For those who don't know corporate finance at an accounting firm is basically working on middle market transactions doing the same type of things you would do in an M&A group at an investment bank.
I have an offer from a Big 4 firm in a regional office. Don't want to give too much more away as it would be personally identifying but this regional office is on one of the islands surrounding the UK that acts as a tax haven (think Guernsey).
I have another offer from a mid tier accounting firm (BDO, GT, etc) for the same role in London.
My preference is to do what is best for my career. At first glance it seems taking the Big 4 role makes more sense but then there are a few things that are diverting me towards the other offer.
- Living and working in London
- The isolation of working in a regional office.
- The fact I will eventually want to transfer to London within 2 years anyway
- Friends, family and girlfriend who all live in London
Hi,
I've been doing corporate finance at a Big 4, before moving to a top tier BB so I think I have something to say here.
First, it is not 100% clear to me if your offer at the Big 4 is for corporate finance. If this is the case, from a career perspective, it makes much more sense to start there and then try to move to London as soon as possible (within the same firm or at other firms). The brand counts a lot in this case as being at a Big 4 will still look good / ok on your CV while having a second tier / unknown accounting firm will not look good at all. Unfortunately, there is not much knowledge of Big 4 / accounting firms corporate finance activity at the major investment banks and it will be even more difficult to explain, during interviews in the future, while you were doing banking at an unknown firm. They will think you were not good enough to break into a bank nor into a Big 4.
On the other hand, if you offer is not for corporate finance, I will still start at the Big 4 but try to switch to corporate finance within your 12-18 months. If this is the case, you need to make sure that this path is doable at that office.
Good luck. I know a lot of people that were able either to move from regional Big 4 offices to London or to Investment Banking.
Thanks for the reply.
I should have clarified that both offers are for roles in corporate finance, M&A Advisory.
I should also have mentioned that I qualified in Big 4 audit (3 years) so I'm pretty desperate to move quickly or forever be branded an accountant. The Big 4 firm I have an offer from is not the same on I work with either.
My main reservation is based on the fact that I will take the role in the regional office and then struggle to move after a year or two and so be stuck in a city I had no intention of building a career in. Plus there's my friends and girlfriend to consider. If I make this move then it really has to pay off.
What countries / deals do they cover from that island? I mean, I assume they do not have an office to cover, let's say, only M&A in the Isle of Man... do they do UK / Ireland M&A? If this is the case, gaining UK / Ireland M&A related experience will put you in a good position to later move to London to another Big 4 or, even better, to companies such as Harris Williams, William Blair, Robert W. Baird, etc. which heavily recruit in Europe from Big 4 M&A (I interviewed with HW for instance when I was doing CF in South Europe).
As I said, I will go with the brand in this case. Obviously you need to acquire M&A experience so make sure that they do deals in that office. You can live for 18 months far from home, come on...
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