Beware: PwC (2 Viewers)

[rubin]

I have it on very good authority that PwC is now revoking many of its graduate offers for 2009. This is even after they have accepted positions. Last week nearly 40 staff from its corporate tax division (mainly transaction and transfer pricing units) were given the flick (http://www.afr.com/home/login.aspx?EDP://20081104000030497478&section=news). These guys are taking an extremely aggressive, even cut-troat, approach to this economic downturn. If you are a pwc grad, or you know someone, who's offer has been revoked, let us know here. Ive been looking for newspaper reports on this but they havnt surfaced yet.

On the plus side, theyre paying out 6 weeks worth of wages to those grads without them having to lift a finger. Personally though i would prefer a secure future.

 

[BeeCom]

Apparently Deloitte has done the same as well but i don't know anyone who got the cut. They pretty much got rid of the majority of the grads if anyone can confirm?

What's your source?

My internship hasn't been revoked, I'd assume they'd tell us to go before the graduates (I think it was shortened by a week though).

 

[transient]

Deloitte didn't cut their grads but they told them to start working next year in March rather than from the start of the year (for some divisions).

 

[bukwow]

okies my bad ^^

 

[leoyh]

i dont think they would cut new recruitment, whether it be interns, cadets or graduates, because that'd be a bad response to the market and damage their reputation, thus lowering chances of recruiting the best next year as people will fear losing their job if they sign with the company. So rather than lay off the people who are set to come in, i think they'll just do internal cuts to the underperformers and make the payouts associated with that in order to maintain good image. That's just my opinion

 

[rubin]

What's your source?

My internship hasn't been revoked, I'd assume they'd tell us to go before the graduates (I think it was shortened by a week though).

I dont know anything about the deloitte situation but I would say your assumption isnt that sound. Interns/vacationers are a very temporary cost for the firm (or 'investment') as they only have to pay for several weeks worth of wages and events, whereas grads are there for the long haul. When you wack in the fact that grads are very inefficient for quite a long time after the commencement of employment and require a great deal of on-the-job and in-classroom training before they start becoming useful i would say its them that would get cut before the vaccies. Besides, the economy might have started to turn around by the time the next batch of grads (current vaccies) come through.

Ive heard from ey that there are no plans to revoke offers or anything like that. They found that last time there was an economic downturn (late 90's, early 00's) they took a very aggressive approach to reducing staff numbers which saved them a bit of money short-term but cost them dearly in the long-term as they essentially ended up with a missing generation of professionals. I think it demonstrates a fundamental difference in outlooks - pwc are thinking this downtown will be long-term whereas ey are thinking there may be a turn-around on the not too distant horizon. But then again, sometimes firms say things they dont mean.

 

[rubin]

i dont think they would cut new recruitment, whether it be interns, cadets or graduates, because that'd be a bad response to the market and damage their reputation, thus lowering chances of recruiting the best next year as people will fear losing their job if they sign with the company. So rather than lay off the people who are set to come in, i think they'll just do internal cuts to the underperformers and make the payouts associated with that in order to maintain good image. That's just my opinion

I know for a fact that pwc have been revoking and suspending grad offers and you are 100% right in that it will tarnish their reputation in the eyes of future recruits (and they would certainly know this) which is why i suspect they think this financial crisis is pretty dire to warrant the sort of response theyve instituted.

 

[velox]

At least your summer vacation position wasn't cancelled by the business

 

[MasterPUA]

.. transfer pricing units)

What is transfer pricing? I believe this topic has not been discussed in enough depth on these forums

 

[hopethisworks]

just wikipedia it


basically it's the dodgy way companies price the shit they transfer around their organisation.

and further reducing tax

 

[khosanman]

and further reducing tax

I do transfer , albeit I am doing it for a big 4 over here in Denmark. Just started not long ago.

I am actually suprised to hear that PwC is cutting staff in transfer pricing area actually, considering it is such a growing area, and governments are really targetting companies these days auditing their transfer pricing policies.

Basically it has to do with pricing intercompany global transfers of good, services, intangibles etc. There are several methods for doing this, and it relies heavily on finding comparable transactions between unrelated parties. Obviously to find exact comparables is nearly impossible in most cases, so lots of factors need to be considered in the pricing, and therefore they are examined in detailed and priced in. Its quite a process and requires lots of work to look at so many factors of the company that can affect price, for example, intangibles such as brand name, credit rating, product quality and so on, too many to name here.

