Big 4 audit vs mid-tier transaction advisory (FDD/TS) in UK

Recently finished a big 4 audit internship in UK and was offered a full time role. For obvious reasons I did not enjoy audit and would much prefer to be in transaction advisory, I wanted to confirm that is starting off at a mid tier firm (such as Grant Thornton/RSM/BDO/Mazars) in transaction advisory better than starting off in big 4 audit? My reasons for this are:


  • I would enjoy the job more, with audit I risk not being a high performer due to disliking the day to day work, which would mean I wouldn't be able to internally transfer to big 4 transaction advisory

  • I don't think the chance of being able to transfer internally at a big 4 is actually significant, it seemed literally all the audit interns were also going to try to transfer asap 

  • I've heard FDD at smaller firms can sometimes mix with some restructuring work which I would be very interested in 

  • Despite less prestige from mid-tier, the FDD/TAS skillset is obviously far more useful than audit, and I basically already have the big 4 stamp on my cv with the internship (as well as an acknowledgement that they offered me an FT role)

The only thing that made me pause regarding this is the considerable number of people from oxbridge/imperial etc in big 4 audit, am I underestimating the effect of big 4 prestige vs mid tier? Additionally, if I was considering a move to tier 2 consulting later on I'm thinking transaction advisory would also set me up better for that as well? 

 
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I really enjoy auditing, I can see if you don’t like the day to day work you wouldn’t enjoy it. I’m just lucky I’m that way inclined when it comes to risk and evaluating. I’d say if you don’t enjoy the work it’s not worth staying for any sort of prestige. I can’t think of much prestige despite it being a big 4. I’ve had a couple of friends work at RSM and they said that the work culture and environment isn’t great ( might have just been bad luck )

It has to be your decision, but best of luck

 

Thanks for the insight! I don't doubt audit gets more interesting when you get more senior as you can deal with engagement economics, managing people, and dealing with the tricky parts of the audit etc - it was just that at the staff level there was a large volume of tedious and repetitive work, as well as the fact the salary potential isn't as high due audits being a regulatory requirement

 

My CV is quite far off the pedigree required, I go to a non target and was lucky to get the big 4 audit internship. Admittedly I just gave t2 consulting a mention to give a barometer for which one is the most prestigious. My 'dream' job would be something such as transaction advisory at A&M, and they seem to heavily target recently qualified big 4 ACA's, however at the same time I really would not want to work in audit for 3 years

 

Yes thank you that was a quality post, using that I got to the VI stage of a transaction grad scheme. I realised after reading that and others though that I wouldn't actually enjoy the role as I didn't like accounting lol. Decided to try and get a consulting grad scheme instead 

 

I'm not the best person to ask haha, I haven't broken in just yet. Processes for consulting grad schemes (if you're also in UK?) have just recently opened and most are still not open. I'm also from a non target and realistically we have a very low chance of breaking into tier 2, just from some linkedin research it seems very dominated by targets. I'm planning on focusing on more tech consulting roles as it's easier to get your foot in the door that way and still pick up some core consulting skills. Thinking big 4/IBM/Accenture type firms. As soon as you're in a consulting role it seems far easier to do an oxbridge/lbs MBA (or just directly switch, if you had early promotions/strong performer) into strategy consulting

 

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