Big 4 Senior Associate Needing Career Advice
Hi,
I'm a senior associate at a Big 4 firm with around 3 years of experience and I'm kind of lost on what direction to take my career. Although I honestly like just about everyone at my firm and they treat me well, quite frankly, I really dislike auditing. I feel as though I've learned some useful skills, but at the end of the day, the work is more centered around compliance and understanding processes as opposed to problem-solving and planning for the future. As such, I feel as though I need to leave soon to protect my sanity.
The problem is that I really don't know what I should do next. Aside from the fact that I don't like auditing, I also know for sure that things like IB/Consulting or even TAS at another B4 are not my bag. I'm looking for a lifestyle upgrade as well, and all of those jobs are significantly worse from an hours/stress perspective. I don't mind working longish hours (50 or so with some crazy 60+ weeks thrown in during quarter/YE), but doing the constant 65+ grind isn't worth it to me.
Additionally, while accounting can be interesting, I don't think becoming a manager of financial reporting or something along those lines would be my cup of tea either. Accounting can be cool and all, but I want to do something that is tasked more so with analyzing the financials and using this to decide how to run the business. It doesn't have to be corporate development, but even something that involves looking at prior period results and deciding whether or not we should close a factory, enter a new market, etc. and performing scenario modeling on how this would affect the bottom-line would be a perfect fit.
So far, when recruiters call, I don't seem hear too much of what I described above, so I'm wondering if anyone can help me figure out which direction I can take and how reasonable it is to get the type of position I mentioned above with my background. In case it matters, I do have my CPA, but I'm kind of worried of telling interviewers this since I don't want to just be seen as an accountant.
If anyone has any advice, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!
FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis) sounds like you're bag. Focuses more on the budgeting, forecasting, and "analysis" side of things as opposed to just making sure the entries are booked correctly. I'm in Big 4 myself, although just below that Senior level, but from my outsider's perspective at the fp&a groups on my clients, they are looking at Quarterly/Annual financial results, determining the causes for any fluxes, and working with the various departments (sales, engineering, etc) to adjust. General advice I've seen on here is to make sure you pay close attention to the job description, as some "FP&A" positions are just more accounting in disguise. As far as making the transition from audit to fp&a, I'd like to hear more about this myself. Seems to be somewhat of a skills gap between the two roles. Hopefully someone with more direct experience in the field or someone who has made the same transition can speak to this, as I'm in the same boat as you, although I'll be sticking around a little longer to get that Senior title.
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