Why does this site hate on Big 4 so much?

I would choose investment banking over big 4 anyday but it's still a solid career. You get better wlb balance than most high finance job, steady career progression and job stability. I'm from an Asian country where my friend dad is retired Big 4 Partner. Guy is worth $3mil~, have a happy family and both of his kids are going to prestigious UK/US university.

Obviously, becoming a partner is not guaranteed and my friend’s dad is only one example, so I’m not saying everyone in Big 4 will become rich. But I don’t really understand why some people here treat Big 4 like a “bad” career when, compared with most jobs, it still offers good opportunities

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Because most people browsing the site are in college/an analyst, and big 4 as an analyst is, to put it bluntly, absolute ASS. The lower levels of big 4 are truly hell on earth with meh pay, especially in NYC - so if I'm going to be miserable for 2 years might as well go work in IB which is more prestigious. Big 4 is a good career, but really only "worth it" for the reasons you describe at the mid/senior levels. I am speaking purely from the US perspective. 

 
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Made it out of one of the B4 into banking. 1. Pay for NYC standards is bad, and the "bonus" is like a few hundred bucks. It also doesn't really grow that phenomenally too. 2. WLB is slightly better than banking but you still get cranked for like half the year with sub-banking pay 3. A bunch of corporate beaurocracy - i.e daily timesheets, a million bullshit KPI's and point systems, random trainings on like 5 different sites. 4. Honestly the work isn't really all that interesting because you don't really contribute meaningfully to a companies inflection point but YMMV. I get it if you're there for 1-3 years, but as you go more senior especially in NYC you start to ask yourself what do people give up by not leaving? HH's were all telling me you get a meaningful base and bonus increase if u leave a year on the job. Like ~$20-80k more depending on where u jump next and only gets wider the more senior u go. I personally jumped ~$40-50k depending where the bonus lands. so imagine if you never do and make it to partner, thats probably like a million in lifetime earnings given up. Mid levels still get paid less than 1yr IB Analysts working banking-lite hours. THAT BEING SAID, Big 4 does have its place as a phenomenal launchpad/career pitstop. Billion lines of business you could transfer to internally, then leave to that groups respected exits. Strong corporate exits, and WILL get u into the door of LMM/MM IBs depending on group. arguably more recognizable globally than a lot of IB's, 

 

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