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Question for the accounting thread from my girlfriend. She's getting a masters in Tax and was wondering if it's better to pursue a career in big firms or small firms.
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Feb 24, 2017 01:35
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plz dont pull out posted:Question for the accounting thread from my girlfriend. She's getting a masters in Tax and was wondering if it's better to pursue a career in big firms or small firms. Absolutely 100% start at least at a national firm. Do not start small. Regardless of how these smaller shops talk, their senior tax partner who worked at Deloitte 10 years ago probably is not up with current events. The institutional knowledge at small firms just isn't there.
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Feb 24, 2017 01:57
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As someone who is in Big 4, go Big 4, the hours suck during times of the year, but if nothing else at least your doing big taxes, which is a lot more fun when you can say your client is someone people have ever heard of.
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Feb 24, 2017 03:23
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Start with the big 4 work for 4 years get hired as an internal specialist for a large company for 25% more pay and 50% less stress.
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Feb 24, 2017 04:41
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Admiral101 posted:Absolutely 100% start at least at a national firm. Do not start small. Regardless of how these smaller shops talk, their senior tax partner who worked at Deloitte 10 years ago probably is not up with current events. The institutional knowledge at small firms just isn't there. This. Also, larger firms (at least in Canada) have specialty groups that do things like international, cross border, estate planning and work those types of specialties drive lots of very interesting, challenging and financially rewarding work. Knowing how to file a corporate tax return for a small/medium enterprise means you're competing with small/medium firms and can command a commensurate salary. Being a specialist means that you're competing with a much smaller pool of people capable of doing the work and you can command a commensurate compensation at the later stages of your career. Even if you want to stick with general corporate work, people from large firms have a much broader knowledge base as their clients do interesting things and they get exposed when the specialists come in. I'm working on an engagement involving inbound cross border , outbound international tax and estate planning right now. It's unlikely a smaller firm would even have someone in those roles or be able to compete for those engagements due to liability reasons.
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Feb 24, 2017 05:17
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Thanks. I sent all your responses her way. Part of the reason she's asking is she's interning at a regional firm in Chicago, and doesn't know whether to accept a job offer if they give her one or look for a bigger firm.
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Feb 24, 2017 05:28
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Big 4 or bust.
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Feb 24, 2017 08:00
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Kontradaz posted:Big 4 or bust. As someone not currently in the big four but in a "top 6" accounting firm I wouldn't say it's this bad but you should definetly get into the biggest firm you can get away with. I'd be in the big 4 myself if I didn't need to leave my last job at such short notice.
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Feb 24, 2017 13:04
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In the Big 4 and, frankly, if you're a no-life goon like me, you don't notice much of a difference. Sure, I'm working like 9 to 11pm right now and its only going to get worse, but, gently caress it, how is that different from my day-to-day? I'm still just behind my computer listening to youtube videos in the background while finking with stupid nerdy poo poo like math and crap. Not much different from my normal routine. And, when it's not tax season, you go in at 9, do nothing all day, and go home to collect a paycheck. Yeah, I know that changes after associate level, but still. Honestly, this job is a lot better than my old ones: don't got to lift nothing, don't got to deal with angry customers (yet), and I don't have a boss constantly hounding me because the productivity-deice they strapped to my wrist is saying I'm bellow quota for the day.
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Feb 24, 2017 18:08
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Kitchner posted:As someone not currently in the big four but in a "top 6" accounting firm I wouldn't say it's this bad but you should definetly get into the biggest firm you can get away with. I'd be in the big 4 myself if I didn't need to leave my last job at such short notice. Also gonna support this statement. Big 4 didn't/does not recruit at my University, so I landed at a "top 6" firm as well. If I had the option I would have almost certainly went B4.
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Feb 24, 2017 18:51
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Diplomat posted:Also gonna support this statement. Big 4 didn't/does not recruit at my University, so I landed at a "top 6" firm as well. If I had the option I would have almost certainly went B4. This is one of the weird things I find in the US, the Big 4 all recruit from specific universities and poo poo. In the UK they send people everywhere but everyone just applies on their website, people are mostly filtered out by electronic testing online.
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Feb 24, 2017 21:11
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All right, so Big 4 discussion brings out 20 people to the thread. What the gently caress do you folks do for CPE?
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Feb 24, 2017 22:14
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Big firms provide more CPE than you could possibly need every year. For my CLEs I joined ABA and NYSBA and they put trainings on throughout the year, I assume AICPA does something similar?
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Feb 25, 2017 03:04
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Also when I was in industry and had to actually try to maintain cpe, all the big firms and even most regional firms offer free cpe webcasts. You login and just have to answer polling questions throughout the session to show you're actually listening. You won't get much in terms of ethics cpe so you'll need to go to aicpa sites and the like and may need to pay for them.
