[Anonymous]

I’ll start:

Pros:

Money

Health Insurance

Other benefits

Room for growth

Good training

Can (relatively) easily go somewhere else after

Cons:

Work many, many hours (at least in the beginning)

Is very big – probably just deal with the people in one’s particular department

[I just love this]

In addition to all the other comments, Large office/market Big 4 have less travel requirements (more or less depending on area as well). And one of the top Pros: Best place to start career in general! The learning, resume recognition and client/firm prestige cannot be beat.

If you start at the top (i.e. any of the Big 4) you can go to any regional firm, smaller/local firm, or stay at one of the top firms. In addition to leaving to just about any corporation because of the name recognition and respect of the firm. If you start at Joe Schmo & Associates, CPA local firm it is very hard to move to a larger firm or outside of the city/state without a major life-changing decision, such as going into a respected Grad program.

Before anyone gets mad and disagrees, Disclaimer: this is my observation of what generally happens, I'm sure there are isolated exceptions.

REG- Waiting 7/1/13
BEC- Waiting 7/23/13
AUD- Studying 8/12/13
FAR- Signed up 10/1/13
Studying with CPAExcel and Wiley Test Bank.

[Loaf]

Pros;

looks great on a resume

money is better

pretty much automatic advancement

alot of days off

dont have to deal with small firm nonsense

Cons:

Terrible training

have to deal with big firm nonsense

all the a$$ kissers are annoying

people get angry if you leave work before they do

force you to do volunteer work sometimes (its a pro if you like that)

every year need to train new staff because everyone keeps quitting

terrible hours during busy season

alot of negativity from most people because everyone is exhausted and wont shut up about how they never see their kids.

nobody has time to help you

[Anonymous]

I worked in public accounting (audit) for 4 years in a strong regional firm.

Pros:

Direct access/ interaction with the partners from Day 1.

The partners are directly involved in the audits and you are not just dealing with the manager.

Busy season not as many hours as a Big 4.

Opportunity to audit all B/S accounts in 1st year and not just maybe cash for 6 months.

Usually you are running the audits after 2 years and not still working on a small/specified portion.

The breadth of experience I had in interacting with clients from staff to CFO/board members in my four years.

CPE and exam (first-time) paid for by firm.

Cons:

No overtime

“Bonus” was a joke and not transparent as to how it was calculated (seems odd in a CPA firm no less)

No experience with publicly traded companies

Having to deal with the partners directly when they all have very different demands on how they want the audit run/workpapers etc. (this is a pro and a con, I know)

One specific incident that comes to mind is an interaction I had with the cash accountant at an NFP client. She worked at a Big 4 for 1 year before being laid off during the downturn. She worked on 1 client almost the whole time and really only worked on auditing cash. Yet, she made some snide comment to our team about how “few” hours we had to work during our busy season.

I was thinking, bish please. You are working as a cash accounant at an NFP and I'm on my way to being a CPA who understands F/S from A/P expense to top-side entries.

So I guess the point of my story is that people from Big 4 can be very smug about their experience there. I had staff/senior candidiates come in to interview at my regional firm that were looking to move from a Big 4 and they were so smug during the interview and thought they had the job and we would just want to hire them then and there becasue they were from Big 4. Umm, yeah no. Some guy didn't even show up in a suit?!??!

Accounting is a “second career” for me and I was in industry for 5 years before going in to public accounting at age 30, so I think the regional firm worked out great for me.

However, if you have the opportunity to work at a BIg 4, ABSOLUTELY do it. As others have said, the name recognition and ability to work on SEC clients is worth it. Yes, you will hate your life while you are there, but after 3 ot 4 years, you can leave and have so many doors open to you!

[surfer4life949]

FWIW, I will be starting out at a “large” mid tier in 2013 after I get Master's degree and (hopefully) the CPA.

My experience so far:

During my internship, I got direct interaction with the client as well as the Engagement Parter. My team was only around 10 people. I worked on an SEC client in CA. While we don't do the audits for Google, Apple, etc. there is definitely exposure to SEC clients in the mid tier firms.

Also, while cash was my baby, I also got an opportunity to work on other accounts like inventory, prepaids, as well as searching for any contingent liabilities. Pretty good exposure for being an intern. You have opportunities to see a bunch of audits as staff (NFPs, Hedge Funds, some SEC clients, etc.) which is nice because my friends who are starting work in Big4 are starting to get pigeonholed into their pre-selected “industry of choice” as a staff.

A lot of the people there were on a flexible schedule. Some showed up at around 10AM because they had to drop their kid(s) off at school before. They are incredibly good with flexible work schedules, I think 2 others were on a flex schedule since one was in the middle of getting married. They also let you work remotely if you need to (and are able to).

One of the experienced staff came from a Big4 and said that busy season for her was WAY crazier than the busy season for the client we were on (Cleint's YE was 6/30). They still worked late, but not to the degree of being in the office until 1-2 AM like some of the horror stories I had heard.

I will be going into Advisory after deciding after my audit internship wasn't exactly right for me, and even on that end of the business they do consulting and other engagements for large SEC clients.

All in all, don't disown the mid tier firms as they will get you a great experience regardless.

B-85 OCT 2012
A-84 NOV 2012
R-90 JAN 2013
F-89 AUG 2012
Ethics-92 (3rd try)

I am DONE BABY!!!
Used Roger 2012 + Wiley + NINJA Notes

[Author]

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