But as I said, I am extremely suprised they have cut staff in TP. I certainly hope my job is safe being a new hire, you never know in this current climate though.

 

[DexJnr]

I dont know anything about the deloitte situation but I would say your assumption isnt that sound. Interns/vacationers are a very temporary cost for the firm (or 'investment') as they only have to pay for several weeks worth of wages and events, whereas grads are there for the long haul. When you wack in the fact that grads are very inefficient for quite a long time after the commencement of employment and require a great deal of on-the-job and in-classroom training before they start becoming useful i would say its them that would get cut before the vaccies. Besides, the economy might have started to turn around by the time the next batch of grads (current vaccies) come through.

Ive heard from ey that there are no plans to revoke offers or anything like that. They found that last time there was an economic downturn (late 90's, early 00's) they took a very aggressive approach to reducing staff numbers which saved them a bit of money short-term but cost them dearly in the long-term as they essentially ended up with a missing generation of professionals. I think it demonstrates a fundamental difference in outlooks - pwc are thinking this downtown will be long-term whereas ey are thinking there may be a turn-around on the not too distant horizon. But then again, sometimes firms say things they dont mean.

Nice post rubin, i can also confirm that ey has no plans to cut grad intakes for 2010. well that's what they told me.

 

[Vagabond]

I know for a fact that pwc have been revoking and suspending grad offers and you are 100% right in that it will tarnish their reputation in the eyes of future recruits (and they would certainly know this) which is why i suspect they think this financial crisis is pretty dire to warrant the sort of response theyve instituted.

This surprises me. Do you know people from the PwC Syd office?

 

[seremify007]

I suppose on the upside it's better that a new and prospectful grad gets told upfront and early rather than waiting until the start date which never comes.

 

[dood09]

Dear ○◘○◘,

With the global financial crisis continuing to dominate the headlines, I
wanted to take a moment to offer a word of reassurance about PwC's graduate
recruitment plans.

There is no doubt that we are moving into a tougher business environment,
however PwC is performing well which is a tribute to the quality and hard
work of our people. We have a sound business strategy in place and we will
take our full number of 2009 graduates, vacationers and trainees. Hence we
are extremely excited about you joining the firm in late June 2009.

If you have any questions between now and your commencement with the firm,
please don't hesitate to contact us on ○◘○◘○◘○◘○◘○◘.

From all of us in the Graduate Recruitment team, we hope you and your
family have a wonderful, safe and happy holiday season.

See you in 2009.

Kind regards,

Greta, Jen and Christy

 

[Minai]

I think only people in Transaction Support and Advisory divisions should be slightly worried, everyone else should be safe as houses...

 

[Vagabond]

I think only people in Transaction Support and Advisory divisions should be slightly worried, everyone else should be safe as houses...

Safe as houses!! Haha!! I get it!!

 

[grad09]

my friend is a summer vaccie at EY and was told that her service line (audit)was only going to offer like 3 people a grad position (out of 20). she's spewing that they never mentioned anything about a reduction in grad offers during the recruitment process and basically fooled them all into thinking that the firm was doing well. now EY are looking for work that normally the mid-tier firms would do. many of the staff are leaving the firm in search of a more secure position at other firms (my uncle being one). my uncle has also confirmed that EY is significantly cutting their grad recruitment and taking on basically no grads from the summer vacationer intake, such has been the affect of the economic downturn on the firm.

a couple of my friends doing vacationer work at deloitte on the other hand have already received grad offers, and have told me that all but one of the 4 weeks vaccies in audit have received an offer. they were told that about 75% of vaccies will receive an offer. don't think this applies to audit given the number of offers so far.

 

[Huy]

Last year at KPMG they took on 18 grads (for ITA). This year they will take on about a half-dozen.

From what I have heard they have already recruited about half of those. The rest will come from summer vaccies, of which I am one.

 

[obama33557799]

Am currently doing vacc work at a mid-tier Accounting firm over the summer. Would love to get a grad position out of it, since the competition for graduate positions will be fierce come March.

A mate just emailed this story over to me about applying for graduate jobs back in the early 1990's recession:

Unleashed: Recession Revenge

Unleashed: Recession revenge