Ernst & Young Global Limited, commonly known as EY, is a multinational professional services company with headquarters in London, England. It is part of the “Big Four” accountancy firms, along with KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and Deloitte. Learn more about EY and what the company offers its customers here.
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What Is EY? 
EY provides clients with the assurance of financial results, including tax planning, auditing, financial advice, and consulting. Through the course of its history, EY has diversified its portfolio with industries outside of accountancy, such as strategic planning, human resources, information technology, and financial services consulting.
EY employs more than 312,000 people across 700 branches in more than 150 different countries. It was primarily known as Ernst & Young until a repositioning drive officially rebranded it to EY in 2013.
The History of Ernst & Young
EY is a conglomeration of several mergers and acquisitions over the last 150 years. It has several ancestral firms, the earliest of which is Harding & Pullein, established in 1849 in England. An accountant named Frederick Whinney joined this company in the same year and, ten years later, was made a partner. The company was officially named Whinney, Smith & Whinney in 1894 after Whinney’s son joined the firm.
Alwin C. Ernst and his brother, Theodore Ernst, established Ernst & Ernst in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1903. Around the same time, a Scottish accountant named Arthur Young founded Arthur Young & Co. in Chicago in 1906. These two American-based companies began to collaborate with popular British companies in 1924: Young worked with Broads Paterson & Co., and Ernst & Ernst worked with Whinney Smith & Whinney. The Anglo-American collaboration, Ernst & Whinney, which at the time was ranked as the 4th largest accounting company in the world, was formed in 1979.
Ten years later, in 1989, Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young & Co., which were among the biggest firms in the world at the time, merged to create Ernst & Young. Later, the company did multiple mergers and acquisitions. “Building a better working world” became the official tagline of the company as they rebranded from Ernst & Young to EY in 2013.
What Services Does EY Offer?
EY has evolved its business model and broadened its services over time, but especially over the past ten years. This is mostly due to increased rivalry in the professional services industry as well as competition in two additional markets: investment banking and strategy consulting.
EY assists in generating long-term value through its services and solutions, which are made possible by data and technology. The business offers these three primary services:
Assurance
EY enables businesses to operate, evolve, and expand while building credibility through assurance. Capital markets and industries benefit from its assurance services by building trust and confidence.
In addition to addressing risk and complexity and looking for ways to increase capital market trust, EY provides assurance services, which include forensic and integrity services and audit and financial accounting advisory services (FAAS).
The teams at EY FAAS and forensics assist in preserving and restoring the company and its financial identities, supporting the core capabilities of the business that improve decision-making and effectiveness, and addressing the risks and possibilities associated with climate change and sustainability concerns.
EY audit teams support the industry by offering improved, independent data analysis audits based on ethics, objectivity, and expert judgments. EY assurance services secure and advance stakeholders’ long-term, sustainable value.
The company offers assurance services, including climate change and sustainability services, audit services, forensic and integrity services, private client audit experience, and financial accounting advisory services.
Tax
EY provides integrated tax services across a range of fields through internationally coordinated tax accountants.
Specifically, in its segment of tax-related services, EY can support integrations and offer great expertise, experienced professionals, and advanced technological platforms. EY’s expertise falls in transactional tax as well as business tax and international tax. Clients that want to find options for tax-related services connected to people, administration, reporting, and law can also be guided by EY tax professionals.
The company provides tax-related services that include tax function operations, tax planning, global trade, tax policy and controversy, tax compliance, transaction tax, tax accounting, private tax services, and America’s tax policies.
Consultation
EY focuses on delivering corporate change through its strengths in people, technology, and innovation. Work environments are rapidly changing, so EY’s consulting division plays a big role in pushing businesses to implement new practices to achieve new heights of success.
EY helps build relationships with customers that are outside of their proximity. It assists in figuring out the point where the future of work can meet an employee-centric approach. It also supports a business’s technological advances to provide a competitive edge.
The firm works to achieve the “S-curve” of progress by helping businesses restructure to create value for people, industry, and greater societal initiatives. EY’s strategies in this area include putting people at the center, using technological skills, and encouraging innovation at large.
Consultation services include customer experience services, analytics consulting services, cybersecurity, strategy, risk, compliance, resilience, risk consulting services, supply chain and operations, and digital transformation.
What Industries Does EY Work With?
EY continues to offer its expertise to companies across varying industries. This includes companies from manufacturing, consumer goods and retail, energy and resources, financial services, government and public sectors, health sciences and wellness, information technology, and private equity.
The firm collaborates with businesses to drive end-to-end transitions across the entire ecosystem, establishing a more digital and reliable future for each client. It helps its customers by exploring, identifying, and putting into practice the ideal mix of ambitious strategic decisions that will sustain current operations and alter them for future relevance.
By concentrating on the design, operations, technologies, and skills required to accomplish business objectives and create long-term value for future projects, EY experts assist businesses in reshaping their organizations.
Hot to Get Hired at EY
EY has maintained a ranking on the “100 Best Companies to Work For” list by Fortune for the last 21 consecutive years, so it is not surprising that many professionals aspire to work at EY.
Every year, thousands of people all over the world apply for EY open positions and only a few make it through. There is a culture of promoting from within the organization, but hundreds of new hires do onboard each year.
The chances of getting hired at EY are higher if you have experience working at any of the other Big Four accountancy firms. Applicants can also increase their chances of landing a job at EY by applying for vacant positions that match their skills and experience, staying current with the latest industry news, earning relevant certifications, and trying to use any contacts they have at EY.
