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leaving audit

This is to respond to the following blog question - "on average how many years do most auditors stay at big 4 before moving on and what position are they before they leave?"



On average, I'd say 3 years. The way I've seen it unfold.first year.. 5% of the newbies leave..the second year, around 15-20% of the sophomores leave...the third year, 20-30%. By the time you hit manager, 70-80% of your batch will probably be gone. It's good for the firms in a way, because they can't promote everyone to the managerial level. And so the audit factory churns.

Ideally, I'd say..if you want to be in the accounting field but don't like the hours...stick around until mgr and then leave, if you don't want to be in the accounting field, leave asap...if you don't mind what you're doing and don't know what you want to do yet, keep at this job until you figure it out. Heck, maybe one will make partner by then.

Honestly though, the best accountants I see at my clients are the ones with public accounting experience. Not sure why, because what we do isn't exactly rocket science, but hey, we'll take all the good kudos we can get.

Keep at it people, we're halfway through busy season
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Comments

kokostiletto said…
I am so thankful for your blog! I feel like I am the only one out there is blogland working crappy hours! I will one to leave asap! what about you? are you a manager right now?
February 16, 2008 at 6:28 PM
notfordisplay said…
haha, thank you, no I'm in senior land.
February 16, 2008 at 6:38 PM
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