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leverage

Finally into the questions that were posted in August....

How successful are Big 4 auditors in leveraging outside offers for pay raises? What is the best way in going about doing this?

On average, there's a 10-20% bump from your big 4 salary, plus a signing bonus. People usually negotiate an extra 5%, so for example, if they offer you a 15% bump, you come back with 25%, and the Company agrees to do 20%, or 15% plus a higher signing bonus.
Be honest, use your headhunter to do the negotiated since they are pretty experienced in doing so.
Some wait until they hear about their pay raises in the summer time from the audit firms, and then use that salary amount to negotiate a 15-20% raise on top. Smart move.

Comments

Anonymous said…
can you PLEASE cover this question?

How long do you actually work during busy season? I've heard 60 on average but I worked that much doing a Product Control role this summer at a bank. Alot of ex-Big 4 auditors worked there and told me the work was NOTHING compared to audit.

Regardless whenever I hear about how many hrs busy seasons involve I hear it's like 55-65, which to me at least...doesn't sound bad.

Care to elaborate in detail please? What other than hrs are involved and do you also work weekends, etc???
Anonymous said…
During busy season, I was working 100 hr weeks, 7 days a week, from mid Jan - end of march. I work at a big 4 in NYC.

I think NYC is a different beast than other cities. I have friends that work at big4 firms in smaller cities that never work past 9 or 10 during busy season.

I worked until at least 2 am every night during busy season except on the weekends. Our seniors and managers were oh so kind to let us leave at 8 pm on a sat and sun night.
Anonymous said…
Thanks for your answer Anonymous. NotForDisplay -- do you mind making a blog post about this? I just wanted a second opinion. In particular - NYC.

Another topic I was hoping you can cover -- how often do Big 4 auditors compare themselves to people in other professions like investment bankers, management consultants, people in Fortune 500 companies, etc???

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