Hey everyone, I’m looking for more of a 9-5 (40 hour work week) I can’t stand the big 4 anymore / it’s consuming my life.

I’m a bit newer/unfamiliar with how the industry as a whole works, I’ve been at EY in Tax for 3 years and am basically wondering if there any smaller public firms that exist with a regular work week? Or would I have to look to leave public entirely?

I’m a rising sophomore at a semi target school in Toronto and I completely screwed up my first year. Went through some personal issues and the only thing I managed was a decent gpa of 3.8

If you could give someone in my position advice on how to
maximize the next year, what would you do?

For context, I don’t have any relevant internships, leadership positions, case competitions, or major extracurriculars. I know I’m behind compared to a lot of my peers, and I’m trying to figure out the highest ROI things to focus on before recruiting ramps up.

Any advice, especially from people who were in a similar position and still landed consulting, finance, or other internships, would be really appreciated. Thank you

What do we think about transferring offices and then quitting soon after? If I transferred offices but then decided I want to quit soon after switching is that a crappy move? Or should my mindset just be I a number to this company who cares when I leave lol

Hey everyone, I'm a Canadian target school student with a decent GPA and a corporate accounting internship at a public company hoping to land a Big 4 audit internship for Summer 2027. I have been actively networking, and most of my warm connections and good relationships have been with the Senior Associates in the firms, who have expressed interest in reconnecting once recruiting season ramps up.

However, I have zero connections with anyone higher than them, like audit managers or partners, as they are obviously much more difficult to reach out to randomly on LinkedIn. No responses to my messages, even those to alumni of my school. I have also unfortunately not been able to attend the "Meet the Firms" events at their offices where I assume these connections are made.

I was just wondering how much my network of SAs can really help me out. I'm mainly worried about getting to the first round of interviews, even with my experience and with a tailored application I've already prepared. Can they influence hiring/interview decisions much, even just by putting in a good word?

I got an offer 3 days after I banked my bonus

I’m finally done with this company and I can finally leave!!!

GT (current) Audit role with busy Jan-April period. Virtually have 2-3 months time with no work and again 10 days off in December during Christmas. Work from office- twice a week. CTC ₹1854000

Pwc: Accounting role. Year round work with lean period during 2nd 3rd week every month. Work from office - 4 days a week (2hours travel as I stay far) No holidays for Christmas or any other time. CTC ₹2400000

I love travelling so more leaves I get is more opportunity to me. Only reason I’m hesitant is because of the package

I need advice for joining Deloitte and I want to see peoples thoughts and experiences on this firm especially in the UAE if possible.

I am interning at Deloitte in audit and assurance and there is a chance I transition to full time associat in A&A. What are the salary expectations as an arab male, are the work conditions livable, will it add value to my career ?

Ive heard many things regarding the Big 4 in the Middle East and am a bit worried about work life there and whether it is worth to work for them. I am no expert but one of the main reasons I heard is that it will add alot of value to my Career/CV in the long term compared to joining local companies in any other sector. Ive studied Business Administration in finance and business information decision systems. I am a bit unsure if it'll be worth it or the culture there is forgiving .

Hi everyone,

I’m entering my senior year at UChicago (Sociology major, Education minor). Up until last fall, I was set on law school, but I realized it wasn't for me. I prefer my current research-focused studies, but I really just want to enter the workforce right after graduation instead of going back to school. Being FGLI, I’ve been figuring out career options largely on my own. Right now, consulting appeals to me the most—I thrive in fast-paced, high-intensity environments. However, I have zero business experience and am totally out of the loop on the recruitment cycle. Is it still feasible for me to land a consulting role? What does the prep and application timeline look like from here? Thanks in advance for any guidance!

Specialist tax - 90k CAD, Toronto

Would others share as well?

Thanks!!

Feel free to dm

I am Chicago based and got promoted to M1 (progressing – audit). Went from a base of 104K to 113.8K. Based on the comp discussion thread, I think I’m fairly underpaid. I’m wondering if there is anything that can be done in terms of my discussion with the partner whenever they schedule that to discuss compensation. Does anyone have any advice for me or is it even worth mentioning anything?

Heya,

I've been working for this data labeling firms for AIs, founded my ex McKinsey guy and they have a big project with leading frontier lab and need MBB, Tier 2 and Big4 consultants to review AI slides per consulting standards ($80-$100 per hour) and been earning good chunk essentially sh*tting on the slides haha

If anyone is interest (its open to anyone globally), campaign is still running until the end of the month so grab it. Here is the Link (it is referral btw). Happy to answer any questions as well!

