Pros
Good training. ACA qualification. Top clients. If you can suffer the low pay and long hours, and manage to make a move into front office banking, private equity or something similar as soon as you qualify the payoff can be very good.
Cons
Poor remuneration compared to other Big 4s and other professions e.g. Banking and Law. Negligible rewards for good performers - annual bonuses for 2nd year TS analysts who got the top annual review rating in 08 were about £350-£500 after tax. Counterparts at PwC were getting about £2,500 after tax on top of a higher base. Progression is fixed until year 4, so it's difficult to see the point in working hard or trying to impress in years 1-3. Advisory salaries are at some stages lower than audit, despite the longer hours, much higher charge-out rate and arguably more complex work. Significant redundancies have been made at graduate level, with some departments cutting up to 50% of grads - many of whom had first time passes in exams. Work life balance isn't great - you often get given days off in lieu, but this doesn't really compensate for being cut off from your friends for months working 15 hour days in Norwich.
