I highly stressful work environment with limited oversight and a lot of responsibilities towards the succes of the bussiness.
A typical day would include the following:
Reviewing junior staffs' work files, coaching junior and other senior staff, budgeting projects, managing client resources and arranging audit projects. Performing timesheet reviews, approving budgets and expenses and managing staff bookings. Communicating deadlines with clients and report to the Directors of the company (as I report directly to the Director) on a daily basis. Review accounting records and auditt files and compiling audit files and financial statements to report to management and following up on exceptions and crisis management.
I believe I contributed to management by showing the importance of appreciating staff and being involved in the development and coaching of junior staff.
My co-workers are very experienced and is fun to work with. In the profession it is difficult to afford time for social events and social discussions, as we all have to work 90% + productive and we all have extremely high productive work days to finish our duties.
The hardest part of the job is time management, always working late and not being able to obtain leave as client commitments are to important.
The most enjoyable part for me is the part where you develop younger article clerks, coaching and developing them to growth into qualified CA's. The interaction with clients and the fun of sharing your technical knowledge with other, e.g clients, staff, directors and other charged with governance.
The company I work for is e
ProsExposure to various industries, Excellent technical support structure available, Excellent client profile exposure
ConsLong work Hours, Difficult to plan & obtain leave, Overbooked Schedules, Poor Reward System vs Responsibilty
A very productive, fun workplace, exactly where one wants to be.
A memorable day in my job is when I had to take a bite from my Team Leader for poor performance of my subordinate consultants in a particular project. I refused to take the blame as I was not responsible for their appointment to the project, as we were all appointed at the same time. The Team Leader was losing his cool on me due to project management pressures. Though the situation was so annoying, I decided to be assertive and I showed him interventions that I had to put in place to ensure improved performance like training of the consultants, that I also had to go an extra mile to get things done, working very long hours. I displayed professionalism during the confrontation and I remained calm. The lesson learnt out of that situation is that emotional intelligence is the best tool to apply, especially when you are under pressure. The best part of my job is making businesses improve their performance, through imparting of best practices. The spin-offs are seen in the improvement on audit outcomes of the clients and further improvement to service delivery in our country. The hardest part of my job is chasing targets and having to sleep very late at times. Management in my current company are very professional and accommodative. The latter goes for my co-workers as this culture is inculcated from the top.
ProsFree Coffee, Free Internet Service, Flexibility in hours of work
Upgrading the hosted Exchange infrastructure was my priority when starting the job. There was a couple of infrastructure and outages that had to be stabilised first. Migrated from Exchange 2010 to Exchange 2013. We had about 150 customers and 7000 users at the time and had to make sure service interruption are as low as possible.
I learned new features in Exchange 2013 and how the roles has changed had some unexpected behaviour and we had to work through those.
Management again gave me the freedom to setup the infrastructure propose and implement improvements and necessary changes for stability and good health of the infrastructure. I had a really good relationship with the Director of the department who was also my manager.
Initially it was hard keeping services up and there was many companies affected during any outage. This was however resolved in the majority in the first month all the critical solutions and then over the next few month the rest to ensure all works well.
Deploying Exchange 2013 which was the latest version at the time and cutting edge. Getting more exposure to Skype for Business and integration with Exchange and Polycom Conference units.
ProsGood compensation, lots of opportunities, education on quarterly release programs
ConsI cannot think of any, the working environment and everything was professional and in a healthy balance
Risk Management, Treasury and Internal Audit:
- Oversaw and analysed banks’ exposure to credit risk
- Ensured that the banks comply with regulations that govern credit risk
- Developed, reviewed and recommended risk management frameworks for policies and procedures within which management can operate
- Reviewed corporate treasury environments and their business processes
- Performed detailed walk-through procedures of transactions within treasury to verify that identified internal controls are operating efficiently
- Reported findings and recommendations to the client and the PwC Partner
- Analysed company financial statements to interpret all financial information regarding results
- Analysed trends and provided insights into improving monthly budgets and cash flow forecasts.
The hardest part of the job was the administration of billing the hours worked each day.
I really enjoyed the fast pace environment of PwC and how we would rotate clients to get vast experience and knowledge.
