Big 4 Auditor to Accountant in Banking

Hello everyone,

I'm in a delimma right now and really grateful for any advice from you guys.

I recently got an offer from the wealth managemnt branch of one of the Big 5 banks of Canada. The job is in the finance team. Othe than regular reporting, a large portion of the responsbilities are forecasting and planning. It sounds more interesting compared to straight audit, and it's in banking. Ulitmately I'd like to work in a fund with a role in FO. 

The question is, does taking this up role move me further to achieving my goal or is it worse or does it make absolutely no difference? I know that moving from a supportive role to FO is still extermely hard because of the different responsibilities and lack of market exposures. But wouldn't it still better than staying in the public practice auditing non-publicly traded clients? Alternatively, should I stay with the Big 4 but transfer to the deal advisory team?

I appreciate your feedback.

My background: I'm working currently at a Big 4 as a senior autior with 4 years of experien in a medium-sized city. No financial institution cleints and low exposure to complex instruments. The only financial related background I have is a master's degree from a top tier B-School in Canada. 

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2 Comments
 

You will never get a FO office role if you go into the finance team of a Big 5 bank. If you are at a Big 4 currently, you should definitely aim to transfer into their deal advisory team. Many people have successful lateraled from DA teams at big 4 to the IB teams at big 5 banks (myself included).

Once you lateral into the DA team, start networking. Networking will be the single most important thing to focus on within Canadian finance recruiting

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