Best Career Progression and Salary Outside of Banking - Junior with a 3.8
Hey guys, I am trying to make some tough decisions here and could really use some advice. I am a Junior at Emory with a 3.8 and an accounting concentration. I have already accepted an audit internship for this summer but have been looking at some alternative career paths. I recently shadowed Home Depot corporate finance and saw a day in the life of some financial analysts and a senior manager. I thought their work was pretty interesting and comp is pretty good from what I hear although I could not put an exact number on it, the department I was quoted for was IT Finance which pays a bit more. I have also been looking into commercial banking as I enjoy doing financial statement analysis and the work-life is pretty awesome (9-6).
Could anyone tell me which of these jobs will provide the best compensation (with decent-work life mid career). If I go the public accounting route I assume I will start in Audit and then switch to TAS and either make the jump into industry or stay in accounting. As for a financial analyst role at a company like Home Depot the career path seems to be be FA --> Sr. FA --> Manager not really sure about the compensation and how long it takes to move up. Commercial banking is even less clear, I know that the hours are really good but not sure I'm not sure about compensation as you progress.
My goal would be to make about ~200k in my mid 30s-early 40s and have good work-life. I know I would like to do any of these three jobs based on what I like doing but the issue is I don't know which would be best long-term in terms of career progression and salary. I would like to stay in Atlanta.
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Also look into research...they get the cool options that a lot of the finance guys have access to, plus they usually have a much better work-life than something like banking or PE. If your goal is $200K, why no do banking for a couple of years and then go over to industry?
Problem with banking is that the lifestyle requirements - I am a non-traditional student (24) so a bit older than my peers and will be getting married really soon so working 100 hours a week is simply not an option, and it does not appeal to me either.
24 isn't that old. I'll turn 23 four months after I graduate from college. There are guys who go to college, enter the military, go to business school, and THEN start in banking. Your age is not a factor. I don't think 100 hours a week appeals to anyone.
If you want to do well, you gotta be able to suck it up and grind.
As for your questions, if you want to stay in ATL you have a lot of different options. Home Depot, Coke, ST Robinson Humphrey, BofA, there's a bunch of small asset management-type firms, etc.
i think that the GE FMP program has some businesses that are in Atlanta, but I'm not 100% sure. also, i don't think you have the ability to influence where you are placed. but they are one of the most highly regarded accounting training programs in the world.
I'm not sure about the FMP program, but I'm pretty sure there are a ton of GE 'credit' people here in Atlanta...maybe healthcare focused, not 100% sure though. Also, previous E&Y TAS people are all over the city...which could be an option and provide you with similar exit opportunities going forward and a fairly large network.
Regards
Go to Australia and drill mines
udit for work life balance? Maybe i am missing something here but you will be working a ton and travelling all of the time. That is of course if you want to make more than $50k (i.e. work somewhere respectable).
I was where you were at one point, wanting to make $200k and work 9-5. Unfortunately you kinda chose the wrong industry. If you are outside of high finance (IB, PE, HF, MF, PWM, etc) then the competition for those jobs is just insane. It is like what you see on tv when people work at a company making 100K as "manager" at home depot for 15 years and can never seem to make that leap to CFO because they keep giving it to the "manager" at KPMG who put it 60-80 hours a week for the last 10 years.
Every corporate accountant i know in the midwest who works at no-name firms with
Thank you for all the responses, I really appreciate your feedback. Just to clarify I wasn't saying I want to work 9-5, I do not mind working I just dont want to work ibank hours everyday where I will never get to see my fiance and have a life at home. I do not mind working audit hours as its only a couple of months of hell out of the entire year but during the rest of that time I'll be leaving work around 6/7 which isnt bad at all given my standards.
With that in mind would I be better off starting in Big 4 accounting and then making the jump to industry for the best career progression?
Also for the summer I decided to take an internship with BDO in Atanta in their audit group. I accepted their offer before one of my PwC interviews because I developed a very strong relationship with their audit partner during recruiting and think he can serve as a really good mentor. There are also a few Emory alums working there who I like so I thought it would be a good learning experience for the summer, especially because of my connection with the partner and BDO being a smaller firm (more exposure-100 people in their Atlanta office instead of 2k like Big 4).
sk824 can I ask what industry you work in and what your role is?