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Feb 25, 2017 07:35
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jaymm posted:Also when I was in industry and had to actually try to maintain cpe, all the big firms and even most regional firms offer free cpe webcasts. You login and just have to answer polling questions throughout the session to show you're actually listening. You won't get much in terms of ethics cpe so you'll need to go to aicpa sites and the like and may need to pay for them. Another industry person here. Webcasts own bones because you can listen to them while you're working on something else. I specifically like Deloitte's free webinars because they toss in an extra polling question in case you miss one, give you a .pdf of the slides which often includes polling questions so you can time breaks from your desk, and you can print off your certificate immediately. I've been using CPA Academy too, but keep in mind that 4/5 of their free webcast are software sales pitches, so you have to look at what you're signing up for. There's a lot of interesting stuff from smaller accounting, consulting, and law firms though, and they did have a free 2 hour ethics webcast at the end of last year. Obviously the downside is no networking and probably a lack of connection to what you're currently doing (an update on the mineral extraction industry? Sure!) I'm a dirty CMA though so I'm pretty sure no one at the IMA cares about my CPE besides if it's done or not.
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Feb 25, 2017 13:44
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I recently became CIA qualified last year, and lucky for me you get two years worth or CPE credits for qualifying, meaning CPE is a future me problem, and hopefully I won't even be at my current firm by then (either move to big 4 or industry again).
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Feb 25, 2017 13:49
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LOL @ p-dubs
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Feb 27, 2017 19:37
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To the person who couldn't stop screwing up, just start saying "well it wasn't as bad as the Oscars"
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Feb 27, 2017 20:20
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Hurt Whitey Maybe posted:To the person who couldn't stop screwing up, just start saying "well it wasn't as bad as the Oscars" Funny enough, I've actually started getting good at my job, relatively speaking, and haven't hosed up in an significant manner since I made that post. Can't say the same for PWC and La La Land.
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Feb 27, 2017 20:22
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You must have stolen Brian Cullinan's mojo, congrats, one day you will be a partner.
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Feb 28, 2017 04:10
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Hurt Whitey Maybe posted:You must have stolen Brian Cullinan's mojo, congrats, one day you will be a partner. I'm not sure I'd wish that one anyone. Congrats, one day you too can be a sociopath with no life and high stress levels, don't worry though because you'll probably earn about £200K a year.
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Feb 28, 2017 08:07
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Kitchner posted:I'm not sure I'd wish that one anyone. Big 4 partners in the US make way way more than that.
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Feb 28, 2017 08:12
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Good Citizen posted:Big 4 partners in the US make way way more than that. I've actually never enquired how much partners are paid. I know the annual payout from Deloitte to its partners in the UK was on average £230K last year, but do they get a salary on top of that?
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Feb 28, 2017 08:18
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Happy busy season!
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Mar 6, 2017 14:48
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Audax posted:Happy busy season! Little late, mate. Busy season starts like mid-February. At least for me. I've known a guy working 12 hour days since January and it won't let up till April. Glad I'm not him.
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Mar 6, 2017 17:31
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Audax posted:Happy busy season! All year is busy season in internal audit.
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Mar 6, 2017 18:41
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gently caress me, after a good time without making any mistakes I've been blowing it big time this week. I can't say too many specifics because it will give away my company, but, basically, we needed to get some people to do work for us. We couldn't do it ourselves for specific reasons. I needed to send a form. I had done the form before somewhat, but before I had a senior review it and they had laid the initial ground work: it's a digital form thing. First time, the form I meant to delete got sent instead of the one I did right. Long story short on that: I did the form wrong in a manner that required closing and making a new one. I never saved it so I didn't realize it was on the system. Second time, we didn't hit a "keep working no matter how long it takes" option so they just quit after doing practically nothing. This is despite us telling them in e-mail and Skype messages that we absolutely needed this work done by that next morning. We sent it in right today...hopefully. This thing is due Monday, my boss can't work Saturday for religious reasons, and he knows this is my fault. We sent in the work again and got assurances from a manager there that they'll do it this time. I'll do initial reviews Saturday, he will go over my reviews on Sunday and hopefully we get it all out by EOD Monday. This was supposed to be done and reviewed literally by now. Like, by 4pm today. But, instead, this happened. As a double whammy, the guy heading this engagement is also the guy who does my review every quarter. He's a super chill awesome dude, but this must be testing his patience. This is also a two person engagement. God, I can't afford to lose my job. Covok fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Mar 10, 2017 |
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Mar 10, 2017 23:00
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Covok posted:God, I can't afford to lose my job. You wont. Enjoy your 3
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Mar 11, 2017 01:20
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Honestly, anyone reasonable would say sure you hosed up the form but you made a mistake and then sent all these emails or whatever that tells them what you need them to do. At no point did they say "Well we need you to send a form saying that otherwise we are going to quit". Again, as long as you don't constantly do this and you don't work for a total prick you should be ok. I applied for another job a while back and the recruiting team is forwarding my details to the hiring manager. It's group internal audit for a massive global company. I honestly am sort of tired of public form bullshit and its only been two years. That said, if I don't get the job I may start keeping am eye out to see if I can transfer to the Big 4. If you going to have a poo poo job you may as well get the "big 4 experience" box ticked on your CV.
