[momshimily]

My background: 6.5 years as underwriter, 2 years as external auditor, almost 2 years senior accountant at a bank (recent). Passed my CPA in august. Currently I have two offers on hand

1: 4 billion asset bank – internal auditor – new department, direct report manager was ex big 4 manager. Willing to sign off Form E. Pay $66,200, sick leave 12 days, vacation 10 days, bank holidays, 401k match 6%. Bonus for banking will be 2-5% of annual salary. $30 out of pocket for whole family insurance.

Commute is 25 miles, impossible to drive, need to take a train, travel out of state to NJ & TX up to 25%

2: Largest recycled private company – internal auditor, 7 people in internal audit. Manager has no CPA nor audit experiences. Willing to sign off Form E (by other dept head) First three months $5000, after three months 5300-5500 based on performance. 1 to 3 months salary for bonus based on performance at year end. first year 7 days vacation, after that 12 days. 5 days paid sick leave , federal holidays, 401k matched 2.5% vest 5 yrs. max 1800 a year. $400 out of pocket for health insurance for family. Mine is covered by the company.

15 mins from home, international travel up to 20%, mainly go to europe, china and japan

Which path should i go ? I really need some advise on this, thanks !!!

[TNCPA16]

First off, congrats on the offers! Having to pick between 2 offers is a great problem to have. If I did my math correctly, assuming best case scenario (and not factoring in time off), the offers are fairly comparable – you would end up a few thousand ahead with the recycling company. Here are my thoughts (take it for what it’s worth!):

My initial instinct said to go with the banking job. Pay structure is a little weird with the recycling company – did they say how they will evaluate your performance to determine your salary after 3 months? I've never heard of an internal audit job basing salary off of performance.

I also don't like that the head of the recycling company is not a CPA and does not have audit experience. I’ve been in a similar situation and I found it very challenging to work for someone who did not understand the basics of auditing. I learned nothing while at that job and felt that the department as a whole provided no value to the company (we did bare bones, “check the box” auditing to satisfy the minimum requirements). Not to say that’s how this person at the recycling company is, but that’s just my experience.

I like that it is a new department starting up at the bank. My current job is also a start-up audit department, and I have loved being involved from the start. It’s great to be able to set up everything exactly how I want it, and I have also loved the challenge of starting everything from scratch. Plus, the growth opportunities are better since I am in on the ground-level. Did you get any information about the growth opportunities at either job?

For me, commute and travel are not that important to decision making. Sounds like both of these jobs have comparable travel time, but one is international and one is not. If you really love traveling and want to see more of the world, then maybe that should factor in your decision. Same with commute – that would not make or break a decision for me. But, like I said, that’s my personal preference. If these 2 topics are important to you, then you need to factor those in to your decision.

The biggest things I think about when considering a new job are: 1). Does the salary/benefits meet my expectations? 2). Do I like the people I would be working with? 3). Are there growth opportunities? 4). Do I think I would be happy working here?

Anyway, good luck in your decision! Let us know what you end up going with.

[242126]

Both offers seem good for different reasons. The commute would be a selling point for me with job 2. Which of these offers interest you more? Are you okay with international travel?

With regards to the banking job, I would really want to know why the internal audit is a new department. At a bank that size, they should have a well established internal audit department.

[ruggercpa2b]

Having been in internal audit for almost 8 years I would go with the bank. When I was leaving the Big 4 to go into industry I interviewed with a handful of companies that were starting up their own IA departments. Most of the them when I asked stated that they had always outsourced internal audit functions. That could be the case with the bank.

As others have stated, what is the growth potential with both companies? And also, I have learned to ask in more detail what exactly they do because as Jilly Beans mentioned some places you end up doing meaningless work that adds no value.

The pay increase within 3 months kinda makes me skeptical because if you have never been an auditor it takes at least 6 months to a year before you actually know what you are doing.

AUD - 73, 72 retake 7/2/2016
BEC - 8/20/2016
REG - TBD
FAR - TBD

I am so ready for this nightmare to be over. Been at this way too long.

[Author]

Replies