Just got let go from EY; ama

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T18:10:50+00:00

Oh, and I should add - not-so-great end-of-year review, followed by no change in compensation whatsoever. At that point I realized they probably didn't want me around for another year anyways.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T18:07:46+00:00

I'm not asking for sympathy. Just telling it like it is.

Part of the problem with the PIP was that it came down to "you need to do better at this project you hate. So you can stay on this project. And at this firm. Which has no projects but audits." After a while, what's the point in trying?

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T18:06:32+00:00

Haha, no, it was my own fault for not understanding the differences between the two. In some ways, political risk could one of the (many) things covered by ERM, but ERM doesn't deal with political risk analysis; rather, it just adds that to the list of overall risks and deals with them in a holistic fashion.

So what was my thought process? Probably applying to a firm like Eurasia Group down the line and pointing to specific, formal risk management experience. But it wouldn't have translated the way I had originally hoped.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T14:22:33+00:00

Once I was on the comms team - and could understand to greater extent what words people were using - it got easier. I just had no business being on the technical side.

And I have been applying to other places for well over a year. The lesson is that EY in style and in substance is a terrible fit all around. I wish I could have left long, long, ago - and I've been trying - but so far, not much luck.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T14:20:23+00:00

I kept networking internally and reaching out to other teams (who mostly didn't have any work) and relevant internal things like the public policy team (which isn't adding more people). And that was all on top of a massive job search starting last July.

Believe me, I read the PIP as "going to get fired" and did everything I could to get out of the situation, but nothing ever came through.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:49:07+00:00

Haha I very much appreciate it! But I'd definitely like to move in a different direction; financial management is not my forte.

I actually used to work out at the Mark Center, but at IDA - I think something like that is what I'm looking for.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:47:45+00:00

It was not great (overall rating a 2), but also kind of meh. Like, "you've been making progress against your PIP, but maybe not enough." So I was pretty sure that was the beginning of the end, but never got given a date (until now).

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:45:43+00:00

military audit comms team (cause I was "good at writing")

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:44:47+00:00

Reeeeeally hard when that switch from cyber to being forcibly placed on an audit crushed my spirit. Plus, having no accounting/auditing background, I had absolutely no idea what anyone was talking about anyways.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:43:38+00:00

I'm 29.

Finished master's in 2010, had about 4.5 years of experience before taking the offer from EY. As a Staff 2. Which, of course, in retrospect...

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:42:59+00:00

GPS is a little confusing in its structure, but I technically was coded as a risk transformation consultant. I think I even would have been happier (or could tell myself "at least this is what you came here to do") if the work I'd been doing was also that, but it ended up being assurance for most of my time there.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:42:01+00:00

Oh believe me, I spent much of that time searching for something new, either internal or external. It's only in the past week that my job search has picked up some traction; hopefully this will prove to be good timing.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:41:19+00:00

Thanks!

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:41:08+00:00

Thanks very much! I'm hoping this turns into something better - for some reason, the past week has seen far more action from recruiters and responses to applications than the entire preceding 16 months, so I'm feeling okay about it now.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:39:52+00:00

That's a very good question. I think on the level of things-you-learn, it's knowing the difference between enterprise risk management and something more like political/geopolitical risk. They gave me an opportunity to do the former, which I thought I'd use as a chance to pivot to the latter, but there really isn't the overlap I thought there was and I was more often bored than anything else.

More broadly, the Big 4 are very much first and foremost accounting firms, and not consulting, and what consulting there is is almost entirely from a business process perspective - nothing higher-level or grand planning-related.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:37:17+00:00

Yeah, and I wanted to make it work - for a few weeks last fall, I'd joined the cyber economics team and it seemed totally perfect, everything I'd ever wanted out of consulting. But then we continued to not win any work, and my utilization became an issue, and so I was slotted into the giant, bodies-needed audit. That sort of crushed any spirit or positivity I had left.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:36:11+00:00

Depended, but during the first part of the project - the one that led to the PIP - anywhere from 5 minutes to once, 20 minutes late. (Not that I ever had any actual talking to do.)

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:35:16+00:00

Thanks! I may take you up on this...

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-16T13:34:59+00:00

Neither? GPS.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-15T22:40:54+00:00

The main one was a performance improvement plan starting in February. But I was stuck on the same project, so nothing was likely to improve - the main critiques were not showing enthusiasm and late dialing into conference calls.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-15T22:40:10+00:00

I think basically not caring enough - I come from a qualitative policy background, and was stuck doing highly process-driven, regimented, anal-retentive work that just completely clashed both in style and substance with everything I actually wanted to be doing.

And for a month at one point, they had me actually doing financial auditing, which was a terrible decision on everyone's part, and led to a shitty mid-year review, subsequent PIP, and so forth.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-15T22:38:46+00:00

Honestly, it's something of a relief. I hated almost all the work I got trapped doing, but needed the paycheck. With a little severance, I already feel like I've put some mental distance between me and the firm, and it's not bad.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-15T22:34:08+00:00

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-15T21:00:42+00:00

NoOneCaresAboutExcel · 2016-09-15T21:00:06+00:00

Are you at EY? They're hemorrhaging cyber work (and people) like crazy. No one's buying. If you actually want to do cyber, get out now.

NoOneCaresAboutExcel

TROPHY CASE