Quote: (01-07-2017 08:30 AM)Thomas Jackson Wrote:
Accounting is a good stable career with a ton of benefits, but starting in the Big 4 in your 30's would be pretty terrible. You would have to be completely okay with doing grunt work and getting supervised by a 24 year old with no life experience. I am a manager in a national firm (GT, RSM, BDO) so I feel i have a decent perspective here.
Starting at any of the large national firms in your 30s I think is only potentially terrible, and even at that, only for a few years. As I mentioned in a previous post I know people that have done so, and I know some of my current auditors who are doing so as we speak. The ones I worked with in Big 4 have by and large been able to leapfrog their peer groups in terms of career advancement post-big 4; and the ones who audit me now clearly have more of the intangible life experience that allows them to be more effective and sponge up more knowledge that will benefit them down the line. The key is being able to put your ego on the back burner when necessary and withstand the temporary inconvenience of reporting to someone younger who has shit for life experience, and it's a worthwhile sacrifice considering how you'll be positioned for a better series of roles in private industry afterward. That is of course provided that whoever is facing such a decision has some degree of commitment to the accounting/finance profession and intends to stick with it and milk it for all it's worth (which can be substantial, monetarily). Otherwise, completely agree it's all a waste of time.