So realistically you want to be able to top $200k in annual comp (assuming inflation adjusted) with about 10~15 years into your career. I think that's pretty do able elsewhere, but in a low cost of living city like Atlanta (and the employers know it) it'll be nearly impossible unless you go hard in the beginning of your career.
If you're going the business route in Atlanta, you'll top $200k all in comp if you're one of the following:
-Director/Engagement Manager level at a Big 4 -Manager level at M/B/B -Principal level at smaller consulting shops -Buyside analyst with 7~10 yrs in exp ($200k consistently, hitting it out of the park 1 year and have 80k salary + 120k bonus don't count) -MD in banking (any banking) for a south east regional bank.
Those positions will likely be your highest chance to reach your target comp in the alotted time frame, and none of them off work/life in the beginning. If you go corporate, you'll not reach $200k plus unless you're in VP/Director level, and like someone previously said they usually hire former consultants/big 4ers to take those positions. Unless some dies, or you work for a company that exclusively promote from within, it's nearly impossible to get there via the corporate route.
Sorry dude, unless you leave the city or change your goals, I foresee some sort of hard work in your near future
sorry you cant get away from putting in the hard work... most of us are not superstars and in order to where we all want to be the ones above us are going to work us and work us hard...
I liken your situation to one of these stripper girls who think they can not do extras and be a "square" (ie. you not wanting to put in the really hard work "and keeping the work life balance") and still expect to make $6000 - $10000 a month... only those who sacrifice thier "diginty" (in our case our work/life balance) will make the big bucks... every thing has a price of admission
How much extra are we talking about really - I do not mind working 65 hours or so just dont want to be working 80+ hours a week consistently.
Come to think of it, I think ER is the best job to have if you want to be exposed to the markets and have good work/life balance. Fuck me, I'm in the wrong area. Is anyone hiring for ER?
There are several ways to do this. If I have to structure my career today with the goal of reaching $200k total comp in Atlanta with less than 50 hrs of work a week as soon as I can, I'd go the consulting or Big 4 route.
Consulting: 70 hr work weeks for 3 yrs, get good MBA hopefully paid for by firm, go back to the firm as associate for 3 more years, move up to manager, jump to your client's firm as corporate VP....you can probably do this in 10~12 years.
Big 4: 70 hr work weeks for 3~4 years, get a CPA, then either get promoted to manager or tapped to be a controller at a mid level company, get night time MBA paid completely by company, then get promoted to VP Finance/Acctg at same firm or lateral to controller at a big company.
Bottom line is, the harder your work earlier in yoru career (as in hours actually put in work or studying for credentials), the easier it becomes later in life. I would avoid the finance route cause that route is more geared for people who want unlimited $ for unlimited work load.
Equity research is a good route for the pay/work hour, but traveling will take a huge toll on your personal life and really gets old once you're ready to have a family. Industry trade shows, seeing clients, management road shows, the higher you climb in ER, the more you'll likely do.
Thank you for your responses UFO Insider and Buyside Noob. Assuming I am not interested in consulting and am willing to work ~65-70 hours a week initially for a few years and am not aiming for investment banking, would Big 4 be the best place to start then in Atlanta? I know that Home Depot, Coke, UPS, etc all recruit at Emory for finance as well? Would I be better off going to work for Big 4 audit and then trying to transfer to TAS and getting my MBA (or going to work for a client) have better career progression and exit opportunities than starting as a financial analyst at coke, THD, UPS, etc? With a background in big4 (tas/audit) and a MBA would I be able to break into corp dev or treasury of F1000 in Atlanta? It seems that the most viable options outside of banking/consulting out of Emory (assuming I want to stay in Atlanta) are either Big4 vs. F500 FA roles. Could you please advise the choice and give pros/cons?
Thank you guys.
consulting arm of a big 4, better lifestyle in my opinion. 200k is the compensation for a senior manager.
Best Career Progression and Salary Outside of Banking - Some input (Originally Posted: 09/21/2013)
I think that the topic title covers the question, I'd love to see some of your input on this. Taking a shot in the dark I'd guess it's consulting but I'm not confident in that.
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Gold digging
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