[mrap]

Hi guys, so I was inquiring some couple of days ago about opinion going the route of Big 4 audit -> Industry -> Big 4 Advisory. Today I got a notice that advisory department at my old firm is staffed and they cannot guarantee that they can give me any opportunities and don’t know when. So, I got also an offer from a smaller non-Big 4 firm today. Of course, the hours will go up a bit, the salary will be the same as my last one at Big 4 (a pay cut in comparison to , which I understand, but at the same time, the work entails not only audit, but also due diligence for non-audit clients, work with tax department when out of audit season. Since I had started my CIA examinations (1 exam passed), they also offered to pay for me to finish the certificate and potentially lead the outsourced IA projects, which they occasionally have. So what are your thoughts about this route? I know some people go from Big 4 to small firms straight away, but I’m in a situation where I left Big 4 because I felt that grass is going to be greener on the other side, Unfortunately, my other side was a complete nightmare and since I have worked there for 6 months, no other company considers me serious about my job search, so kind of it’s either stay at my current company and slit my wrists or do something bad to my manager, or go back to public accounting in a smaller firm. What are your experiences with this?

[rp 12]

Congrats on passing part 1 of CIA exam. I am a big Internal Auditor fan and I had worked with one Insurance company until I got laid-off. To be honest, if this is the only job offer you've now and want to move out of your current job sooner rather than later – take it. If you are OK to hang around your current job and look for Internal Auditor job, I think you might get some interest if you put explicitly in your resume that you're CIA candidate and passed part 1.

Do you mind my asking which part of US you're currently residing?

"Success in life comes when you simply refuse to give up, with goals so strong that obstacles, failure, and loss act only as motivation"

AUD: 68, 62, 77✔ (expires 10/31/16)
FAR: 53, 48, XX (retake 6/16)
REG:
BEC: 53

[mrap]

I'm not in the US, I live in Northern Europe. 🙂 IA jobs are not so common – maybe 1-2 open vacancies a year, because many companies are private local ones, and they don't need the IA department by EU and local law. My idea, why I started to study CIA during my Big4 years is that they wanted to develop this “audit advisory” service line where one of them was Internal audit (basically, taking back from advisory department some services and provide them to non-audit clients). And I was hoping to lead the service line when I would finish my CIA and would become manager (dreams did not come true in Big4).

And, no – I don't want to hang out in my current gig for any day longer, due to my abusive, micromanaging manager. basically I can't even take a piss, without explaining, what I did in that 1-2 minutes. And basically the job was a classic bait and switch thing (changed the title and tasks 1 week into my tenure) as they were searching for almost half a year for a person for this position, so apparently they turned to other tactics. Basically I now work more hours than at my Big 4 gig and my manager refuses to approve my overtime. I could rant about it for 100 pages but do I need to?

[rp 12]

Oh ok. Sorry to hear that. Then go for that change.

"Success in life comes when you simply refuse to give up, with goals so strong that obstacles, failure, and loss act only as motivation"

AUD: 68, 62, 77✔ (expires 10/31/16)
FAR: 53, 48, XX (retake 6/16)
REG:
BEC: 53

[Author]

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