PwC: King of the Big 4?

Generally coming out neck-and-neck in rankings, the Big 4 firms tend to travel in packs. However, PricewaterhouseCoopers may be pulling ahead of its Big 4 brethren, according to a number of recent surveys. The firm landed in the No. 4 slot on the Sunday Times' best big companies to work for list, beating out KPMG (No. 10) and Deloitte (15). Accenture was the only other consulting firm to make the cut.

In the survey that accompanied the rankings, PwC was commended for its commitment to staff development during the recession. Said the firm, "During the past year, despite the economic difficulties, the firm has maintained its professional development programmes and even rolled out a company-wide women’s leadership scheme, admitting 16 women to partnership." Furthermore, 82 percent of PwC's staff said they were proud to work for the company, while 80 percent feel their is stimulating and that their experience at the firm will give them strong future prospects.

PwC recently won another significant accolade, having been named one of the top-10 Business Superbrands of 2010 (out of 500 companies)—seven places above last year's ranking. That survey was compiled by The Centre for Brand Analysis and polled over 1,500 professionals worldwide.

No such love came from Fortune's Most Admired Companies list, however. IBM, Cisco and HP brought consultants as close as they would get to the top 50 spotlight, and the Big 4 were nowhere to be found.

Vault is now set to ramp up its own ranking season, with surveys going out in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to see which firms rise to the top!