Hi allI've been offered a Sen Mgr position at EY BAS. The people that I have met to date have impressed me, but I would be interested in any inside thoughts (from Managers, Sen Managers, Directors) on the highs and lows..I am moving from another large consulting firm (have been a consultant for 10yrs) and know the general stuff. I'd be particularly interested in hearing from anyone who has previous experience of other tier 1 firms.ThanksClaire

What specifically do you want to know?And who are you referring to by 'other tier 1 firms?'I am a Snr Manager at BAS - I can start by telling you that the people that spearhead the interview process are some of the best. Do not assume that is the general quality of individuals - that would be a tragic assumption. It would also help me to know what part of BAS you are considering to give you a more thourough answer. A

Thanks A for the quick response.Other firms - the likes of Deloitte, Accenture etcI would be joining into one of the Industry groups (don't really want to state on here which one)...The kind of things I am interested in are;- client realtionships- the audit-side influence on BAS- type of work- quality of people- amount of work- growth of the practice- performance management- expectations on Senior Managers- progression- sense of 'community' in the BAS practice- culture (ie does it feel like a 'firm')...the list is endless...Are you a EY/CG lifer? Its interesting to hear you say that I shouldnt assume that all the people are good...!ThanksClaire

Compared to my previous employer the average quality is a lot higher. Just as importantly, the culture of the people is a lot better. There is nothing like the back-stabbing that used to go on in my last place. People are very supportive. The Partner team are very good consultants - and actually do spend time developing you. There is also a lot more possibility of making Partner at EY - and the rewards (over £300k) for a 1st year Partner are well worth working hard for.Come and join. Its not perfect, but it is very good.

Hhahahahah send in an application to Atos too whilst your at it.

Hahahah. Learn to spell.

Hi, i'm a recent graduate, really interested in join EY's BAS-FS. The EY people i met are really nice and helpful. But are they still recruting now?would you give me some insight of which kind of graduate are they looking for please, is it has to be oxbridge(i'm a MSc BM from Glasgow, first-class degree in Accounting&Finance-nonEU, one year marketing & one year management experience both in leisure). Your advice for others in this forum has been really insightful, and i'd like to know if there is chance for me in EY, so any information and advice would be most appreciated. Thanks.

Sorry, i was mean to ask A+. But anyone are currently in FS are most welcome. Please don't add non-objective criticism. Thanks.

BAS graduates are by no means only from Oxbridge. They come from a wide variety of educational backgrounds, and your credentials seem like a good fit. Unless you specifically want to focus on FS, have you considered the BAP programme where you do an 18-month rotation through the different groups within BAS?EY are currently recruiting for the BAP programme, but I don't know what recruitment activity is happening on the FS side.

The BAP programme is a complete waste of time - being designed by the greater FS. Graduates are made to rotate into 3 diferent practice areas over an 18 month cycle. At the end - they will have only 6 months of experience in each field - rather than a year and a half - if they had joined a target one initially. It is the only 'consulting' company to do this. Wierd.

It really depends what you want out of a training / graduate programme. After joining Accenture I spent 2 years learning to programme. This was a million miles away from the High Value / Business consulting I aspired to when I joined. In many ways it was an outstanding training programme which taught me a lot but having said that I'd have loved the opportunity to work across different parts of the organisations with the chance to work with different people with different working styles, doing very different types of consulting work. The minute a consulting firm challenges the norm or does something a little different Top Consultant readers are the first to criticise somewhat hypocritical given we so often criticise our clients for their fear of change!

A rotation is fairly common in ibanks - why shouldn't it work in consulting too?

Interesting point. If Accenture basically nneds/wants programmers, then why does it advertise itself to potential candidates as a firm of "management consultants"? Also, why does it recruit people with degrees in subjects such as English Literature, Languages, Geography, History, etc and then train them to become programmers, instead of hiring people who have studied computer science and have skills that are more directly relevant to the job?

anonDo you really think that? I'm not so sure.It's not the case that all Top Consultant readers are like that. There is a variety of comment on the site including both valid and, yes, unfair criticism sometimes too.I doubt I'm the only one to not always feel the need to respond cynically. It does no harm to appreciate that we do not see the posts from people that have thought better of submitting a poor post.I think that it's wrong to see all change as either 'always a good thing' or 'always a bad thing'. In fact in many ways it is this absolute view of change ('it's changing so it must get better') or the other extreme (the 'I hate all change' attitude) which later ends up creating the flops.It's just not always that simple.

Hi, EY Guy.Thanks alot for your information, but i've checked EY recruitment site, there are only two program under BA, BAP-UK FS, and Business Risk Service. The BAP you mentioned from my understanding is the industry, commerical, government one. Am i right? And if there is a opening for that one, i would try to apply too, but how can i apply, cause there is no post on the site. should i call the recruitment team?

anon, i actually tend to agree with you, i kind like get various expericence from different environment. is it one of reasons for join consulting? but because i really don't know much about the actual work for join a FS, is it involve a lot of IT programing at the training? or can you really get to see how financial companies work? Thanks.

Claire, If you have ANY sense - stay clear. There are much more attractive opportunities in the market right now. Just look at how much bad press EY BAS is getting!

Sorry to be negative, but neither BAS nor FS would be the sort of organisation that I’d want to join right now. They are still in a very unstable growth phase, and beginning to feel some of the pain of their growth spurts, with the result that attrition rates (both those jumping and those being shoved) are very high indeed. The “job rotation” aspect seems a bit of a gimmick – you’ll get that sort of exposure from the variety of clients and roles you work on during the normal course of your duties, in any case.Why join an offshoot of an accounting partnership, in any case, rather than a top flight consultancy ?

Just to let you know that if you are interested in the BAP programme either FS or BAS just apply online as per the instructions on the website. We are still interviewing for both areas but have closed off specific appliations for the BAS area due to over demand at this stage. If successful at the online stage you will be contacted by phone to attend an interview and you can always ask to be interviewed by someone who can talk through both options.