ProsFlexible hours; Team and individual performance incentives; growth environment
As a vacation student, my daily duties included shadowing tax consultants, attending seminars and preparing presentations. A typical day at work was always busy, with meetings in the morning followed by theoretical and practical exercises. The programme taught me the importance of preparation and due diligence. It also taught me the importance of team work and effective communication. As a diverse group from different backgrounds, we had to learn to work together efficiently and effectively. The training and coaching we received from management made it easier to adapt to the new environment and carry out the required duties with ease. The most difficult part of the job was to deal with tax related transactions, because I did not have a background in tax at the time, however, we were provided with the necessary training materials and that helped a lot. The most enjoyable part of the job were the presentations and team activities.
ProsFree lunch, free training material and friendly tax consultants and staff
PwC is a productive and meritorious environment to work.
My specific role was business development, client relationship management and origination.
I motivated several workshops with clients in an effort to fully articulate the exact requirements and how they can improve their processes and bottom line.
My work was cross border in that I travelled extensively to meet with global clients who had a vested interest in developing businesses in emerging and frontier markets in sub Saharan Africa.
The job was exceptionally gratifying and very enjoyable.
ProsThe firm gave me a lot of independence, to interact and develop the business, It made me feel accountable for my actions, an approach which i appreciate and have come to understand.
ConsUnrealistic expectations form senior partners, who expected more from less budgetary allocation, in an ever increasing competitive environment, It put unnecessary stress on individuals, and reduces effectiveness in the market.
My interest are working to develop solutions for identified issues in the organisation. Working with other Business Analysts to try and come up with the most suitable way of solving the problems at hand. I have interest in writing specification documents after analyzing the provided information from the client. I also like meeting with clients to update them of the progress of all the projects that are going on. The most important thing is working in an agile environment and being able to add stuff to the documentation while the project is in progress. Working closely with the developers also allows me the opportunity to keep aware of the most recent technologies in the development side of things and how IT is still growing. Liaising with external suppliers could assist me built the best contacts and working relationships with different stakeholders in order to provide the best solutions for the business.
The job was very demanding as the teams were not big enough to complete all the work. Therefore many employees were over-worked.
Although you get benefits like medical aid, etc. the salary itself did not do justice for the number of hours you would need to put in to complete all the work.
The company promotes a balanced lifestyle however it did not seem evident that anyone was successfully implementing this balanced lifestyle they were promoting.
Management seemed to care about your wellbeing, but in the end, the job needs to get done and deadlines need to be met.
Employees and co-workers seemed drained and depressed and were living from weekend to weekend if they had all their work up to date, which was not always the case.
Clients take long to send the required information and therefore played a big role in the deadlines.
No regard for personal circumstances and obvious favouritism
PwC has no regard for an employees circumstances when it comes to assigning staff to certain projects for long periods of time. I understand that it is part of the job to travel but to only be home for 3 weeks in a 4 month cycle whilst your wife is far pregnant (having experienced complications during the first pregnancy) is not right.
It is also obvious that there is huge favouritism towards certain staff members especially when the certain staff members become "clicky". Promotions are not dealt with on a person's ability and work experience but merely based on level of qualification, even if a person that does not hold such a qualification is and keeps on performing at a better level than some of the people with the technical qualification.
a great learning experience about balancing work and social life
We were grouped with people we did mot know in order to build teamwork and show we can work with anyone were assigned to.
I learned that to become an accountant you must be open minded and a well rounder. It's not just about academics and lack of people skills can work against you.
In terms of work place culture, i liked how everyone was welcoming and backgrounds did not matter we all got along and worked well together. we were assigned a great team of trainees to supervise us and work with us during that week.
The hardest part about the job was the travel hours, other than that I enjoyed my experience.
the most enjoyable part was the fashion show, and visiting the different clients the firm audits.
I am a Persoanl Assistant to a Partner, 2 Directors 3 Senior Managers, HR Manager and assist HR and Tax Team
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 powerpoin
ProsThe people I work with is a plus as they are a great team and its always a joy to come to work.
ConsThe benefit package is not great only Managers and above get bonuses and no health cover
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 ov
Main responsibilities including, but not limited to:
1) Performing audits of financial statements and conducting financial reporting
2) Meeting with companies’ management and chief accountants to corroborate evidence regarding financials, internal controls and significant business cycles
3) Sharing knowledge among colleagues and ensuring team is up-to-date with latest developments in the fieldwork
3) Managing audits for several clients and delegating responsibility to junior staff members.
