ASAP- Which career path to take?
I have recently been made some offers from the big 4 and also an offer from a bank.
My initial plan was to join audit and once becoming qualified, I will switch to do advisory.
Now the offer from a bank has opened another option: it is a front office position in retail banking with a year training contract which involves two rotations within a department. Opportunity to jump to other department (investment) only becomes available after 3 years. And they do not offer training for CFA etc.
My aim in long term is to get involved in advisory/corporate finance.
Which path should I pursue to get to the top? Am i right to say that audit route seems more secured with the qualification, and banking route is very slippery and to get to the top is totally performance driven therefore can be very tough? Is it true that top jobs in banks are often taken by those switching from big 4 and not often taken by the hard work who have climbed from the bottom of the ladder?
Thanks.
And if I am to stick with the audit route, what should I be looking out for when deciding which of the big 4 to join?
Thank you so much!
Oh shit FO or bust, son. Wait what's retail banking again?
Heh. Tough fight.
Where exactly do you want to join up? Differences between the Big 4 firms differ depending on where exactly you are.
If you want to wind up in banking, why wouldn't you start out in banking?
Retail banking and investment banking are worlds apart, though. I'd argue that at least Audit gets you a solid education in the firms that you audit, so it might be more relevant experience.
Joining the retail division of a bank at the bottom totally sucks though. It can take forever to advance, but you do have ultimately way more options. On the other hand, big 4 will accelerate your career and if you exit to a bank later on, you will have attained a much more senior role in a shorter time. With that said, you will be pigeonholing yourself into finance/reporting type roles. That said, Finance is a huge division that can ultimately lead to CFO (usually an EVP level position in a bank, which is two levels away from CEO) so it's not like it's a dead end or anything. You just have to really like accounting, because I think I would die if I had to do Finance type work for the rest of my life.
Also, while there are differences between the Big 4, there are none when it comes to prestige or lifestyle or pay. They are all basically the same. The only difference you should be looking at is the client base. I think EY has a dominance in auditing the tech sector, but PwC is dominant in the financial services sector. If you want to end up in banking, pick the firm that will give you the best chance of getting on as many bank engagements as possible.
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