Any current or former big 4 accountants here? Feel like sharing your experience?
Location, audit or tax, anything really.
Location, audit or tax, anything really.
The big accounting firms will give you a competency exam. They will ask you, "How much is one plus one". If you answer "Two", you will be thanked, but not get the job. If you answer, "How much would you like it to be?", you are on the road to success as a corporate controller.
I have met and worked with all types of accountants and financial types. Most were hard-working, intelligent, and detail-oriented. Their biggest frustrations (as expressed to me in after-hours trips to the "watering hole") were dealing with a myriad of ever-changing regulations (Sarbanes-Oxley), unrealistic management-imposed deadlines and stupidity, and incompetent staff. A few related tales of outright management graft and corruption, and being "squeezed" to "cook the books".
I work for PwC in Audit. I think its a good place to start your career, especially in this economy. Public accounting has good job security right now. The only downside is you will work a lot of hours during busy season. I expect to be working most Saturdays/Sundays for the next couple months.
What made you guys choose audit over tax? Just personal preference? Only opening?
Did you guys find it tough to manage a social life or girlfriend/family with those long hours?
Majority of time spent in office or out at the client?
Thanks.