centrum said:
yeah, i am leaning more towards accounting and not IB, and am interested in gaining the skills to start my own business sometime down the track (20years?)....climbing the corporate ladder seems ok when you're younger, but maybe not so great as you get older....
If you want to start your own business and learn skills relevant to that, then I think you'd actually be better off in a mid-tier or smaller firm which deals with small business clients and generally have a more 'overall picture' view of clients. With Big4, you'll be working in highly specialised areas with strict delegation- ie. tax people do the tax work, audit people do audit, advisory people do advisory, etc...; and I don't think you'll ever truly get "all" the skills you'd need if you wanted to start your own business. This isn't to say you won't learn anything, but I'm inclined to think that when you're working with big clients (as Big4 firms would) then you probably would only be focussed on a very small part of the whole accounting operation.
... however, if you are truly interested in accounting rather than IB, then doesn't that answer the question of Big4 vs MacBank (assuming those two are the options)?.
centrum said:
but from what i gather, getting into macbank has a 'wow' factor (is this right?)...if i decide i don't like it there etc, would i be snapped up by the big 4 later? does anyone do that?
and since you get paid more there, does that influence your pay at later jobs?
Well Mac Bank does have a bit of 'wow factor' involved because they are stereotyped as the IB which pays well, has very stringent recruitment procedures, and is a prestigious place to work at, but in the scheme of IB (on a global basis), Mac Bank isn't really that big a thing (to anyone who's remotely connected to the Finance industry) as one would expect based on the promotion and attention that Mac Bank receives.
As for being 'snapped up by the big 4'- you can't assume anything. Just because you worked in MB doesn't mean you're the most employable person unless you've actually learnt something along the way. Likewise for Big4- once you've worked there for a while, and depending on age, then your employment prospects change. A lot of the Big4 cadets move off after completing uni and prior to commencement of CA into other fields- namely consultancy (eg. Boston) and IB. Also when working in Big4, if you are working in the FS division, you probably have already met a lot of people who may be able to help you gain a job in IB later on- it all depends on who your clients were.
In regards to pay... remember all contracts are negotiated on an individual basis once you pass university graduate level and salaries are reviewed every 6-12mths (depending on company/firm) so you can't say that working in one place and then moving to another will guarantee you a higher pay- however, I'd imagine in most cases, when moving to another company/firm, one's salary would increase (in order to 'attract' you to sign) but then if you're already working in one of the highest paying companies/firms, then unless you're getting a promotion to start at a higher position, you can't really expect a pay increase?... But seriously though, at your level, wages/salaries between the firms isn't going to be so much that you will be much worse off and it's better that you pick the field (and company/firm) that you feel you want to work for; rather than just which one will pay more now or in the future.
turtleface said:
Getting in as a call centre customer service role may not have the same 'wow' factor as a wholesale/investment banking role.
I don't know many people who go for big 4 and try and get into investment banking...why would you want do that? just go study for a mba and get in through the associate stream
Call center people get paid more per hour than me
And like I said earlier, quite a few people I know of (obviously names/firms will remain private) have moved on from Big4 into IB quite easily- definitely helped by the fact that work experience in Big4 can show many things such as ability to interface, working under pressure in corporate environment, as well as evidence of personality traits, credibility/ethics, dedication, etc...
But back to the topic at hand, you can't say that someone in Big4 will definitely be more employable when it comes to changing jobs later on, in particular to IB, but it's definitely something which will be taken into consideration by the recruitment and work experience in a Big4 firm (with references) will (obviously) command much more say than someone who had not done work experience at all. Although some companies do specifically look for Big4 work experience- just yesterday in the paper I saw an advertisment calling for "Big4 movers" as the heading, and asking for people who had worked in Big4 and 5 years+ experience to apply.
