A big bright advantage of being in public accounting is the sense of job security. It takes a lot to get fired, and firms are just hiring aggressively these days. Some of the people I've seen who've been hired...are just people I wouldn't even have considered hiring if given the decision. There is a lot of bitterness within the firms, but everyone knows that they can be a little vocal about it since their jobs are safe and secure...atleast for now. Unless Congress decides to pass legislation repealing some of Sarbanes Oxley's rules or something drastic is taken to lax the strict accounting standards, firms will continue to hire and compete aggressively for "talented" bean checkers. See the Associated Press's latest news story about the the bullish hiring of the accounting firms here.
Blogged about my life in the Big 4 and now about life in Private Accounting