I wish to pursue a career in audit or transaction advisory services. Wanted to know if you can give an insight into both departments with regards to the career prospects, work life balance and monetary factors.
Transaction advisory services can be a pretty broad term, depending on the Firm. Assuming you mean m&a commercial due diligence work and valuation related work.
M&A commercial diligence- To get into m&a diligence, you'd need to put in 3-4 years in audit, because they usually like people with audit experiences and CPA certifications. People who usually do a stint in commercial due diligence go onto some rather interesting jobs - joining the acquisitions group of different companies, private equity analysts, other specialized valuation companies (duff & phelps, etc). W/ regards to work life balance, it is really unpredictable. You can be in your office doing nothing for weeks but still have to stay in the office in case a deal is in the works and your Firm has been hired. Then when you are on the deal, it can initially be 8:30-5 days crunching numbers, and then when the deal is in full swing (talking to the target, writing reports, deeper analyses), you can end up working as late as 2-3 am for 2 weeks straight, yes, I said 2-3 AM. And the schedule is really unpredictable. You never know when you have to travel, at times just knowing about it a day before or day of. Monetarily, it's 15-20% higher than audit. Another big problem is the lack of job security. If there's a slow down in m&a deals, the Firms will be looking to cut people in that group. Back in '08-'09, when there was zero m&a activity, the m&a group was absolutely massacred, a visceral bloodbath. If you like unpredictability, traveling, meeting the heads of top targets, and working under pressure, you'll like the rush this group offers you.
Valuation - This is more predictable, there's more job security, the pay is good, work-life is not bad. It's tough to get into though, you'd need finance/economics masters degrees/CFAs from top 40 schools to get in usually. Audit clients usually require valuation of different tangible and intangible assets every year - investments, goodwill, companies, real estate, recent financings (stocks and debt, etc), so the group gets some steady business every year. This is in addition to some new deals that the group gets to work on. Given the expertise you gain/ have looking at financial models, your pay is a solid 15-20% above your respective peers in the audit practice.
Transaction advisory services can be a pretty broad term, depending on the Firm. Assuming you mean m&a commercial due diligence work and valuation related work.
M&A commercial diligence- To get into m&a diligence, you'd need to put in 3-4 years in audit, because they usually like people with audit experiences and CPA certifications. People who usually do a stint in commercial due diligence go onto some rather interesting jobs - joining the acquisitions group of different companies, private equity analysts, other specialized valuation companies (duff & phelps, etc). W/ regards to work life balance, it is really unpredictable. You can be in your office doing nothing for weeks but still have to stay in the office in case a deal is in the works and your Firm has been hired. Then when you are on the deal, it can initially be 8:30-5 days crunching numbers, and then when the deal is in full swing (talking to the target, writing reports, deeper analyses), you can end up working as late as 2-3 am for 2 weeks straight, yes, I said 2-3 AM. And the schedule is really unpredictable. You never know when you have to travel, at times just knowing about it a day before or day of. Monetarily, it's 15-20% higher than audit. Another big problem is the lack of job security. If there's a slow down in m&a deals, the Firms will be looking to cut people in that group. Back in '08-'09, when there was zero m&a activity, the m&a group was absolutely massacred, a visceral bloodbath. If you like unpredictability, traveling, meeting the heads of top targets, and working under pressure, you'll like the rush this group offers you.
Valuation - This is more predictable, there's more job security, the pay is good, work-life is not bad. It's tough to get into though, you'd need finance/economics masters degrees/CFAs from top 40 schools to get in usually. Audit clients usually require valuation of different tangible and intangible assets every year - investments, goodwill, companies, real estate, recent financings (stocks and debt, etc), so the group gets some steady business every year. This is in addition to some new deals that the group gets to work on. Given the expertise you gain/ have looking at financial models, your pay is a solid 15-20% above your respective peers in the audit practice.
Comments
There is a ton of traveling as well. Depending on what industry you focus on, you can be traveling at least every month.
Overall, the work itself was good, and it's a lot more interesting than audit, but the unpredictability and hours put in just don't justify the payscale. Unless you plan on going to private equity after, it just isn't worth doing.
you need to say goodbye to your personal life though.
this job is for loners