[rbcpa]

I’ve been in a big 4 firm for for the past few months and already hate it. Every day when I leave work it’s likely walking out of jail. The team doesn’t care about you and it just sucks. I’ve aged so much in 6 months. I don’t think I can do this for much longer. My justification is that if you spend 65 to 70 hours a week with crappy pay you can spend that time Into your own venture and be far more successful.

The only down fall is I’ve passed the exams and need experience. Is there another way to get the experience requirement for Cali? Move to a smaller firm?

BEC - PASSED
AUD - PASSED
REG - PASSED
FAR - PASSED

[Anonymous]

Personally in my experience and talking to many other accounting friends, the prestige of the Big 4 is a one way street. By that I mean, people who value it in hiring are typically Big 4 alums themselves. You can gain audit experience at any level and any good hiring manager worth their salt understands Big 4 on your resume doesn't automatically make you more qualified or a better candidate. Most smaller firms allow for more experience quickly in a variety of areas and can produce a more well rounded candidate in my opinion.

If you want to work in financial reporting for a large fortune 500 publicly traded company, then sure Big 4 experience is almost a prerequisite, but anyone who believes a Big 4 will dramatically improve you as an employee in a controller role for a small closely held company over what a small firm will give you is naive. Most companies have been around long enough to see through the BS.

[rbcpa]

Personally I don't think I'll have any regrets leaving because my end goal is to own my own accounting tax law firm so the industry Im in right now is of no value. Time to start looking at smaller firms. I'm hoping my current firm will sign off on the 6 months that I've been there for my cpa experience. I've definitely worked more than 500 hours. Which hours get decided that are used for licensure

BEC - PASSED
AUD - PASSED
REG - PASSED
FAR - PASSED

[Anonymous]

TBH it all depends on the office and location you're in. Not all Big4 is 70+ hours. I work at PwC and worked 60+ hours only once (sign-off week). The rest of busy season was ~50 hours. Busy season only lasts from middle of January to middle of March also.

[Anonymous]

Topics like these make me feel so lucky. I was at a company very similar to big4 for 3 months left for a mid-size to small company. Any week I work more than 40 hours they keep track of how much I work and let me take that time off during the summer. After April it will start slowing down and I'll have 50 hours or more I can just use anytime I want during the summer.

[rbcpa]

Do you know if HR has to sign off on my cpa hours?

BEC - PASSED
AUD - PASSED
REG - PASSED
FAR - PASSED

[Author]

Replies