Shoud I switch to big 4 audit job which will decrease my savings 45k usd in 3 years?
Hi all,
I am 27 years old, graduated last year.
I am having a dilemma now: to choose Big 4 audit job in my home country ( think Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam ) or continue my current job as a Research Associate job at a commercial bank in Singapore or not. This research job is a back-office, RM support role, mainly regulations and economic research.
Currently I am more into the big 4 audit job because I like the project-based, client-facing job rather than a back-office one. I also think audit is a stable job and can bring me a decent career for a person with normal background like me.
The issue is that the salary I recieve in Vietnam is just 1/8 the salary of the job in Singapore ( think like: 500 sgd vs 4000 sgd/month ). I also tried to apply to some audit firm in Singapore but failed.
I think with 3 years of big 4 audit experience and CPA, I will have higher chance of being accepted into a good MBA program vs the research job and I still can find a good job in US or Singapore later.
Is it right ? Please correct me if I am wrong.
In future, I want to study further in US and live in North America so I hope that people who are mainly living in US or Canada like you can give me some hints about which career to choose now.
Thank you very much in advance.
Salary - Salary in Big4s is way below banking. Besides, this salary you mentioned is probably for a very junior role, right? I am not sure how it works in your country, but here in Brazil you would start getting a decent salary when you reach Senior Manager or equivalent (for Internal Audit groups, I've heard Consulting is a bit different), you won't make anything exhuberant but it's possible to have a good income. Also not sure how bonuses work there, but here they are ridiculous at least for low/mid levels.
Client exposure - From the salary you mentioned I'm imagining a junior role. In this case you will not have many meaningful, client facing projects, you'll do easy reconciliations or inventory counts, while Senior Managers will have exposure to more senior staff - Juniors in audit get to talk maybe to rank and file personnel in accounting or tax departments etc.
Stability - While Audit is generally seen as more 'stable" than other roles, this is not necessarily true. Having the CPA and some Big4 experience under your belt can make you easily "employable' - as long as you're not thinking of branching to other areas like investment banking. It's common to leave for clients, for Internal Audit or Finance/Accounting roles. Big4s also have regular RIFs where a good number of people are dismissed.
MBA prospects - I don't think this is really that easy to get into a top-ranking US program coming from Audit, from what I've seen - But I've never applied so I can't really tell from experience.
Exit Opps - Assuming you plan to obtain the CPA you can have your own practice. Depending on your area of specialization within accounting, you can make some good money. Also, many former Big4 people go to Internal Audit functions, and of course having good relationships with your clients can help here. Salary and benefits are usually better in the industry.
I would never ever ever voluntarily lower my salary by 7/8ths. I would rather be unemployed and seeking new roles.
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