Every day brought new challenge as I used to work on several audit engagements simultaneously. Typical working day required me to go to clients' premises and meet accounting representatives and those charged with governance in order to conduct various audit procedures. As a part of audit procedures, I asked probing questions regarding financial accounting and internal processes within the audited companies.
Work experience in auditing allowed me to acquire immense accounting/auditing skills, which are of paramount importance for my further career in diverse finance industry. Career in PwC was a great opportunity for me to engage and collaborate with so many different people from different lines of service. In addition, the work experience strengthened my teamwork, communication and influencing skills that are of significant importance in financial sector. “Putting myself in clients’ shoes”, was one of utmost valued behaviours within the firm that helped me to build strong relat
En typisk arbetsdag under högsäsong så kommer jag till jobbet runt 8, kollar mina mejl och sätter mig i en taxi och åker ut till den kund som vi ska arbeta med under dagen tillsammans med mitt team. Vi kommer ut till kund och har ett par planerade möten under dagen och resterande tid så reviderar vi färdiga bokslut där olika delar är fördelade efter tidsåtgång och erfarenhet inom teamen. Andra pågående uppdrag vilar inte utan man bollar ofta flera projekt samtidigt, både externt och internt under dagen. Strax innan 17 så åker vi tillbaka till kontoret. Läser mejl igen, löser det som går att göra via mejl eller bokar upp nya möten med klienter samt arbetar ikapp det som inte hunnits med under dagen.
Jag har lärt mig otroligt mycket och som revisor så slutar man aldrig lära sig. Projektledning är något som man snabbt kommer in i och på PwC så har man högt till tak, öppna dörrar och en teamanda som jag inte haft på någon annan arbetsplats tidigare. Allt är upp till dig.. Vill du och kan du jobba mycket så får du det, behöver du gå tidigt så är det också ok i de flesta situationer så länge som du tar ansvar för ditt arbete.
Säsongen som revisor är väldigt varierande, på PwC har du komp timme för timme vilket inte alla revisionsfirmor har. Detta har lett till att jag jobbat 40-80 timmar/v under högsäsong och sen tagit ut 8-10 veckor ledigt under ett år.
Intresset från rekryterare är stort och att ta nästa steg mot controlling redan efter några år är inte ovanligt. Är d
ProsFlera bra förmåner inom allt från träning till städhjälp. 35h arbetsvecka på sommaren, kompledigt för övertid utan gräns (eller pengar)
ConsDåligt med resande, dragit in på massage (dock går detta under sjukförsäkringen)
I worked for PwC for more than a decade, so there were enough positives to keep me there, however, there is one significant flaw in the firm that can affect anyone at any time. Promotions to management grades tend to be made on the strength of length of tenure, technical knowledge and/ or networking, and not on management skills. Consequently there are often issues with decisions made by people who are not skilled in managing people and teams. You can be lucky to get a manager who has the skills or you may be unlucky. The most obvious sign that all is not well is PwC's decision to split the roles of Line Manager and People Manager, a role that is normally done by one job holder in companies where management skills are much stronger. Because this has been a long term issue, many of the most senior people are under-skilled and perpetuate the situation by hiring and promoting more people with poor management skills. The consequences are many and varied examples being- people competing instead of working as a team, being defensive and indecisive and decision-making lacking objectivity and adequate preliminary information gathering. This causes significant additional costs to the firm.
The practical implementation and maintenance of the firm's stated culture, that is in theory very good but in practice suffers from the same issues. When tested, senior people rather than juniors tend to fall short of standards.
Having said that, if you are lucky to get a good line manager,
ProsHigh profile clients, client facing work, the name PwC, the firm's reputation.
ConsPoor management; Ponderous costly internal firms services, Competitive culture, poor out of date systems.
Easily the worst collections department I have ever worked in
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 collectio
ProsBlue chip company on your CV
ConsBad management, bad ethics, bullying and bad pay
Great teams to work with, comfortable workplace, but with heavy workload
Risk Assurance-BI Developer
A typical day at work:
Most of the time--Arrive at client's office at their time of starting a day's work (and unfortunately, some clients' companies are far....). Communicate with clients in the morning or afternoon, and implement the BI application according to the discussed requirements. Go to the client's canteen or cafe nearby for food. Report to senior manager at the end of the day. End work and go back home when the client is about to shut their office's door.
