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 Topic: (Audit) Big 4 Recruiting Q&A ( Topic Closed)
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mighty8892
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| Posted: 19 Sep 2011 at 23:17 | IP Logged
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Thanks for volunteering to answer some question db. This forum needs more people like you!
Anyways, I start at a Big 4 firm soon (in Audit) and just wanted to hear what your experience has been like so far. I've heard a lot of people claim that audit is a dead end career, the work is boring, the pay sucks, etc etc. Would you say any of those claims are true (and to what extent?). I chose audit mostly because of the supposed "exit opps" into industry or other service lines of the Big 4. I also didn't like tax. Do you enjoy your job and plan on staying in audit, or do you have other plans in the near future?
From your experience, have you seen any of your co-workers make the transition to another service line, such as advisory/transactions? If so, how possible is it to make the transition if you decide at some point (say a couple of years in audit) that you want to do something different?
Thanks!
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cpanetfan
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| Posted: 20 Sep 2011 at 00:17 | IP Logged
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Is the Big 4 really hiring in size or just doing all these campus presentations mostly for publicity?
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db729
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| Posted: 20 Sep 2011 at 01:03 | IP Logged
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mighty8892 wrote:
Thanks for volunteering to answer some question db. This forum needs more people like you!
Anyways, I start at a Big 4 firm soon (in Audit) and just wanted to hear what your experience has been like so far. I've heard a lot of people claim that audit is a dead end career, the work is boring, the pay sucks, etc etc. Would you say any of those claims are true (and to what extent?). I chose audit mostly because of the supposed "exit opps" into industry or other service lines of the Big 4. I also didn't like tax. Do you enjoy your job and plan on staying in audit, or do you have other plans in the near future?
From your experience, have you seen any of your co-workers make the transition to another service line, such as advisory/transactions? If so, how possible is it to make the transition if you decide at some point (say a couple of years in audit) that you want to do something different?
Thanks!
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Of course I'm happy to help. Or I'm just sick of looking at the stack of work I'm supposed to be doing. :P
You've asked a lot of questions that require long explanations (which you should be asking), but I'll try to keep it as concise as possible. This is how I personally see the field and my experiences:
Con:
Yep, you feel underpaid and overworked, and to some extent it's true. But at least you get raises every year and have a promotional timeline. Starting off in industry is WAY worse. Your pay will be comparable, but your raises suck and you never know when you'll get promoted. If you're talking about accounting, Big 4 is the way to start. It can be pretty damn boring, but every job has that aspect. Investment bankers spent a good amount of time fixing powerpoints over and over again. That's not THAT much better...(not saying audit> banking, just saying all jobs suck to some extent).
Pros:
I absolute believe what you get out of Big 4 the first 1-2 years is invaluable and not useless. I'm not talking about the technical accounting, but the transferable skills. I don't want to do audit/accounting in the long run, so I need to be sure that what I'm learning is transferable, which it is. The best thing I've personally learned is building an "executive presence" and having that confident demeanor in front of a client. I've literally sat down with the President/CFO of a client to tell him that he needs to fix his accounting. That might not be a big deal to some, but for me it's pretty damn cool. You might not get that experience. But you'll have opportunities to learn and push yourself for sure, as long as you ask for it. I can go on and on about this. Bottom line is that pros > cons for me.
Exit Opps:
Internal transfer. From audit, the most common internal transfer is probably transaction services (TS). Not hard to do, just requires patience. Almost everyone in TS comes from audit (2 or 3 years) because you need to have that thorough understanding of the financial statements. If you have the experience, make it clear that it's what you want, and patient about it, it'll happen. Just make sure people like you (not that hard if you don't complain all the time) and you don't expect it to happen overnight. It depends on the need of TS. If the economy is good, there's more M&A transactions, so more need. On the flip side, if banks and private equity (PE) firms aren't doing deals, there's no need. I'm sure people transfer to Tax or another line of advisory, but I don't know much about that because I personally didn't bother to learn.
Industry. This is the most common exit opportunity of course. Why not? better pay and better hours. To maximize your opportunities leaving Big 4, audit is the way to go. Tax is far too specialized. Unless you know for sure you want to do tax for long term, I personally wouldn't go that route.
Investment banking. This is probably the least known. I can tell you 100% sure that audit (1-2 years) can lead to investment banking without going to get your MBA. You'll be looking at boutique or middle market firms typically. Of course this requires you to network, do your homework, and have a little luck, but it's definitely doable. Again, this is heavily dependent on economy. Right now? It'll be hard because there's so much speculation about what's going to happen in Europe and even US. Banks are under heavy scrutiny, and the loss in investor confidence will hinder economic activity. When the economy picks up? It's obviously much easier because they need analysts to slave themselves.
Private equity. This is supposedly fairly doable coming out of TS, which makes sense. If you're in your firms TS group, you're working pretty much with private equity firms all day and dealing with at least part of a M&A transaction. It won't be as easy to go into PE as an investment bankers, but I've read that this is pretty common. Networking is the easiest way to get anything in business, so inherently being in constant contact with PE firms make it a lot easier.
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might8892, I'm still fairly early in my career so I can't give you that "older & wiser" perspective necessarily. But this is really what I've learned and stick by. If you are willing to hustle, work your ass off, and be patient, you'll get what you want. It won't happen right away, but it'll happen. When I was looking for summer internships in school, I didn't get a single interview with Big 4. I had two interviews, one which I absolutely bombed. I still ended up getting a FT offer with Big 4 during the worst year of recruiting. Nothing happens right when you want it and won't happen if you aren't willing to "hurt" a little before achieving it. But I genuinely believe you can do whatever you want if you're willing to make the sacrifices. Other people may tell you otherwise. At the end of the day, you decide how you want your story played out.
Btw me personally, I only see myself doing audit for another year or two. I have other ambitious and goals, which I'm working towards daily. I'm not 100% sure where I'll end up in the next year or two, but I'm grateful for what Big 4 has done for my career. It's honestly opened up my eyes to possibilities I never thought about when I was growing up. Cheers and let me know if you want to know more!
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db729
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| Posted: 20 Sep 2011 at 01:12 | IP Logged
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cpanetfan wrote:
| Is the Big 4 really hiring in size or just doing all these campus presentations mostly for publicity?
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I can't tell you how many spots are open because I don't know. But I'm fairly certain that they're genuinely hiring. I know my firm is holding superday interviews coming up, so certainly someone will get a FT offer. I doubt the firm is going to go through all that trouble just to pretend like they're hiring. It costs the firm money to even interview people and the reality is Big 4 is understaffed right now.
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mighty8892
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| Posted: 20 Sep 2011 at 09:43 | IP Logged
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Oh wow. Thanks for the response db. That is exactly what I was looking for. For quite some time now, I've been looking around wallstreetoasis, another 71 and this forum for people that actually have first hand experience of working in the industry, as opposed to college kids that have "heard" things. Especially annoying was wallstreetoasis where people just bash the Big 4 endlessly (mostly people that have never worked there or think that if you don't get ibanking you're a failure in life).
My story is somewhat similar to yours. While in college, I only landed one interview with a Big 4 firm for an internship (and that was by chance too...I managed to get along quite well with HR at a career fair). My interview went well, but I did not land an internship for the summer. I contacted HR again and luckily ended up getting a FT offer instead. I was quite grateful to have a FT offer by the end of my junior year, but at the same time I had no first hand experience of what it's like to work in Audit at the Big 4. Your perspective really helped. Thanks!
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