[Anonymous]

Hi, I am seeking opinion on what you think about a situation. Currently, I am at one of the Big 4 firms and have been with it for the past 2 busy seasons (almost 2 years). I am starting to think about leaving the firm, but am hesitant because I think that I need to learn more before I do that. The reason that I am thinking about moving from public to private is because I want some more work-life balance (I have year-ends all year round) and less travel (my group travels a lot). But the flaw that I see in myself is that I don’t audit publicly traded clients. I currently just audit privately held clients. Should I stick with auditing (because I don’t hate the auditing work, just dislike the travel part mostly)? I think that I can transfer to another group which does less traveling and that group does audits for publicly traded clients. Or should I just leave and seek out another company?

I understand that there is no right answer. But I was just wondering if you can give me your opinions on what you would do and what you think would be best for career-wise move.

[misanthrope87]

It depends how much you hate public accounting. If you don't hate it too much, which seems to be your case, you should request to get transferred.

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[Anonymous]

Have you looked around to see if you have the qualifications for what private it looking for? Id you don't, then I would consider moving to a group that at the very least does not travel as much.

Is it pretty easy to go from audit to private industry? I don't do audits so I don't know what it's like..

[whatkey]

No one can answer this question besides you. Where do you want to end up in life? Is your current job helping you get there?

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[jelly]

Research the types of public clients that the other group audits; they could be small caps, which tend to have less complexity, a little less infrastructure, and a little less travel. They'd still be good models to work from, especially for SEC work. Public clients tend to be spread out, b/c processing functions, inventory warehouses and administrative office space is usually cheaper in remote areas (or in other countries).

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[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the replies! It seems that I will try to transfer groups within the Firm instead.

To cpham4: Yes, I have been looking outside and been getting some responses from some of them. But they're not what I am looking for. I think that's because my gut feeling is telling me that it's too early to leave. I like auditing and I think that is why I am still at the Firm. I think the hesitation from me to move into industry is a sign. 🙂

To whatkey: You're right, it all comes down to me. I like the learning aspect at my Firm. I've been looking around and talking to people and I still feel unready to move yet. I really thought that I was ready a couple of weeks ago, but after looking around, I don't think that I am ready yet.

To jelly: That's a good idea to research what the other groups' clients are. I think that moving groups would be good learning experience because I'll be able to do some SEC work and see what it is like.

Out of curiosity, do you think employers care if a person audits private clients versus public clients?

[jelly]

Depends if the employer is public or private, and where you want to go.

The public client management mentality tends to be a little more short-term in terms of planning, b/c there's shareholder pressure to show growth every quarter, while infrastructure tends to be a little bit more reliable. Public clients are usually heavy on compliance and procedure, and good sources to learn from b/c you'll see how a company tries to organize itself to meet all types of oversight demands (even though they can break down spectacularly, as the press likes to portray). It's almost like learning from what a relatively good or ideal model is, or can be.

The larger and more complicated the public company, i.e. lots of subsidiaries, the more interesting it can be to trace and follow the flow of services/products, supply chain, communications, overlapping computer systems, oversight, compliance, management layers, etc. Also, the more complicated and messy a company is, the trickier and more challenging it is to figure out where the leaks and other potential problems are (which is also something that internal auditors dig into at great depth).

Private clients tend to have more breathing space in terms of long-term growth and expansion b/c there's little to no pressure from public shareholders to show quarterly growth, however infrastructure can sometimes be less than ideal b/c there is less government compliance and oversight to answer to. By learning from a “public model,” you can see where a private client will sometimes cut corners or have holes in compliance to save money and operate more efficiently.

Couldn't pass again!

[I just love this]

Go to a larger office, usually much less travel than smaller markets.

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