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Mar 11, 2017 01:37
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Kitchner posted:Honestly, anyone reasonable would say sure you hosed up the form but you made a mistake and then sent all these emails or whatever that tells them what you need them to do. At no point did they say "Well we need you to send a form saying that otherwise we are going to quit". Yeah, you're probably right. I just have issue with anxiety and getting very little sleep and drinking a lot of coffee isn't helping.
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Mar 11, 2017 04:33
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These kind of gently caress ups are very normal and as long as you are working diligently to fix it, I would not hold it against you. This is literally the only way you learn anything. This time next year a first year associate will be loving things up for you, and you'll understand, because you've been there. Big 4 is designed to stress you out, take a breath, you absolutely will not be fired over this. Make sure you are staying in touch with your coach/counselor whatever they call it in your firm and they will let you know if you are off track.
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Mar 11, 2017 18:19
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As a first-year staffer, if you're not loving anything up, they're not giving you challenging enough work (or you're not even recognizing that you're loving up, which is worse). In my view, the most important aspect of making a mistake is what you learn from it. Given the day of tax review work I just finished, here's a pro tip I'll share with you first year whippersnappers: the most important thing you can do in preparing a 2016 income tax return is to look at the 2015 income tax return first. If your firm didn't prepare the 2015 return, make sure you get it from the client and keypunch the 2015 return data into your software's 2 year comparison (or whatever your firm uses). When you think you're done preparing the return, review the 2 year comparison first and see if there's anything that changed significantly or looks like it might be missing or weird. Note it and send it up the review chain; your reviewer will appreciate it.
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Mar 12, 2017 01:53
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Edited: Need to stop whinning.
Covok fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Mar 14, 2017 21:44
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Put me on the list of idiots who drank too much at an office party and made an rear end of himself. loving St. Patrick's day.
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Mar 19, 2017 03:08
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You need to get your poo poo together dude. Accounting life is not supposed to be this hard.
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Mar 19, 2017 04:40
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chupacabraTERROR posted:You need to get your poo poo together dude. You're not wrong.
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Mar 19, 2017 05:07
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I think you spend way too much time deconstructing your mistakes and making effort posts ITT, rather than trying to fix your poo poo going forward. You should spend more time on double, triple checking everything you do. Your only focus should be attention to detail. Seriously, log off the forums for a while and see if it makes a difference. If I posted as many words per day as you do, I would gently caress up all the time at work too.
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Mar 19, 2017 05:36
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chupacabraTERROR posted:I think you spend way too much time deconstructing your mistakes and making effort posts ITT, rather than trying to fix your poo poo going forward. You should spend more time on double, triple checking everything you do. Your only focus should be attention to detail. Seriously, log off the forums for a while and see if it makes a difference. If I posted as many words per day as you do, I would gently caress up all the time at work too. That's a very good advice. I think I'll take it. I originally tried to avoid broswing the net when I started, but the dead oct-nov-dec made me comfortable doing it. Became a habit. Maybe I should just go back to doing that before and see what happens.
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Mar 19, 2017 05:42
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chupacabraTERROR posted:I think you spend way too much time deconstructing your mistakes and making effort posts ITT, rather than trying to fix your poo poo going forward. You should spend more time on double, triple checking everything you do. Your only focus should be attention to detail. Seriously, log off the forums for a while and see if it makes a difference. If I posted as many words per day as you do, I would gently caress up all the time at work too. Excuse me, some of us are capable of posting and working just fine  That being said, I think there are two things going on. The first is as these guys have said, there's too much deconstructing mistakes and not enough making sure they don't happen again. The second is a little lack of awareness here. If you genuinely think you've been loving up at work, why would you go to the work party and get super drunk? Getting super drunk and ending up at a strip club with the senior manager and 3 grads is what I did at my Christmas party, but I also didn't spend the last couple of weeks thinking I had majorly hosed up my work.
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Mar 19, 2017 13:16
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Kitchner posted:The second is a little lack of awareness here. If you genuinely think you've been loving up at work, why would you go to the work party and get super drunk? It wasn't intentional. I usually blow off drinking with my fellow associates because I'm afraid of drinking too much and making an rear end of myself, but I felt bad for blowing them off so much that I decided to go this one time. I only intended to have two drinks and leave, but someone convinced me to have some shots with them and I apparently couldn't handle it like they could so I ended up stupid drunk and needing to have a cab take me home. Really, if you think about it, this just confirms I've been right all those times for not going out with them.
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Mar 20, 2017 00:25
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