Guess my last post was around thanksgiving. Busy season lived up to its name. Plus to be honest, I ran out of things to blog about. Not sure whether this means I've addressed pretty much everything, or whether I'm drinking the corporate kool-aid even more. I think it's a bit of both. Not going to lie, the job does get better the higher up you go. Maybe it's a deep comfort zone I've got into, or maybe it's the stockholm syndrome I blogged about earlier. Looking at that blog from 2008, I said - "I've been railing against people drinking the kool-aid ever since I began working at my firm. Now, I'm dangerously close to getting into a comfort zone. This is one step before drinking the kool-aid myself. I still have a long ways to go before I do that. " Almost three years later, and I guess I've reached that point. I think I've realized that I could fight and complain all I want, but it's not going to change certain aspects of the industry. I should try and embrace the perks as much as I can, and deal with the negatives the best I can. And everytime I cave in and feel stressed out or frustrated, I always try and remind myself that this is just a job, and I'll do the best I can, but that's all I can do.
I'm trying to decide whether to audit financial services companies or non-financial services companies. What would you say are the pros and cons of either industries? Do individuals who choose non-FS have less career mobility within the firm or if they decide not to stay with the B4 after a few years? Really depends on what you'd like to do after (unless you really love auditing). If you want to a controller,etc. at a p/e firm or a hedge fund down the road, you'd want to go into financial services. The pay won't be too bad, especially if you get a share of the insane bonuses they dole out. If you want to audit industries with tangible products and want to get a better understanding of the operations of such businesses, then other industries are the way to go.In terms of mobility outside the firm, auditing other industries is the way to go since you have plenty of options when you exit the audit world. For example, in 2008, after Lehman collapsed, it was incredibly hard ...
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I had 3 close colleagues leave my firm over the past 3 months. Two of them (they are making about 20K more now) would love to come back, but their too proud to do so. The third one loves their job, but realizes that even though she is making 15K more, there is pretty much no upward mobility.
As i have been told before, the grass is always greener on the other side.
My question is...you've now been at the firm for 4 years, are you happy with the pay (what is the range after 4 years) and do you see yourself staying for a chance at partner or leaving the field of accounting entirely? And lastly, what is the percentage of people who leave to successfully start their own small firm?
Thanks for all the info!