Middle Office IB vs Audit

Hi,


I'm currently a year 13 student who has received a degree apprenticeship with pwc and an offer to study accounting, finance and management at Nottingham. Between these two offers im still slightly conflicted on which path I should take. If I was to take the pwc route, I aim to work with the company till I reach the higher positions such as a partner or leave and join smaller companies for a more demanding role. On the other hand if I was to go to Nottingham, I would most likely complete the bachelors and go for a masters in some finance related course, so I could have a chance to make it into IB/PE at one of the big firms(the position will most likely be middle office/middle market as I don't believe I have the grades to get into front office).  I would like some advice on which path seems the best, things like salary progression and bonuses. Any general advice such as pursuing one of the many other paths in finance other than audit would be helpful as well. 


Thanks in advance.

 
Most Helpful
ZIRP

Personally I would take the PwC offer. It means avoiding the job hunt after university and also you have the ability to move within PwC to their transaction services/M&A team. People use this as a stepping stone to IB/PE in the UK. Also you'll have further optionality as you'll be ACA qualified.  

I’m in a similar dilemma and hoping you could shed light. I’ll be either studying Economics & Politics at Edinburgh or Financial Economics at St. Andrews hoping to break into IB/PE/Equity research out of uni (interested in FO) but this Deloitte brightstart audit apprenticeship has caught my eye as i can save £60,000 by the time i get my CA whilst staying at home. My fear is wether not being degree educated would have a negative impact due to certain corporate cultures. What would be the better path to pursue? my biggest fear is ending up going down the university route and ending up not getting the internships / grad roles i want and ending up in Audit/ Tax CA 3 year training scheme at big4 because i couldve just went down the apprenticeship route and saved 2 years. theres just too many variables but my ultimate goal is ib/pe and idk how well an apprenticeship would work for that

 

St Andrews is strong, good semi-target just behind durham in placement. Get involved in finance societies, get advice from alumni and form a close circle of driven friends and at the very least you'll get mm ib(not too bad since you could do the same at coventry and not even get any ib)

 

Take PWC

No debt and real experience with a real route to TAS then IB vs getting high in debt to goto a low tier semi target and shooting in the dark

Hello, yes the Deloitte offer is pretty good, but i still have a fear of having a risky entry into IB through a programme that albeit providing a CA, doesn’t give a degree which I’ve heard will make hell to get into IB/PE without a degree, is there any validity to this? It’s a rather stressful decision to make as I don’t want to make the wrong one eg- go stA and not get a good grad role / go B4 CA and not have the exit opps I want (IB / PE  FO roles). I would love if a person like you, in my dream role, to give me your thoughts. It’s just so hard to decide.

 

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