“Wait! I Was Just Getting Started…” A Guest Blog Post For Roger CPA Review
By Francine • Sep 15th, 2009 • Category: Latest, Pure ContentI’ve written a guest blog post for my sponsor, Roger CPA Review.
“…Losing your Big Firm job before you’ve gained 3-5 years of experience puts you in a “limbo” of sorts. You’re no longer a new graduate and, yet, you’re not qualified for an “outside” job, at least according to the traditional criteria. Many ask me, “Will I ever have a chance to go back to Big 4? Do I have a black mark on my permanent record?” I won’t assume that everyone is meant to return to the Big Firm or even wants or needs to. You can move forward, develop your career, gain experience, and maybe even find yourself outside of the Big Firm.
Here are some options to consider…
Please go to the post, “Wait! I Was Just Getting Started…” for more.
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Francine McKenna (@retheauditors) has more than twenty years of experience in consulting and professional services including tenure at two Big 4 firms, both in the US and abroad. For more info, check the "About" page.
This is a very well-written and thoughtful post which I’m surprised has not generated more responses. For those individuals who major in accounting and who strive to build a good career, the recent rash of layoffs and cutbacks at the Big4 hit these newer graduates particularly hard, as they try to understand 1) what they have done wrong, and 2) how to re-gain traction in their careers. It’s unfortunate that senior partners at the big 4 have not considered the longer-term implications of reputation damage and the difficulty in rebuilding trust in the very people who expected to be in this profession for a very long time.
It’s one thing for mid-career financial people to be cut off unexpectedly and without adequate explanation, but they have some ability to get some useful experience, make network connections, and attempt to re-position themselves, but why through lack of action let this happen to those whose only exerience and perspective is from their current (only) employer?. Same kind of very short-term thinking that other industries have paid the price for later.
@1…
Having just gone through recruiting on the firm’s side, I can say that any negativity to which you refer has not affected the number of accounting students herding in to leave a resume, interview, etc., etc. Nor has it hurt the quality of said students. Regardless of the threats of layoffs or damaged reputation it does not change the fact that the Big 4 offers a great name on the resume and good experience for an individual fresh out of school. Keep it real!
Well, of course not. What are accounting students going to apply to besides accounting firms? Investment banks and consulting firms?
#3, your post is kind of like a writer penning a biography of Obama’s presidency right now. The long term effects of this economy (which despite mixed media messages lately of recovery, which are pollyannaish at best), and I think this country is heading towards prolonged stagnation, will not be fully felt even a decade from now. Young people’s attitudes toward career choices may take even longer to manifest. However, if it’s not the recent layoffs that will slowly start turning students away from pure business majors such as accounting (and hopefully back into productive fields such as math and engineering), it will be the streamlining of the industry. Outsourcing and automation will undoubtedly play big roles in continuing to reduce the need for human capital in the field (at least in the States).
“Well, of course not. What are accounting students going to apply to besides accounting firms? Investment banks and consulting firms?”
Hmm…well let’s see.
There are industry opportunities with, say, Fortune 500s.
There are opportunities in the non-profit space
There are also accounting job opportunities with governmental agencies (i.e. CIA, FBI)
And yes, there are even opportunities in consulting firms for accounting grads if they choose that path (i.e. Accenture)
While a Big 4 does offer great grounding for an accounting grad starting his/her career, it’s obviously not the only career track in the accounting field. Whoever thinks that has probably been misled by some closed-minded accounting professor or perhaps some kool-aid drunk recruiter who promotes nothing but ‘golden gospel’ about the big 4 in the name of “Keeping it Real”.
Roll down your window folks, the accounting field as a whole is much bigger than the big 4.
Industry, nonprofit and government jobs are for those who don’t land a gig at Big Four. Open any Wall St Journal for a top position and it’s going to require Big Four experience. You may fool yourself into think it’s a better opportunity but you won’t fool those down the road that require it in a job description. Business Week had each of the Big Four as the absolute best places to launch a career. Granted it might not be the ideal place to stay your entire life – but turning down an opportunity to work at a Big Four is suicide.
I sure wish I had turned down that opportunity for a government gig. I would be in a much better position right now.
@6 – Yeah it could be possible that those who end up in the paths I listed couldn’t make it through the hoops of fire to land a Big 4 gig, but it also could be possible they chose those paths on their own. I had a friend who graduated at the top of undergrad class and held a summer internship with PwC – very sharp, very articulate, also very likeable – she declined the opportunity to come back for a second internship with the firm between her senior and graduate year. She instead chose to do an internship with a second tier firm because she valued work-life balance and the opportunity to connect with everyone inside a smaller firm.
And who’s to say the friend I mentioned, or anyone else for that matter, won’t be very successful in a ‘top position’ 10-15 years from now. Yes, there are some big boy/big girl roles that desire and prefer someone with Big 4 experience but not everyone necessarily requires it. And not everyone who’s now in a top management position or big decision-making role started out with a Big 4 or even in public accounting. Some stayed in industry all the way, some may have taken a more entrepreneurial route (Bill Gates, Micheal Dell, Zuckenburg??). Heck, some top roles don’t even require accounting experience (although it could be a plus). I’m just saying there are many directions, routes, detours, roundabouts, and lattices people take in their lives…with the hope that they ultimately find a role that’s fulfilling for them professionally as well as personally.
Anyone who keep s pushing the Big 4 as the only way for “best and brightest” to fulfill their destiny ignores reality in three ways:
1) Not everyone at any time had the choice of big 4, for many different reasons, not always having to do with whether or not they could “cut it”
2) Now even those who can make the cut for grades and other “qualitative” factors may not be able to stay for long, through no fault of their own
3) The Big 4 are taking fewer and fewer “qualified” candidates starting all the way back to the internship process. Even if you make it all the way through to the end and graduate with an offer, in many cases now that”s no guarantee that you will start or get to stay longer than a yaer or two.
Other options must be considered. Whether you like it or not.
Francine
FM’s point # 3 is big with our Fall interviews. I’ve heard from partners out on the recruiting trips that there are many more people now competing for fewer positions. Many have great resumes, impressive interviewing skills, etc., but you still have a lot of people you would hire in a normal year, who won’t make the cut. How do you decide? Some of the deciding factors are much more arbitrary than you’d think.
And even if they weren’t, the “Big Four or suicide” mindset is short-sighted.
I don’t care what anyone says, the Big 4 pedigree on your resume will always be a plus for anyone looking for a job. I’m not saying that Big 4 veterans are any better or smarter than those who chose different paths, I’m just saying that having that name brand on your resume will open up doors that would have otherwise been closed….period. It’s not fair, but that’s just the way things work and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
Although I worked at a Big Four firm, my most meaningful experiences came from a smaller regional firm that I worked in prior to joining the Big 4. What I learned in the smaller firm gets the day to day job done and it is a prestigious, pretty heavy duty job. Don’t knock the smaller tier firms, they are a great path to take and produce many capable business people.
I will admit that my Big 4 label probably got me in the door for the interview but it was my small firm experience and know-how that ultimately got me the job and made me a success!
Agreed. The actual work experience at a smaller firm can make you a more well rounded and better professional. However, I’ve been through enough hiring cycles to know that when some HR hiring manager is sifting through dozens of resumes the first thing they do is separate the Big 4 resumes from the others and usually the others get tossed out without a second glance. I don’t condone that practice but I’ve seen it happen many times, which is why I saw it’s better to have the Big 4 pedigree.