Introduction and Big 4 TS Switch

Hey WSO Monkeys,

I am a recent graduate from a small liberal arts college in the Southern United States, where I majored in Commerce and Business. (My school was too small to offer more specified business degrees such as Marketing, Finance, Accounting, etc.) My school funnels into Big 4 Audit and Tax practices, and the best students get jobs in MM IB or ER.

I found WSO through reading about finance jobs on mergersandinquisitons and have hence become much more interested in Finance. I originally did not take serious interest in the field after seeing layoffs during the recession. Coupling this initial risk aversion, I became disheartened after learning about the efficient market hypothesis, index investing, and how very few mutual fund managers actually outperform the market in the long-term. However, I have hence reconsidered, and a finance role, especially in Corporate Development (or perhaps impact investing?), seems much more challenging, dynamic, and appealing to me than period end accruals, bank reconciliations, and reclassifying supplies.

As I am enrolled for the M.S. in Accounting this upcoming fall, I think my most realistic plan is to join a Big 4 Audit practice, excel for two or three years, and attempt the transfer to the Advisory Practice, hopefully working with Valuations. However, I am wondering about my steps getting there. While I do not think I will have an issue getting into Big 4 Audit (3.8 GPA, variety of campus leadership roles, volunteer experience, etc.), I am worried about the transfer to Advisory.

Is it possible if I start at a smaller Big 4 Audit office (think Birmingham, Memphis, Jackson, Nashville) or should I try to move to a larger city? Also, while I have read some advice about trying to get a partner to pull you over internally from doing a rotation with TS, I have also read that you should apply to other Big 4s' TS departments and leverage your reviews and success within Audit. Is there any more advice others can offer? Finally, would taking parts of the CFA be helpful for this transfer?

Thanks!