regretting decision early in my career

im sure this post is gonna come off as naive or like a troll post but im just gonna launch this post out and see if i can get any advice . i feel like i fucked up bad choosing to go to big 4 audit. I started this fall. was a super conscientious student and got all my CPA exams done very early. cant help but feel like i should have explored IB more as an option while i was still a student. its not that i hate audit or something i just feel like ive learned more about banking and it seems way more interesting with much better pay + exit opps despite the increase in working hours. not to mention accounting got super hyped up in college and now i dont even like telling people what i do bc its boring as fuck

made the decision to go down the accounting route a couple years ago when i was much more risk averse but damn man i wish i could have a retry in the recruiting aspect here. is there any chance i can navigate into IB in the next couple years? how much weight does a CPA hold in IB today? the only thing i dont wanna do is get my MBA but it does seem like its my only ticket out. shit blows. open to any advice

2 Comments
 

I went from audit > FDD > IB > a PE role that I’m starting in a few weeks. It took a while but I did it and it’s doable without an MBA if you stay determined. You need to be willing to accept that you’ll be a late starter in the industry too.

The exact path I laid out above is probably your best bet. You’ll likely need to do a full 2 years in audit before you jump to FDD too, which is what I did.

 

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