Sometimes--Arrive at PwC's office at 10 a.m. Look for a seat maybe if new employees come and occupy the tables. Design and make demos and documents for the next bid, or implement tools for internal use. Report to the senior manager at the end of the day. A lot of the times, literally, about 10 p.m or 11 p.m....Because the workload is heavy and they have strict limitations about how many employees they can hire.
What to learned? To deal with priorities under heavy workload, and to communicate with all kinds of clients.
Management? I think it depends. I was luck to be in teams with an easy-going senior manager. And he always stays with the team if they need to work overtime, which actually happens a lot....But I've also seen other managers with a big temper that loves to shout at their associates all the time.
The company has a full set of internal IT systems for all kinds of activities related to communications and management.
Workplace culture: Generally about doing ou
ProsFree food and taxi for some overtime. Free fruit every Wednesday.
There is a lot about the firm that is great. It is a great culture that values collaboration (below the partner level), that truly values diversity of its employees, and that is very collegial. The Advisory business has grown significantly over the past 5 years since reconstituting a consulting arm with the acquisition of BearingPoint, followed by other large acquisitions of PRTM, Diamond and most recently Booz & Company (Strategy& - which is, actually, a dumb name for a company that garners eye rolls and open chuckling among the staff). The firm has also made smaller tuck in acquisitions as well to fill in small, but important strategic capabilities such as Ants Eye View (for social marketing, social media strategy, and social listening), and BGT (for digital marketing agency work). It is a place where you can build a great career if you can deliver great work, excel at networking across the firm, and can build partner support. Exceptional employees are the "average" here, so if you aren't knocking it out of the park all the time then you can expect to only be rated in the middle of the pack, and receive nominal raises and performance bonuses. It has a strong brand in the market. The firm's latest brand health index rated it at the top of the other "big 4" firms (Deloitte, KPMG, and EY) as well as other non-audit/tax firms like Accenture. The Strategy& acquisition added significant strategy consulting capability to position PwC to compete with the likes of BCG, Bain & McKenz
• Actively involved in different stages of Project Life Cycle
• Participated in gathering Business Requirements and System Specifications
• Designed and Developed Database Objects like Tables, Stored Procedures, Triggers, Rules, Defaults, user defined data types and functions for this project.
• Maintained databases, performed software installations and monitored Database Performance.
• Thorough understanding of physical database design for constraints and data types for figuring out the sequence for modification (insert, update, delete) of data in various tables.
• Managing Logins, Users, Roles and User permissions
• Tested OLAP cubes for all business conditions
• Tested Complex ETL Mappings and Sessions based on business user requirements and business rules to load data from source flat files and RDBMS tables to target tables.
• Created the test environment for Staging area, loading the Staging area with data from multiple sources.
• Created Views for specific columns on a table to maintain privacy of a customer data
• Created Indexes to get the high level performance
• Performing the ETL operations to support the incremental, historical data loads and transformations using SSIS
• Maintained databases, performed software installations and upgrades, monitored Database Performance.
• Responsible for gathering Business Requirements and System Specification from users
• Designed numerous ad-hoc and custom reports using SQL Reporting Services
• Created various T
Questions And Answers about PwC
How did you feel about telling people you worked at PwC?
Asked 27 Apr 2017
Feeling confident
Answered 29 Oct 2019
I am highly motivated i can work under pressure am good with people and i can work as a team
Answered 26 Jun 2018
What should you wear to an interview at PwC?
Asked 24 Apr 2017
Dress your day
Answered 15 Jun 2023
Free and fair enviroment
Answered 07 Mar 2019
How is feedback from management delivered at PwC?
Asked 02 Jul 2019
Face to Face
Answered 04 Sept 2023
Formally
Answered 03 Feb 2023
How are the working hours at PwC?
Asked 02 Aug 2017
From 08h00 to 17h00
Answered 16 May 2018
Most of the staff starts at 8 but there are a few who starts earlier and most of them leave at 5
Answered 01 Feb 2018
What is the interview process like at PwC?
Asked 22 Aug 2018
They call you in advance to give you sufficient time to prepare yourself.
Be there on time and speak freely and clearly.
Answered 06 Mar 2020
It is very formal
The interviewers are not intimidating at all, they are friendly
