feed or a life to lead. Your hours will be changed from 9-5 to 1-9 at random so forget about hobbies or spending quality time with loved ones in the evening. On week one you might do 9-5, week 2 1-9, week 3 5-9 and week 4 sent home. PwC exploits students and vulnerable people. They don't care about the staff. Morale is often low because people are in fear of losing their jobs. Avoid this place until they start hiring permanent workers and valuing staff and stop using agencies who view people as disposable resources. 

If you are retired, independently wealthy or a student with a sizeable student grant, you may want to work here for a few weeks or months. You might not mind the gaps and insecure hours or particularly need the money. The work itself is fairly easy if you like speaking to people and hearing their stories. You may also like this job if you are friends with, or related to a manager there. You will be guaranteed work when the rest of us are sent home.

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 collections manager was so gutless that she wouldnt go and see him and instead let him stew there all afternoon until he left. I told the  collections manager of a pre booked holiday and she told me to go back to my desk and think of a way I can make the time up.  You were given a monthly review in which they told you how you had done and was score you got, they checked notes for spellings etc and if you miss typed something it would lower your score, but  you weren’t allowed to use a spell checker before posting your note on the account?!  
I can’t begin to explain how demoralising it was working there, I have over 25 years of credit control experience, but working for PwC made me lose confidence I myself - which took a while for me to get back once i started working elsewhere.

PwC offers a huge variety of work which means you learn a lot and get to work with interesting clients. The high pressure environment means you get take on more responsibility than in other environments e.g. presenting proposals to boards and attending audit committees. There are good social events and the offices are nice.

Unfortunately, these positive aspects are let down by the culture at PwC. Management only cares about winning new work or sending people on secondment so that they will get the large fees. Management are not interested in listening to staff requests for personal development. 

As soon as anything goes wrong, management look to blame those below them. The blame culture rewards managers who manage to shift blame rather than those who honestly reflect on what everyone could have done better. This culture makes everything your responsibility so if there is a problem, it is up to you to show PwC that you can sort it out without any help. If you are given extra tasks to do, it is your responsibility to work to midnight to get them done. If you ask for help, management will just say it is up to you to sort it.

PwC dangles the hope of promotions in front of people to get them to work harder and say yes to all requests (travelling at short  notice). They say they are open and that the best people will get promoted but at the end of the day it all comes to business cases/ wishes of the partners and not the best candidates. 

Pwc is below the market in terms of package and pay.

PwC looks great on your CV and gives you great opportunities but I would gain the experience and then move on somewhere else for the promotion. It is not worth the stress of engaging with the promotion system at PwC, when you can simply apply with positions elsewhere.

Although still a young business, PwC Augment is growing extremely quickly. However, this does not necessarily translate into the fantastic opportunities the recruitment process will lead you to believe. Entry level staff is made up of recent graduates from courses that are traditionally difficult to find work (E.g. Geography, Psychology). Staff retention rates are extremely poor. Within 12 months of starting, many of the "experienced" staff had left for better paid jobs elsewhere. Opportunity for career and personal development is teased but it is almost impossible to get time away from a project to fulfill any of these. 

Staff are frequently reminded that, although similar jobs are better paid elsewhere, nowhere can offer the "brand recognition" of PwC. This is to say that future employers will recognise the value of having spent time working with such a large firm. This is ironic, as Augment is frequently made to feel separate from the rest of the firm. Many of the firm's benefits are open to all staff, except Augment, and when attempting to move to another department in the firm, Augment staff are treated as external hires.

Perhaps the biggest flaw I found in my particular project was constant change. Policy and process changes on a near daily basis to the point that taking one or two days off on leave can result in you spending the rest of the week catching up. 

Workloads are not balanced whatsoever, and the best performing teams often end up picking up slack. This is rarely, if ever, recognised or rewarded.

Overall, PwC Augment isn't a bad start to a recent graduate's career. You will gain valuable knowledge of financial services. However, the cons quickly outweigh the pros and you will find yourself looking for alternative employment sooner rather than later.

If you ever have the opportunity to work for PwC then let me assure you that you will be looked after. The management here at PwC are out of this world when it comes to supporting and protecting their security guards & other members of staff. The pay is really good with upcoming pay rises. The job it’s self it’s easy to pick up, it’s effortless but meaningful. At PwC nothing is over looked, if there are any issues or concerns they get rectified straight away. You will be treated with the upmost respect from everyone around you but you must provide the same respect and work ethic! I work with brilliant teams that are very welcoming and friendly, they make you feel right at home in no time. 

The hardest part about the job is the 12 hour shifts, everything else is a breeze. It’s a 4 on 4 off shift pattern which I love and it alternates between days and nights. Difficult to get used to at first but you soon get the swing of it once you’ve been at it for a while. 

