Breaking into Financial Advisory @ Big4 [advice required]
Hi Guys. I had a question about breaking into the Big 4 - Financial Advisory.
Context - I did my undergrad at a tier 1-B school in the UK, majoring in Finance. Graduated with a strong GPA. I have ~3 years of full-time work experience (2015 - 2018) at a tech start-up (AI) in Business Development (California). I also have internship experience in Marketing at another start-up (VR) and Corporate Banking (BB), however, these internship experiences were a while back (2013-2014) as it was during my undergraduate degree. And to be honest, the Banking internship wasn't very fruitful - the only real benefit that came of it was it''s branding on my resume. All-in-all, I have ~ 4 years of full time + internship work experience.
I am now going in for a Master in Accounting at a big-4 target school in the US - it happens to be the best accounting program in the nation. Here is my concern:-
While I have substantially greater work experience (purely in terms of 'number of years') than other graduate students, I am afraid that it is not relevant to Financial Advisory. IMO, A candidate with internship experience in Finance is likely to be much more desirable. I may be wrong, but this is my concern.
I am looking for advice from this community as to how I should be placing myself. Am I at a big disadvantage - should I be applying for internships rather than FT positions post my masters program - would that be a safer route.
Any advice on how I should spin my story / approach this next phase would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
Are you dead set on Fin Advisory? Because your profile seems to be quite strong for tech IB (with the MSc in Accounting) or tech MC due to the work experience.
Thanks for your response. Going into the Masters program, I will be looking at - ranked in order of preference - Fin Advisory, IB and a FP&A type position at a tech company (think Dell, Intel, HP etc.).
Fin Advisory - the reason I have prioritized Fin Advisory @ Big4: they recruit very heavily from my school.
Tech IB - breaking into IB would be great but for that I'm at a non-target. People from my program find it easier to break into Oil & Gas, Metals etc. Once again, I would imagine that I lack relevant work experience.
FP&A at a tech company - this is more of an insurance for the worst case scenario.
Would you suggest breaking in via the internship route post my program for IB and Fin Advisory?
Yes, if you can't do FT then perhaps the internship may be helpful. In all of this, no considerations for an MBA?
From what I have understood, to get into a top MBA program you would either need to be a very safe bet - have been vetted by a big brand and have excelled academically and at work, or, at the other end - an entrepreneur or really someone who has a unique story to tell.
I'm in the middle - I'm not a safe bet and neither have I gone and started a company of my own. Plus, only ~3 years of work ex. Hard to validate a candidate like me. Hence, decided that I would go in for a masters program - almost like starting afresh.
Fair enough.
Try to see if you can get an internship at one of the Big 4 companies and that might help. I have had an internship last summer and this summer in Financial Advisory. It is mostly restructuring, valuations, AML compliance, M&A etc. You might want to look at risk advisory because they do more things that would cater to your work experience in tech companies.
Thanks for getting back to me on this. When you say I'm well suited for Risk Advisory, which aspect of Risk Advisory are you referring to - Financial, Cyber, Regulatory, operational etc.
I'm saying more cyber risk because you have got experience in IT companies and under risk advisory a big category especially now is cyber risk. But if you are more interested in Financial Advisory try to see if you can get any sort of work experience in a big four firm in FA and RA it would really help. I thought I would be interested in accounting/audit but when I was put into an internship for FA I really like it more and it isn't redundant and repetitive.
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