Hey Guys,Which firm has the better culture/work environment/people in general. I have heard EY generally have the 'nicer' people?Any opinions would be much appreciated.Thanks

If you consider the sort of people hired by ex-IBM and ex-ACN partners "nice" then I suppose so.

Hurray, here comes the EY-bashing crowd with their "it's the worst of IBM and Accenture all over" broken record.I have never worked at Deloitte, so I cannot comment on their culture, but I do work at EY so feel qualified to comment on my own experience there. As I've said in other posts on this forum, I have been impressed with my colleagues. In all honesty, in my team of 40+, there is probably one person I would prefer not to work with -- but I would have all the rest on my team in a heartbeat.Culture varies a bit from team to team, but everyone I work with is generally very friendly. Impromptu coffee / after-work drinks / group lunches happen all the time and the whole place has a very friendly, collegial feel to it.No doubt someone will be along soon to dismiss everything I've just said as a bold lie, but the recruitment process at EY gives you a chance to meet a lot of people so you should be able to get a feel for the place and make up your own mind.

Recruitment process at EY ??I went for interview there last Spring, and never heard back.Says it all about how courteous and professional they are really !!!

Is it true that EY BAS gave consultants extra holidays this year, in place of a pay rise?

No, that's not quite right. The entire firm got an extra 3 days holiday this year to celebrate our success - a "thank you for a job well done." But it doesn't replace the normal pay review cycle. Pay rises will be handled usual this year.

Wow ! Business must be quiet for the accounting firms if they can afford to let everyone off school for three days.

I don’t work for either firm, but come across Deloittes quite a bit when bidding for work, but I’ve yet to come up against EY. From what I hear, they really are struggling to meet their growth targets.Deloitte have a strong people management reputation, and seem like affable folk. They certainly are a far more established brand name to have on your CV.Having said that, I’m sure EY are lovely too !!!!;0)

How does the client list of the two firms compare? Are salary levels similar?

Looking at both firms as wholes (i.e. including audit, corporate finance, advisory and consulting operations), the clients lists and general salary structures are similar. They're both huge firms and I wouldn't be surprised if they've both worked for all of the FTSE250 at some point.In terms of EY Advisory vs. Deloitte Consulting, Deloitte's client list is much bigger and more impressive. Without getting into reasons, EY Advisory is a new operation and starting from scratch whereas Deloitte Consulting has a continuous history and has maintained its consulting client list because it wasn't sold off.Deloitte Consulting pays a little more than EY Advisory - again a reflection of different backgrounds. Deloitte is a "consulting" practice, does medium margin work and aims to compete as a "consulting" rather than implementation organisation. EY positioned themselves as "advisory", actively targeted clients in lower margin markets and candidates from non-consulting backgrounds. This could change now - as other comments mention, the low margin work hasn't been as easy to win as expected.

I've just come back from my 1st interview with EY (looking to move from Deloitte) and I was impressed. The people actually treated me like a human being.For the record: They have over 300 consultants now. They have a 3 yr business case from the partnership before they need to "break even". And this year it will be an £80M revenue business. Not bad for the first full year of operations. Clients are the same as everywhere else. My brother is a client and he recommended I go and talk to them. He works for a FTSE 10 Telco. He says that they are more expensive than SIs but a bit cheaper than strategy houses. And provide a blend of good consultants and industry knowledge.I hope they invite me back for a 2nd interview.I do find all of the -ve comments about the consulting firms very distracting. People say things about my own firm that are just plain wrong. And the EY guys were good. Its a shame that people responding to the threads feel that they need to kill other firms. Its not a great example for our industry.

I think about a year ago a lot of the EY-bashing was uninformed, or based on recruitment experiences rather than working there. The reportage is now becoming more balanced and informed, in line with that on DC, IBM, ACN, PA, as more people with experience there start posting. That doesn't automatically mean the reports are going to become any more positive - the slagging off may just become more targeted.