A typical day will start with monitoring the reception for the first hour of the shift or a half hour patrol, making sure all doors are secure, checking equipment is in working order, look out for any health or trip hazards, completing the QR scan whilst on patrol, reporting any damages, problems or any documents left unattended by members of staff. We have a responsibility of making sure all keys and temporary card passes are monitored and returned at the end of the day, on the night shifts we perform key audits and check to make sure all the keys and temporary passes have been returned and deactivated. Safety checks are performed through out the night shifts, lift checks, disabled chords etc. 

My most enjoyed part of the job, the teams and management I work with.

As a fresh graduate the company (firm) is supportive in giving and maintaining a healthy and safe work environment, and providing plenty of support when working towards a professional qualification, as in my case the ACA.

The hours, however, are long, (especially at the Senior Associate / Management level) - after 4-5 years of experience, and for the same (or fewer) hours you can work elsewhere for a lot more, and with less travel.

My department was one of the larger ones within the firm, and (is often the case with very large departments) guilty of bureaucracy and often, unsympathetic, and (worse still) in-fighting, politics, and generally what you perceive as bad management particularly at the senior management / director level. This is typical of rigidly hierarchical departments.

I think the quality of their internal training was sometimes haughty, and patronizing.

I think there were also quite a few, particularly those who hadn't worked with other organizations before, who behaved arrogantly and were over confident - (but they do work hard)!

Its not the same across the firm - the development of individuals will tend to be faster in smaller departments, where you will get more individualized attention, provided the culture is right and you're working with senior (and so more experienced people)

Their size however means, you do get access and to work for high profile clients

Take it from me a guy who's worked at multiple companies with experience in many key areas this is the worst and I mean the worst place to work. 

With all honesty they do not care about the employees health mentally and physically, they expect you to work stressfully for 46 hours MINIMUM during busy period without an overtime rate. I have personally had some major health issues since I started and the stress is unreal, not like anything you've ever felt or seen before. If you are wanting to have health issues and lose your hair to stress then this is the job for you. 

Okey so now I've briefly spoke about how it impacts your health lets mention the lifestyle. You literally have no work-life balance. I wake up at 6:30am just to get to work on time, finish at 6:30pm, get home for 7:30pm, eat, shower and then I'm too tired to do anything so I just rest then sleep. Repeating this daily. No time for myself, family, friends or anything to be honest.

Lastly the pay; demotivating. That is all I should say but allow me to explain, we get paid peanuts for this job and it is not worth it for the amount of work we do. Maybe if they tripled the pay it will be enough but honestly I got paid more working in a warehouse which is not as draining and the hours are less. No matter what you do or how many hours you do the rate with not change. 

Please take my advise and not apply here, you will regret it. 
Such a big company but they don't give a care about their staff.

I worked with PwC Global Information team during a Change Transformation and Transition Project. 

Global Information Leadership team is full of great leaders and managers who encourage, support everyone to succeed in their role. 

It was a steep learning curve encompassing daily tasks as per the job description and way beyond with the ongoing team changes, multiple resignations, recruitment, interviews to taking/providing hand overs to securely managing global client data during business operating systems changes, an office move, multiple projects requiring fast and accurate decisions during multiple conflicting priorities and deadlines. 

Challenging yet fast paced leaning environment requiring successfully fire fighting with global virtual and on site team members to deliver the required results. 

I loved every minute of working with PwC. 
It was my grand father's dream for me to join one of the Big4, and after working with PwC In-House teams, I have a new founded respect for all of their past, present and future team member's hard work in supporting clients successfully regardless of internal or external obstacles. 

Great Team members, Fantastic work ethics, 100% job satisfaction, supportive management and certainly an Employer of Choice. 

I would not think twice to re-join PwC if or when an opportunity comes along.

I went through the rigorous (and highly stressful) interview process starting in November 2018, got the job eventually in February 2019. Had to wait until September 2019 for the job to start. I was told the week before that I needed to be in London for my first week. Told the Wednesday of my first week that my second week would be in London as well. Told the Friday of my second week that my third week would be in Leeds, then I was needed in Belfast... I applied to work in Birmingham.
No where in the job ad did they highlight this as a requirement. The contract says "you may be required to work at other PwC offices from time to time", and that's all it mentions about travel.
I flagged up my issue with this, as I don't wish to travel, and for anxiety reasons, can't. It took them two weeks to get back to me, where they told me I either had to suck it up and do all the worldwide travel they expected of me or resign. I resigned.

Overall, an awful experience with an awful firm who pretends to be inclusive and caring. The truth of it is, if you're not willing to devote your life 24/7 to the company, then it's not the job for you. They also give you a laptop and a phone in your first week, just to make sure you can always work and be contactable, no matter where you are or what time it is.

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