Big 4 to Wall Street
Hello,
I am a college sophomore majoring in accounting and finance. At my current position right now in my college career I have more connections to the Big 4 resulting from networking, my school being a target for Big 4, familial connections,etc. However, my end goal is to work on Wall St. even though my networking base is small and not concrete. That being said, I feel that my in on The Street could be much easier if I do some time at a Big 4 Accounting firm and then try to leverage my experience there into a career at any big bank.
Any advice..? What are the opportunities for Big 4 accountants on Wall St. with an auditing background?
If Wall Street is what you want go for it. Don't settle for Big 4. I'd imagine there are a few boutique investment banks in your area. I'd start there first.
You're soph so time's on your side. I think your best bet (assuming you want to leverage your B4 contacts) is to try to get in on their advisory side. From there it would be relatively easy to lateral to IBD. However if you want to do accounting (Tax/Audit) its going to be a much bigger struggle.
have you seen anyone make the transition?
It will be much easier to just avoid the Big 4 route. You're still a sophomore, so start networking for a banking internship next summer now. If you do end up going big 4, which should only be as a backup plan, avoid audit and try to get into TS/TAS.
Why is it that audit big 4 career doesn't transfer over into a finance career at a big bank?
Personally I transferred from a big 4 Transaction Service group, i.e. the M&A advisory group to a bulge bracket investment bank. I would say the reason why you should not join any department other than TS in big 4 is that the skillset in other lines is not related to IB at all. Audit or tax basically has nothing to do with IB. If you are in TS and want to get into investment bank M&A one day, expose yourself to as many deals as possible, grab the technical part of it, talk to your bankers in the deal team as much as you can, wait for the chance and then jump the ship.
If you can't find anything finance related for the coming summer, doing a B4 soph internship (if you can get one last minute) isn't a bad idea. Can set you up pretty well for a banking stint junior summer.
It will do far more harm than good. Do not go to work at a Big 4 accounting firm expecting to then transition to banking. This is coming from a former Big 4 accountant who managed to escape.
pm me your email straight cash homie? I'd like to ask you some more questions
You can even get a big4 internship in New York and then network with bankers while you are there. If your school is a target nationally, not only would you have no problem getting an interview for this summer, but also you can probably find some alumni on the street.
unfortunately, I am not from a target school but I do know of some alumni from my school that work on the street
Big 4 is a tough spot to go if you want IB (I was also at a non-target banking school)
I did an audit internship and got into the TS group through relentless networking and crushing my audit internship. I ended up declining the offer to do something more related to banking but not IB.
TS would be fine but still an uphill battle. Just my .02.
Is it favorable to get a banking full time offer with an audit internship? what did you go into?
I do valuation now. I don't think any banks will be excited about your audit internship. You should do a TS / valuation internship (not even sure if those groups have them) if you want to try to recruit for FT banking.
The best exp for full-time banking recruiting? Banking.
If you're talking about a Big 4 internship, that's a perfectly fine internship to have as a sophomore. Especially if your school isn't a big feeder into IB it only makes logical sense from your story that you'd have a Big 4 internship at some point. Almost no legitimate investment banks give internships to sophomores (those minority leadership programs for 4 weeks or whatever it is do not count). Most kids interviewing for junior year internships did some kind of marketing, private wealth, accounting, or similar type of internship (ie no banking). Some kids do banking internships, but at very boutique banks that is viewed more as showing an interest in banking as opposed to legitimacy of the internship / experience. If you're talking about going into Big 4 full time and then lateraling to IB, it happens, not often but it happens. I've seen audit, valuation, and FDD laterals in banking.
Is it better to have IB internships if your end goal is IB. Obviously? Is it the end of the world doing Big 4 first? No. There's always a better scenario you could be in, but rarely do things align perfectly to what you're looking to achieve. At the end of the day, it's all about your hustle (I don't mean just for IB post graduation, I mean for everything over the course of your career).
Thanks a lot, this provides a lot of transparency
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