Skip to main content

Big 4 partners

What does it take to make the jump from senior manager to partner?



Good question. Let's break it down, in order-- 
1) People Skills - You have to have really good people skills, you cannot be awkward. You have to come across as genial and amicable, and exhibit the personality of someone that others want to do business with.
2) Perception that you can network and pull in clients - At the end of the day, the Firms were created to make money, and the partners need to keep adding more money in the pool. If the partners think you can go in, network at charity events, golf events, etc, and pull in new clients, you're in, it goes a loooong way. Develop a personality that will make people want to ask you to join them for a drink
3) Perception that you understand audit and that you are good at what you do - You do not have to be an audit superstar, but as long as you have a good reputation, and the client likes you, that's what matters.
4) Reflect your demographic - If you want to be a partner in a place like say Minnesota, odds are being white will help you. If you want to be a partner in Miami, being hispanic will help. Look like your clients and your potential clients out there, and that helps give them a sense of comfort. Hey, I'm not advocating this one bit, but don't blame the messenger, blame the message.
5) Concentrate on 1-2 industries where you can become really knowledgeable in the technical guidance related to that industry, and ideally where there's not a glut of partners already in that industry - Manufacturing and software are notorious for having a ton of partners, so it's tough in cities where there so many partners dedicated to this area
6) Take over certain jobs completely, to such an extent that all the partner needs to do is sign off. This takes a huge burden off his/her shoulder
7) Develop a strong relationship with the CFOs of your current clients, strong enough that they come to you for everything instead of the partner
8) Take a lead role in an IPO
9) Schmooze the partners, they're the ones who can promote you, so try your best to get them to like you
10) Dream..there's a 10% chance of becoming partner, so you better know you're good enough to be partner and be prepared to stick it out as senior manager until you make it (6-10 years as snr mgr).


Remember..it's not the quality of your audit, but your ability to bring in money...



Comments

Anonymous said…
I agree with your point about being able to bring in the work, but I don't think partners are anywhere near as impressive as your post made them out to be. I'm working at a big4 now and I don't think any of the partners that I've met have great people or networking skills. They usually get work by first getting small jobs to get into the organisation and understand client needs. However, there's not much golf/dinner/drinks involved, just a few meetings every few months. The emphasize on technical skills are also minimal, the technical skills of the partners I know range from non-existent to passable.

This is based on the consulting side of the business if it makes any difference.
notfordisplay said…
I see your point, in that partners slip through the cracks. There is a lot of favoritism involved, don't get me wrong. But at the same time, from what I've seen, there are a lot of lunches, golfing, networking events, etc that the senior managers and partners attend to schmooze. Guess it depends on the partners you've worked with.
RH said…
Great post yet again. Pretty intriguing.
Anonymous said…
I'm curious to know what sort of exit opportunities exist for employees in advisory. It seems less structured in comparison to audit. I was wondering where do senior consultants, managers and senior managers go after their stints in big4 advisory.
Anonymous said…
Could you make a post concerning interns? I'm interning this summer in one of the big 4 audit firms in a large city and I was wondering if you have any advice or any big do's and don'ts. Everyone has told me to work hard and attempt things on my own or try to find my own answers before I ask questions, but I'm also concerned because everyone has told me that they won't expect me to know anything and I won't really be applying anything I've learned in school. Could you just shed some light on that aspect and give me any inside information on how you expect interns to act?
Bose said…
Your article rates a blue ribbon in my opinion. This is great quality content.@bose
Chartered Accountant Career
Anonymous said…
First let me say I enjoy reading your insight on the Big 4 accounting profession. My questions was this: I am almost done with my Accounting master's degree (non-Accounting undergrad) and will begin studying to take the CPA exam. I'm currently in a senior accounting role at my current position, and was wondering is it worth attempting to jump over and start new at a Big 4 firm? Would I still be entering in as a first year?
kimteh said…
Liked your tax blog.Its really informative.Thanks for sharing.
Accountancy Firms Kingston | UK corporation tax
Anonymous said…
I don't know if anyone has suggested this to you before, but have you ever thought about writing a book? Not strictly a career manual in accounting--although that seems like it could be in high demand too--but maybe like a zeitgeist novel of sorts? You have a fantastic voice.
notfordisplay said…
To the previous poster, thanks, I did think about it, should probably try and take down atleast a couple sentences a day in order to do that. Maybe worth a shot down the road.
Anonymous said…
Are you having a laugh? This is how an audit firm runs.

Year 1-3: Clerk
Year 4: Supervisor
Year 5-7: Manager
Year 8: Partner

A time-based promotion system.
Worst business model of all time!

And this is a fact of life.
Anonymous said…
@ the guy asking about the interns...

My response is dont do it.

Auditing is the worst thing anyone could ever do. it is boring, you get no respect from your seniors.
You are treated like a child.

At the end of the day you dont feel like you have added any value to anyones life.... actually auditing probably anti value adding.

stay lear of the audit world if you want to remain a human being.
notfordisplay said…
To Anon w/ re: to the interns question, do search on interns in my blog and you'll find a few posts. Below is one of the links -

http://lifeofanauditor.blogspot.com/2010/01/interns.html
notfordisplay said…
To Anon w/ re: to the question on switching from private to public, look through my blog, here's one for example:

http://lifeofanauditor.blogspot.com/2010/10/age-in-big-4.html
Anonymous said…
I think the ones who are proven to be able to retain clients for long time and bring in new business are promoted to be partners. People skills is icing on the cake. Money is the main factor, because the firm is in the business to make money.

Popular posts from this blog

ADP/Payroll

Just realized that the very payroll/adp reports we all enjoyed looking at in order to see how much our client contacts made, now seem to piss me off. Especially when your main contact, who couldn't tell a debit from a credit, makes significantly more than you, and leaves at 5. It's almost guaranteed to get you in a foul mood and yak with your team about the ridiculous salaries that certain employees get when compared to yours.

should you choose to audit financial services?

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

auditing vs consulting

I was wondering if you could break down the career opportunities in auditing and consulting (in a big 4). I know that consulting pays more in a big 4 and has more interesting work, but it seems that auditing has extremely good exit opportunities (Financial controller, CFO etc). Any thoughts on which is better in the long run? Well there's different consulting services offered by public accounting companies - the most popular being IT consulting and risk consulting. There are also other consulting services offered, but these two hire the most. Do they pay more? Yes, but not by much. Not enough for you to say: Shoot, the $$ is a huge reason for me to move over. Is the work more interesting than audit? Yes. You're actually looking over a company's processes and telling them what to do instead of what not to do (audit). Everyone I know who's made the switch likes it waay better than audit. In the long run though, choosing audit vs consulting really depends on what you want