Controversial Opinion: Big 4 Audit is underrated
A lot of people on this forum love to shit on audit and I totally get why. Who wants to be studying for the CPA and verifying sales contracts for 10-12 hours a day while making peanuts when you could be in IB/ Blue Chip Consulting. However, these roles are obviously highly competitive and there are just not enough seats for everyone that wants it.
Don’t get me wrong IB/MBB is hands down the best place to start a business career and will open all sorts of doors for you throughout your life. However, if you can grind it out in Big 4 audit and get your CPA there are actually a lot of interesting opportunities that open up for you.
For the record I don’t work in audit and have never worked in Big 4 but this is based on people I know and have worked with.
I’ve personally seen people go from Big 4 audit to top equity research groups, interesting Corp Fin. roles, as well as the TAS to banking route. Even know someone that made it to SVP level at F200.
Moreover, almost all CFOs have done accounting at some point but you can’t really plan a career betting you will make C suite at F500 (way too much luck and politics involved). Not to mention there are lots of independent CPAs that pull in 200k+ per year working for themselves and running their own practice (something that is great if you value independence and don’t like working for others). If you stick around and make partner your comp is not that far off from BB MDs.
Yeah it’s boring, and yeah it’s not really fun to brag about on a date, and yeah the pay is shit to begin with but you develop a solid skill set that will always be in demand and you can take it in some interesting directions if you put your mind to it. You also get access to a large network of big 4 alumni, who work at pretty much every major company, and the brand carries a lot of weight in the corporate world. Outside of high finance, way more people know about PwC than Centerview or FTP or whatever the hot EB de jour is.
Point being that if you strike out in recruiting, or are late to the finance game in college like a lot of people are, doing a few years in Big 4 may not be a bad path forward and it is certainly not the end of the world.
Big 4 audit —-> CPA —-> IB/PE Operator (it happened at one of my previous PE roles to a friend) has always been a path one can take to get to their next step. It was never really underrated it’s just if one had the step to do Big 4 corporate finance to CPA to IB they’d take it over audit. I see what you’re saying though it’s just many of the people that are anxious to do the CPA route to do IB later usually do Corp finance or other roles over audit.
Think you spelled 'underpaid' wrong in the title.
Only kidding - actually the guys who put together QoEs are pretty attractive from a hiring standpoint.
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Agreed. Anecdotal but I can think of 2 people who went from big 4 to VPs in IB or PE.
Big 4 is a great and respectable place to start or build a career. Unfortunately the people that went to Big 4 from my undergrad were all annoying little shits. Completely overinflated view of themselves and the impact of what they do.
At least the ones that went to B4 consulting. The audit people were much better and actually pretty down to earth. B4 audit just trying to survive busy season and make a buck eventually, while B4 consultant thinks he’s among the brightest minds changing the world by doing HR integration paperwork.
Haha but Big 4 consulting does have some legit groups apart from just EYP and Strategy&. In the US some Deloitte consulting groups compete with MBB and do real strategy work but like 90% of the groups just implement stuff.
my friends in B4 audit are miserable
Coming from a s-hole country starting in audit was my only option in London or at least so it seemed at the time.
Did a few stints and an mba and now work in a BB. I was surprised how much better I understood accounting (in retrospect it was just imposter syndrome). A lot of bankers I know don’t really bother understanding what happens beyond EBITDA. It’s cool because everyone defers to me on EV to EqV adjustments.
long term certainly considering taking a pre-retirement role as CFO. I hated the exams but it’s actually nice to understand what you’re talking about and not doubt it for certain subjects.
I don’t recommend starting there, but for the lack of better option, it’s not bad. Good exit opps, not great.
I'm a CPA, started in Big 4 audit and I'm now in FDD/SAT at a MM firm in a specific industry (RSM/GT/BDO).
I'm coming up on a year in FDD, and when the 1.5 year mark hits I'd like to see if I could switch to IB, PE, or Corp Dev. I think IB may be the most feasible since PE or Corp Dev usually require some IB experience. Currently taking the Financial Edge IB modeling course to improve my modeling skills, but is there anything else I should bee mindful of when preparing to apply to banks? Is there a certain level/kind of bank I should be targeting? I would think EB or MM would be a feasible transfer. I assume I would have to come in as an analyst, but given it would probably still be higher comp, I'm fine with that.
I wouldn't shun CD so quickly. You would be amazed at how... willing CD groups are with hiring non-IBs. If you look within that specific industry you're doing FDD in, you will probably be able to find plenty of opportunities. Having recognizable accounting firms on your resume with the FDD work won't be be a hard no. You would probably be able to get first round interviews. You would just likely need to be incredibly prepared in order to move on.
I appreciate the input.
And yea when it comes to Corp Dev, I'd imagine there's positions that are in reach, I just know that deal activity and experience can vary company to company so there's some positions that you'd want, and some you may not want.
I am a CPA who has worked at PwC (albeit in a tax advisory function not an audit one). I want to make it clear up front that I am speaking solely about my experiences and preferences so if I hear people being like "yeah yeah yeah but there is also this thing that you don't care about..." you are entirely missing the point.
The actual job of auditing is brutal. If you think that being an Excel jockey who moves pictures around in ppt all day, I mean being an IB analyst/associate, is bitch work (which it is) auditing is so much worse. I have no clue how anyone could actually like doing a substantially shitter version of deal DD every day. I genuinely don't believe that people actually want to be auditors. At the entry level I think they just don't know enough about other fields and at higher levels I think it is conditioning, not a genuine reflection of interest. At least materially speaking.
Now, like with IB, auditing does have a type of "buyside" culture too. Big accounting firms (not just big 4 but really any accounting firm that works with more than just mom and pop shops/individuals), have a structure where they expect a portion of their entry level employees to leave them for clients in a way that is similar to the IB - PE pipeline. A lot of the senior level accounting employees at firms will have previous public accounting experience. There is a reason for this. Between the cache of the larger accounting firms and the actual accounting skills you learn at one of these firms you will often get a leg up. However, most of these audit - client roles are not particularly interesting jobs. By no means are they bad jobs but lets be clear about what jobs like treasury, FP&A, internal audit, and the like are. You are a pure cost center with fairly little value add. And starting in accounting definitely doesn't keep you from moving into finance roles. If you do stick around in public accounting, you certainly won't be poor. But lets be clear, even at the partner/MD levels IB both averages higher and has a higher ceiling. You can live a very comfortable life as an accounting partner. By no means is it bad. My dad is a partner at a 30-50 person firm making $300-350k a year. And that isn't a Big 4 (or some other large accounting firm like GT or Forvis) partner. By every measure I lived the stereotype of what a modern American middle class life was. But that is a very different life than what you live making $1m a year. But you do also have the lifestyle tradeoff. While MDs work less than analysts, they still work longer hours and they have to travel more. While auditing isn't a 40 hour a week job either, it is much closer to that. You get much more of a life outside of work.
This is basically a much longer way of saying on an absolute scale, auditing is a very solid career. But on a relative basis, there are many other better gigs, which should be pretty clear given the site we are on.
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