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favoritism in the big 4


I think it would be interesting if you did a post concerning favoritism in an accounting firm and how to get past it.
As a staff at my mid-size public accounting firm, it's particularly annoying when another staff gets work the day he gets back into the office (lets say Wednesday), while I've been unassigned since Monday. Thoughts?


Not going to lie, I exhibit favoritism when I can. It's a part of human nature, and it's tough to get past it, be it a conscious or unconscious decision on your part. That's one reason we have schedulers, whose job is to fairly allocate work amongst the staff and senior associates, without bias. I'm assuming this is something they're trained to ignore.
Now if you get on a scheduler's bad side, you're screwed, because they can vengefully put you on a job 200 miles away without regret. Oh, it's happened before. And I don't blame them, people do not treat them with enough respect sometimes since they make scheduling errors, so the only way they can get back at you is by scheduling you wherever they please. Treat them well, always be nice to them, a few thank yous here and there go a long way, trust me on this. It takes a year or so to learn how to play the game, but it's a good skill to master.
Now, senior associates and above sometimes have the power to pick and choose who they want to pick up. A lot of people, myself included, prod the grapevines to find out who's good and who's not, based on the past jobs they worked on. Almost everyone talks, and a lot of information is shared, giving staff associates reputations.

Now, how do you get past it? Well, start off by doing real well on the jobs are picked up on. The higher ups then spread the word and you will soon see other people pick you up. Another thing you can do is personally reach out to the scheduler, explaining that you're keen to get on jobs. This way, you plant the seed in their mind, and they will make an effort to schedule you on something. This works relatively often, and has worked for me back in the day. Don't just sit back and wait for them to assign you.



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