Graduating Senior in Big Four Audit - Consulting Career Path?
I am a senior majoring in Accounting at UIUC. My GPA is >3.6, and my goal is to be in consulting. However, I have no professional work experience. This past Summer I was in Europe traveling after I studied abroad for the Spring semester. The Summer before that I was bartending on campus.
My EC's are leadership positions in my fraternity, computer lab assistant on campus, and a bartender at a campus bar. Clearly, I do not have the resume needed to land a full-time consulting position. I should have joined much more professional clubs and interned during the Summer, but at least I had a ton of fun in college... right? Anyways, I digress.
So I will be returning for my fifth year to get my MAS and to sit for the CPA. I also will be interning this Summer for Big 4 Audit. That was not my goal, but I knew my credentials would not allow me to join a solid consulting firm. Next semester I will be joining a professional consulting club to gain more experience. Too little too late, I know.
My question is: will it be possible for me to land a full-time consulting/advisory position during next fall's recruiting season? The only professional work experience I will have is the audit internship, however, that experience will be non-transferable to consulting. I will have also shown interest in consulting having been part of a consulting club, but I'm not sure if it is enough. Or do I just stay in audit for a few years and try to move on to advisory from there?
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am new to this forum. Thanks for the help!
I interned over the summer in advisory for a Big4 firm. My advice to you is to avoid trying to lateral within the same firm during your internship. I can't speak for all Big4 firms, but from my experience, when you intern at a Big4 firm, you will only be considered for the position that you are interning for. If you try to request for a transfer, you will risk losing a potential full-time offer for the position that you are currently interning for.
I get the feeling that you might need to do a bit more research to better understand the consulting industry. Generally, the consulting that most people want to get into and gain exposure to is strategy consulting. The consulting work that the Big4 firms do (excluding their strategy consulting arms) is very different from strategy consulting. If you really want to get into general Big4 consulting though, then you do have a really good shot with your 3.6+ GPA. All you have to do is hit up your campus recruiters when they come down in the fall and get some face time with them and you should get a first round interview. You can focus on the Big4 firms, Accenture, Capegemini and middle market accounting firms like CroweHorwath, Grant Thornton, McGladrey, Plante Moran,etc.
If you want to get into strategy consulting though, that's a whole different story. You probably need to network with alumni and pull your GPA up so that it's over 3.7.
Thanks for the great response! Did you decide to work full-time in Big 4 advisory? Also, during my internship I will devote my full time and attention to audit - I may even like it! I Plus I want to build solid relationships with those I work with. I heard that for the firm I'm working for, if I want to transfer service lines I have to deny my full-time offer then interview for the new position.
Also, I admit I do not know about the consulting industry as much as I would like. That is why I will be joining the club next semester to have exposure to alumni and companies in order to learn more about it. I will be part-time so I will have plenty of time to talk to people about the industry.
Do people consider big 4 advisory (such as TAS) as consulting? Would working at a place like Accenture or Capegemini be a better career path than Big 4 audit? I understand I don't have the credentials for a top shop consulting firm, so is it even worth it?
Thanks again for your time!
I decided not to do Big4 advisory because I got the impression that Big4 firms value their accountants more than their consultants. Consequently, I was afraid that I would just end up getting residual work as I wasn't in their strategy arm. I'm doing management consulting (not strategy) at Accenture/Capgemini where there are only consultants. I chose not to go into strategy consulting because I knew that I wasn't going to get through the interview process and was realistic about it (I'm an international student at a comparable BIG10 school and my communication skills weren't strong enough to get through the case interviews at strategy firms). I was considering whether to become a consultant or an actuary. I chose to be a consultant because I felt that it was more challenging as your success really depends on your personality, people skills and communication skills. I felt that developing all these skills were more important in the long run.
From my experience, TAS isn't really consulting in the traditional sense. Consultants tend to be generalists and develop their skills based on their engagement's need. The people in TAS develop skills in a particular area like financial due diligence and then get staffed on engagements where there is a need for their skills. They are not really the typical consultants that people casually talk about but they are consultants in the sense that they provide a service to clients much like how accountants provide auditing services to clients. You will become a specialist right off the bat in TAS. However, having the skills that you develop at TAS would be useful and will probably make you very valuable. In fact, if you start out in TAS and switch to consulting, you will probably get more finance oriented projects because you have the experience. If I were to choose between TAS or consulting, I would have chosen TAS but that's just my preference. I could never get into TAS because I don't have an accounting degree. I can't say whether Big4 audit or being in Accenture/Capgemini would be better because I don't have enough experience. One allows you to gain specialized skills early while the other allows you to develop some executive skills. Both are important.
Don't sell yourself short. You still have plenty of time to boost your GPA, network and prepare for case interviews. Plus, you have more resources at UIUC. I knew a couple of kids from my advisory internship who were not in strategy consulting but managed to get into McKinsey and Bain. I do not think that they were much more impressive than me but they certainly had much stronger people and communication skills.
I'd echo what rrajesva said.
Look, you're graduating with a 3.6 GPA from one of the best Accy schools in the country- a school that competes with and beats Wharton on Big Four offers to applicants and CPA pass rates. And you paid one quarter the price, too. Smart businessman.
That said, a 3.6 is probably not going to cut it for a top tier management consulting firm but there's a lot of opportunities out there.
You can aim for TAS at another big four or you work for 3-4 years and do an MBA.
Thanks for the PM and invite to comment but I'm a quant from north of green street. Wish I could be more useful. Just remember that careers run for a good 40+ years and your first job is not your last job.
do people actually go from wharton to big 4 audit?
y.
You'd be surprised how many you find at a big four firm. $60-70K/year your first year, outside NYC, for 50 hours/week, with a path to an M7 MBA, is not a horrible alternative to MM research or S&T.
I pegged audit as closer to 70-80 hours/week. Is that just for a couple of weeks near earnings?
Audit is not working 70-80 hours/week regularly. Only during the busy season.
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