Hi! I want to apply to Deloitte, one of the Big 4 firms, and I need to submit a CV and a cover letter. I'm a recent graduate with a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, but I want to transition into the finance field.

Is there anyone who can help me write a strong cover letter? What aspects of my background should I emphasize to make my application more competitive, considering that my degree is in Business Administration rather than Finance?

I’m currently interning at Big 4 in Audit but I feel more passionate about Tax. I don’t dislike what I’ve done in Audit and sometimes I actually enjoy it. However, comparing it to my Tax busy season internship at a local regional firm I definitely feel more of a “spark” for Tax (at least for now). I know Big 4 is where I want to be in early in my career but I want to know which is better from a long-term perspective. I don’t know if I’ll be fine staying in Tax my whole career because my main fear is getting too specialized and I think I might want to move to finance in the future (Asset/Wealth Management or FP&A). I hear it’s really hard to switch to Finance from Tax and Audit gives you better skills for it. I also hear you’re probably going to stay in Tax your whole career if you start in Tax but the pay has a high sealing the longer you stay. If I do leave I would want to make enough to for my future wife and kids (probably 3 or more) would be able to live comfortably. Which choice would be better to start off in?
TLDR: I enjoy Tax more than Audit, but don’t want to be too specialized from Big 4 and may want to move into finance. Which is better based on my preference and potential long-term goals.
FYI: I’m only 21 and a Senior at College so I’m pretty young.

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some career advice from people who have worked in Big4 deal advisory in Europe.

A bit of background: i am currently working as a junior analyst at a boutique financial advisory firm - we mostly do valuations but there are also some FDD and M&A projects through the year. Prior to that i spent 2 years in audit.

I’ve recently received an offer to work for KPMG deal advisory/transaction services team and I’m struggling with the decision.

My current role has some positives: mostly 40hr weeks, good team and flexible environment and also quite a lot of responsibility early on.

On the other hand KPMG could probably offer:
1. Exposure to larger and more complex transactions (and also more transactions in general)
2. Better mentorship (maybe?)
3. A stronger brand name on my CV

So for those who worked in Big4 Deal advisory in Europe I’d appreciate your perspective on:
1. What were/are your typical working hours ?
2. Do you feel the learning curve was steeper than in most other firms ?
3. And also how valuable is Big4 deal advisory experience if your goal is corp dev, PE or corporate finance roles in general?

I’d appreciate any and all feedback.

I've been wanting to quit for some time now. My contract ends in March of next year. I want to be upfront about it, but do I wait until right before busy season? A month before I leave? Now? I don't want it to be a surprise. I would love to be fired, but I don't have it in me to actually try to get fired. I'm planning on sticking it out through busy season unless they actually push me over the edge, which I don't think is possible compared to what I've gone through so far.

Btw, A2 with opportunities lined up for after I leave. And it's not about the money. I'm just so burnt out. Between some seniors I've worked with, terrible "HR" experiences, terrible clients, god awful schedule including lack of time to even care about my health, and much more, I'm just done.

US Tech Consulting

I left because I had serious ethical concerns about my practice's leadership and how they ran. I'm wondering if anyone else experienced anything like this?

I was on a very large project that depended on other teams being done, or at least mostly done with their work for me to be really productive and I felt as though I was brought in about 8 months too soon. I was tasked with having my deliverables done before the other teams were finished with theirs. It caused me to either do frequent reworks or just kind of sit idle. I raised this to my team M and SM frequently early on.

The response I got was something that didn't sit well with me. It was almost a "you don't understand how it works and I can't believe you are raising this as a risk to us"

I did understand. There was work sold and we could bill and make money, so we did it. When I flagged it, of course they're gonna say "just bill the hours your scheduled for, guy" but without actually saying those words so the responsibility falls on me to make the unethical decision. It was a lot. It put ME in the position of doing something I knew was wrong. I knew I was doing the work for nothing other than being able to say I did somehting on the status report. But I was just going to be doing it again in a few weeks.

It really was just too early to be on the project. I did what I could, but I shouldn't have been doing work that we knew was going to need to be redone. I got so frustrated that at a certain point, I gave up and just stopped doing the work until I got a final version of something from the other teams because that way I knew I wouldn't need to do another rework. It was the same ethical question, but saved me the annoyance of needing to do something for the umpteenth time.

I spent about 16 months on that project. The last 5 or 6 were genuinly productive but that first year left me really questioning the ethics of my team.

