Big 4 vs. financial services regulator

Hi guys,

Just need a quick opinion. My cousin has two entry level job offers. One is big 4 audit in London, the other is with the Financial Conduct Authority (basically the UK equivalent of FINRA, the financial services regulator). Which one do you guys think is better in terms of potential exit opportunities? He wants to do corporate development / strategy eventually and thinks big 4 audit could be a way into these types of roles (yes I know it is a long shot). He thinks he could also transfer internally within the big 4 firm after qualifying to one of the more interesting departments (TS, consulting) to improve his exit options. However FINRA could still have good / well paid exit options at banks / FS firms, and probably more interesting work than audit. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Illusionary

 

With the FCA job? Looking at it a lot of it is related to the surveillance of financial services firms, ensuring that they are complying with all the regulations, coming up with new policies etc. You also get a secondment to a financial services firm and they sponsor you for a qualification (can be CFA or accounting qualification or something else entirely). However the main exit option does seem to be towards compliance / regulatory type roles at banks and asset managers. Which doesn't sound great but salaries are decent.

 

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