Back office wallstreet vs. Big 4 Risk Advisory.

I was recently approached by someone who asked me which would be starting place in business, a bulge bracket wall street back office rotation or a big 4 financial risk advisory position?

I realize that salary will be a little higher for the back office position in NYC, but in terms of skills down the road I feel that risk advisory may be more useful. A lot of these back office roles seem to turn into salesy positions down the road and they seem a bit overrated. I just feel that transaction banking may not offer as strong a skill set in that it would be very repetitive work over the span of a 2-5 yr. I am not trying to say that all these back office positions are terrible. I know that sec lending and prime brokerage offer a decent skill set.

Anyone got input on this?

7 Comments
 

Risk Advisory is shit work, in my opinion. But really, the answer hinges on where you want to go with your career in the future. Also, what "back office" role are you talking about? Ops > IT > Admin, blahblah. Not all BO jobs are created equal.

Currently: future neurologist, current psychotherapist Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)
 
Best Response

I know a guy that did big4 risk -> BB MO and another that stayed in risk.

BO rotations are tricky, you're likely to get stuck in BO but I know a couple of people who ninjad into FO.

BO turning into salesy work? This is news to me. More info please.

Get busy living
 

Old job had a client service team where some people did transition into sales assistant type roles that would then eventually become sales. This was equity client service so I consider them BO but they were kind of MO also booking trades and what not. They would speak directly with clients (hedge funds, etc) and the sales people so it was great networking. That's how the few were able to move up. It was a minority though, and the job sucked -- they worked 12 hour days or more when stuff blew up. High turnover.

As others said, would need to know whats in the rotation but I always say stay out of BO. Don't have any info on Big4 Risk, but still say stay out of BO.

 

Going to have to disagree here and get more color on the back office job. The right position could at least give you the flexibility to network and build a "story" and skillset for an MBA (nota bene: you will not get into front office either way). Big 4 risk I've found to have a narrow "audit" mindset - controls, etc. I can't imagine their "financial risk" service line is what you think it is.

 
jack callahan Big 4 risk I've found to have a narrow "audit" mindset - controls, etc. I can't imagine their "financial risk" service line is what you think it is.
Big 4 risk is definitely audit/compliance work. Don't do it.

As an example: http://www.pwc.com/sg/en/advisory/risk-management.jhtml - check the job listings at the bottom. If you want to do "investigations" and "compliance" work, go for it (read: look through pages of numbers and inventory and figure out what stays and what goes, whether something is kosher or not). I did a bit of this during an IT integration project. It was not fun.

Currently: future neurologist, current psychotherapist Previously: investor relations (top consulting firm), M&A consulting (Big 4), M&A banking (MM)
 

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