[FullyDepreciated]

When will Big 4 finally adopt more sane hours? I would like to join, but in tax I don’t want to work 70-80+++ hours a week. 60-65 is doable maybe 5-10 weeks a year, but more than that on a regular basis is potentially sacrificing one’s health for career.

Are they going to run out of people willing to work those kind of hours? Millennials want more work-life balance, no?

[Anonymous]

To add to juuustin's post-

The types of people that log 80+ hr weeks and complain on reddit are also the type that complain on reddit instead of work.

[Anonymous]

The funny thing about people saying Big 4 hours are insane is that they base their focus on BUSY SEASON. I worked in IRS LB&I a little bit before and let me tell you: yes, the hours in IRS are better but the stress doesn't reduce. And the better hours are better because they are averagely spread over the entire year. Things in Big 4 like watching Netflix or going GYM probably during free time will never happen in the IRS LB&I. Let me also tell you about my wife's life in a finance department in a large fortune 500 world famous pharmaceutical company: she works 1.5 busy week in every month and every day in that 1.5 week, she has to stay sometimes til midnight-often time til 10 or 11 pm.

This is the typical story of “no pain, no gain”, if you can name one career without entry barrier and crazy hours that can offer you the satisfied, high salary, please let me know and I will train my children to get that.

[Rip808]

There is SO much more than Big 4 public accounting. I interned with one of the Big 4, and thought to myself “this is asinine”, working 3 straight weeks at 80 hours a piece I was slowly losing my mind. Thank God I had an offer from a fortune 500 oil and gas company to fall back on.

Unless you plan on staying until Manager + an additional 1-2 years experience, public is NOT worth it. I chuckle when students think they can go to public, make “senior” and then come and run the show in industry. Ha. Ha. Ha. I have seen people with 5 years experience come into industry, at the same level that I am in with only 3 years of industry experience. I this past year I worked 6, yes, SIX hours of overtime the ENTIRE YEAR. And I know I am making 20-40% more than my public accounting peers after bonuses, stock comp, etc.

Also, its not “what” you know, its “who” you know. You will be the new kid on the block, while the people who started out with the company are going to know 90% of the accounting org. No one is going to care you did Big 4 public accounting. Stop drinking the kool-aid that we are all fed to on campus, with lavish dinners and all. I took a sip of the kool-aid but I am glad I did not swallow.

You know your life sucks in public accounting, it does, however, get better once you leave. Ask questions, just because all your friends are doing Big 4 doesn't mean you have to as well. Take it from someone who has seen both sides, I thank my lucky stars I started straight in industry. While I am traveling the world, getting to experience other cultures, a lot of my friends are drowning in work in conference rooms, tick-marking their life away, looking over controls.

Life is too short kids, ask questions, look at all your options. There is more than one way.

TL;DR? Big 4 is not worth it (with less than 5 years experience), go straight into industry. Your mind, body, and pocket book will thank you.

Texas

FAR: PASSED
AUD: PASSED
BEC: PASSED
REG: PASSED!!!!!

[spinfuzer]

I can only speak for the audit side of public accounting. 80+ hour weeks on a consistent basis happen when teams are inefficient. The week before a deadline might be the longest one, but I haven't had a week above 70 hours yet. I averaged at about 55 to 65 during busy season. The teams that do stay for 80+ hours on a consistent basis are not well managed. Generally, being at work for 80 hours does not mean that 80 hours of work is getting done (for all team members).

Work hard and efficiently. Use your PTO to relax and travel.

FAR - 08/08/14 - 93
BEC - 08/28/14 - 95
REG - 10/11/14 - 96
AUD - 11/30/14 - 99

[Anonymous]

WOW. I cannot believe some of these responses.

“I can only speak for the audit side of public accounting. 80+ hour weeks on a consistent basis happen when teams are inefficient.”

I call BS. Tons of things can push it over. FOr one, losing members of the team before busy season starts and never getting anyone to replace them (due to offices being short staffed – which big 4 are notorious for). Another, client errors add time but you don't get any new people. Another, most teams are understaffed or don't have the right number of weeks scheduled/staffed for fieldwork – even if everyone is as efficient as possible and there are absolute no client errors or delay in providing PBCs, you'd still have to work in the 70's to get the job done by filing date. Inexperienced audit teams due to turnover (ever hear about 2nd years or 1st year seniors lead senioring big engagements? I sure have).

“The 70+ weeks, in my past experience, were usually 2-3 weeks closer to filing… or if something blew up.”

I sort of agree with this. Busy season starts out slower with 60-ish hours a week to start and ramps up and then your working somewhere in the 70's (if you're lucky) or 80's the 2-3 weeks before filing. But remember, a lot of staff will have 2-3 busy season clients – so they get extended busy seasons. THis was typical of my office anyways but according to this thread apparently some office/teams are so well staffed that they rarely work over 60.

But I agree with others, the bitching is about busy season. The rest of the year the hours were pretty reasonable.

[Anonymous]

So true spinfuzer and cycgundam, 80 hours a week is NOT the norm. So far this busy season I've barely hit 55 hours. My first client was so well managed we worked 40 the week of filing (also not the norm).

Personally I think this job is awesome. I'm getting the best possible experience without all the big 4 negatives. You can make the argument that Big 4 isn't necessary but no one will ever argue that Big 4 isn't the best place to start your career.

For people who are in Big 4 and are working the crap hours on the crap clients, you need to stand up for yourself. All it takes is getting put on a great client and suddenly you'll love your job (if you actually like auditing).

[wannabeCPA123]

I put in 100+ hours a week January and Feb and the beginning of march. I worked Saturday and Sunday every week until the end of February. One weekend, I worked from 9 am to 3am on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I was at the office with the partner and senior manager until 3am everyday.

Basically, I wanted to prove that I was some badass that could handle 3 12/31 clients at the same time. I ended-up doing 3 Q reviews within 2 weeks for every Q during 2014, and I went through interim testing three times during the fall (including SOX testing).

I flew all over the country for SOX work for these clients. It was good experience, but looking back on it, I really made a mistake. It really affected my health.

I just always want to push everything including myself to the limit. It's just my nature. This is NOT typical though

FAR 78
REG 87
BEC 78
AUD 78
Passed all exams on first try! Good luck to everyone!

[Anonymous]

b4 tax will never have sane hours. you'll get those hours at public accounting offices anywhere.

[justgivemea75]

I feel it really just depends. My YE clients were pretty chill. I generally worked around 55 hours a week and only worked 3-4 weekends, which were half days. However, some other people at my office were working till 10 PM every day, traveling, etc. It ends up coming down to who your team/client is (i.e. how efficient the senior/manager are, does the client make errors/get stuff in on time, the size of the client, etc.).

If the above is decent, then you'll have a relatively easy time in my opinion, otherwise it will suck since you're working banking hours without the pay. I've also consistently heard that, in general, FS has the worst hours and least interesting work (lots of process testing, etc.).

Either way, I think that if you get out right after becoming a senior, that would be ideal. Being a senior associate/manager sounds crappy to me. You don't get the pay that senior managers/partners do, you have a ton more responsibility and are sometimes managing multiple jobs. No thanks.

FAR - 84
AUD - 76 (phew)
BEC - 88
REG - 77

DONE!

[Author]

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