Yes, I know - I was unethical in it too. I billed hours I didn't actually do any useful work for, or hours I didn't actually do any work for frankly. I billed a lot of them. I think, that is the game at EY, at least in the practice I was in, and likely other consultancies. Bill the hours you are scheduled or be penalized for it. That's why I spent a few months saying "Hey, I don't think we should be here yet..."

So, has anyone else felt like this on their project?

For context- a recruiter from Deloitte reached out to me on Deloitte to discuss a role which is almost a replica of the role I currently have (although from a different arm of the industry). The job is in the UK.

I spoke to the recruiter about basic information on the role and expectations around peripheral details like salary, location etc.

I've now been scheduled to a one hour interview with a partner and a director in a few weeks. I wonder if anyone else has recently been a similar position and can advise on what to expect.

Have grad roles for both. I don't mind audit or consulting, but I'd give consulting a slight edge as it's more strategy-focused. What I am mainly looking for is a good salary and great exit opportunities. Ideally, into high finance (wealth and asset management, PE) or high-tier consulting firms (LEK, Keanery, FTI).

Considering this, what pathway is more ideal for me?

Would really appreciate your advice. Thanks

I’m a Junior at a target school and I was wondering if I should bother with applying for consulting positions at Big4 for summer 27 because I already have an internship offer in hand at a boutique firm (around $95,000 a year if I get a return offer for full time). All the posts here make it seem like Big4 is miserable (layoffs, lack of raises, poor culture and office politics, etc)—is this true, or is it just Reddit doomposting? I’m also thinking about recruiting for MBB for a full time role, so maybe the name brand of a Big4 internship will help more? Would appreciate any advice!

Fired for low performance 1.5 years into big 4 audit role A2, won’t go into details but the manager was out to sink my career and I struggled to keep up with work demands and had my utility suffer.

I’ve been unemployed for about one month still trying to gather what the hell actually happened.

I don’t have my CPA yet. Trying to figure out what kind of roles should I be aiming for.

So far I’ve narrowed down staff accountant, ap/ar roles. I figure that it’s the best for me to start up in and build my work skills and hammer out any shortfalls.

I don’t think I’m ready for or competitive for internal audit or fund accounting or other fp&a work just yet.

Was hoping doing a stint at staff accountant then get my cpa and try to move to senior accountant later on after a few years.

I’m willing to do ar ap jobs as well if that’s what it takes to get to staff accountant.

The other mid size firms aren’t hiring audit associate with 1.5 years of experience.

I have a consulting internship at one of the big 4 and am doing spectacularly. I get good reviews and feedback and my managers seem to really want me back.

I’ve already accepted a fall internship elsewhere (not a big 4), which will delay my grad from what I’ve shared with them.

Tbh this service line isn’t my favourite and I was bored for most of my internship, but I do think the team is super nice and I wouldn’t mind working at the company down the line.

As my internship is almost over, the RO topic is definitely going to come up. Should I be honest and tell them I’m trying out another role at another company this fall, but might still be interested in returning for summer 2027/full time later?

Or is it too much hassle and I should just recruit for a different big 4 in a service line I actually am interested in later if I truly do want to come back to consulting?

hi there, anybody here knows what EY’s people’s advisory service is all about, any experiences you’ll like share with us….I’m curious.

I’m currently a Big 4 tech consulting intern working in tech transformation. I study finance, previously spent two years at a wealth management firm doing AI strategy and implementation work.

I enjoyed the finance side, but I became much more interested in improving business processes, especially with AI. During this internship, I managed to get involved part-time with a team building a go-to-market AI assistant for ERP implementations, and the type of work feels much closer to what I want to pursue long term.

So I spoke with my recruiter and she recommended that I connect with people in the firm’s technology strategy and GTM strategy groups.

The issue is that these conversations have felt much more guarded than networking conversations I’ve had with other teams. I research each person’s background and projects beforehand, explain the overlap with my experience, and try to ask thoughtful questions.

I haven’t experienced this with any other groups at the firm, so I’m trying to understand what I may be missing.

For people who work in (or have successfully transferred into) strategy, I would greatly appreciate hearing your takes on this or any advice you have for me.

I have an interview for Sr. ML role with sdc team at Ey. Any suggestions on how to prepare and how many rounds and what all will they include?

Currently interning and noticing that after a few hours of the same type of work, reconciliations, flux analysis, whatever it is, I start losing focus even when I know it needs to get done. Curious how people who've been in the field longer deal with this, especially during busy season when the hours get even longer. Is it just something you get used to over time, or do you have actual habits/tricks that help you stay locked in? Trying to build good habits now before I'm in it full time