The Right Direction for challenges, rewards

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) is not an employer that's about to rest on its laurels – no matter how numerous they may be.

While the company is a mainstay on numerous "Best Places to Work"-type lists – including an honor as our #1 large company in 2015 – PwC continues striving to provide a better atmosphere for its 200,000+ professionals worldwide, including 1,750 Philadelphia-area employees.

For that reason and others, PricewaterhouseCoopers is the 2016 recipient of the "Heading in the Right Direction" special award.

When asked why they loved their jobs, PwC employees routinely used one word to describe how they felt at work:

"I am challenged daily."

"Challenging work that is well rewarded."

"I am often provided with challenging work experiences that offer me the opportunity to develop both personally and professionally."

"That doesn't surprise me, because that's exactly how I think about what we do," explained Ed Lovelidge, PwC managing partner, Philadelphia. "We have tremendous clients to challenge us. We work with companies who are going through mergers, making acquisitions, which makes for very engaging, challenging assignments for people."

Lovelidge has been at PwC for 34 years – he's a lifer – but the average age of a PwC employee in the Philadelphia office is 27. A number like that is indicative of a company constantly working to attract and retain new talents – the best of the best of graduates from the city's higher-learning institutions.

"Every year in Philadelphia, we're hiring about 200 of the top students from the top colleges and universities," said Lovelidge. "At the same time, we're hiring another 200 [students] as interns, to see whether they want to come here in the future."

New hires and interns are given the opportunity to hit the ground running, working on multiple projects for various clients.

"Young people get excited about coming to a professional services firm because they are going to be doing different things all the time," Lovelidge continued. "When you come to work at a place like PwC, you get opportunities to experience various industries, different companies – it keeps you motivated. Most of our people work on four to five different companies per year. I've worked with manufacturers, financial companies, and educational institutions. So it creates a great springboard into your career."

That's true even for employees who don't stay at PwC for their entire careers the way Lovelidge has – they still remain near and dear to the company.

"Our best clients,"Lovelidge concluded, "are people who used to work for PwC."