Mid-tier accounting firm M&A or Big 4 TAS (UK)?

Hi all,

Newly qualified ACA in the UK, completed 3 years in B4 audit in a regional office. 

I'm currently weighing up 2 options. Moving internally to regional B4 TAS team or accepting offer for mid-tier (think BDO,GT,RSM) corporate finance M&A team.

The TAS team will work with a wider range of deals (millions to billions of revenue) but will only be due diligence work. The M&A team is lead advisor, generally on private companies being sold to PE/Corporate in the range £10m - £100m. From what I can see the M&A role in mid-tier would be very similar to a B4 M&A role although reputation is less and remuneration seems poor (approx £40k which is in line with B4 audit salary). My instinct is that the M&A role will be more rewarding in terms of enjoyment of work performed and exit opportunities.    

Long term, my goals are to move into a corporate development role, FP&A role or stay in M&A/TAS. Potentially aiming for a finance director level role without going through a corporate accounting/reporting route. My aim would be to pick up as much strategic ability as possible and be on a trajectory to earn above 6 figures.  

Which option would be best, or should I be looking at any other roles. Have not been able to secure an internal move to the M&A team in my B4.

3 Comments
 

I would go with the low salary but good role in CF in a mid-size firm. In Due diligence you'll be working when most of the deal work is done - DD is mostly the final leg of M&A. You don't change of the transaction goes ahead or not. In a lead adviser role you get to do a lot of other interesting work and help in the decision making process. It also supports skills like Modelling, Valuations and a lot of networking. Better exit options in my view too.

 

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