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Big 4 Audit

  • 26-01-2020 5:19pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 21


    Hello,

    What is the difference between the big 4 Audit graduate training programs in Dublin?

    Thanks.


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 452 ✭✭fishy_fishy


    Relatively minor differences:

    - how much overtime gets counted
    - how much study leave you have to self fund
    - whether salary is based off performance rating
    - salary differences for qualified vs non qualified 4th year
    - assistance given by learning department

    Can't think of anything else. They'll all work you and work you, they'll all fully expect you to pass your exams, they'll all give you plenty of study leave, they all have big clients.


  • Registered Users Posts: 21 kbacc


    As the differences are minor the next step would be considering post qualification options if I were to stay with the firm. Do you know of any way to find out salaries of each 2 years post qualification and other revelant things such as what percentage of newly qualified accountants are still employed by the company 12 months post qualification? Thanks.


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 9,921 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    kbacc wrote: »
    As the differences are minor the next step would be considering post qualification options if I were to stay with the firm. Do you know of any way to find out salaries of each 2 years post qualification and other revelant things such as what percentage of newly qualified accountants are still employed by the company 12 months post qualification? Thanks.

    This is not in the slightest bit relevant to the decision on joining a training firm. If you qualify within your training contact and it is an if, you will have more or less the same opportunities regardless of which firm you join.

    Go to the recruiting parties, do the interviews and assuming you get an offer go with the firm you fancy, you really can't go too far wrong. When I joined we were a group of 60 broken into six teams of ten, of the people in my team all of us were gone within a month of qualifying and not one of us ended up in practice.


  • Registered Users Posts: 452 ✭✭fishy_fishy


    kbacc wrote: »
    As the differences are minor the next step would be considering post qualification options if I were to stay with the firm. Do you know of any way to find out salaries of each 2 years post qualification and other revelant things such as what percentage of newly qualified accountants are still employed by the company 12 months post qualification? Thanks.

    During the milkrounds I also thought this was important... but the reality is it's pretty much unheard of not to be able to stay if you want to stay. The reality is that most people can't wait to get out as quickly as possible.

    No one firm will give any advantage over another when it comes to next steps.

    As per the advice above - go to the recruitment events, do the interviews. If you get more than one offer, go with the place you liked most. Genuinely wouldn't see anything in it between big 4 (or GT/BDO fwiw)


  • Registered Users Posts: 21 kbacc


    Thanks for taking the time.

    Any particular reason that everyone was eager to jump ship asap?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 452 ✭✭fishy_fishy


    Honestly, the reasons usually come down to:

    - industry pays significantly better (10-20k difference newly qualified)
    - no quality of life in practice. Even the summers are hectic for a lot of people and there's a bit of a tendency to under-staff jobs
    - the work is incredibly dull the majority of the time

    Plenty of good reasons to stay, but they're the ones that people cite when leaving. I don't want to be too negative - during the first 3 years you'll learn a lot and it's a great experience. Almost like an extension of college. But, by the time you're finished, most people have had enough and want a bit of a work life balance.


  • Registered Users Posts: 21 kbacc


    Thanks. I appreciate the time and insight.


  • Registered Users Posts: 21 kbacc


    Regarding the work life balance what would be the hours expected in practice or is it similar to industry but there is added travel versus going to the same office each day in industry?


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 9,921 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    kbacc wrote: »
    Thanks for taking the time.

    Any particular reason that everyone was eager to jump ship asap?

    Because audit is about as interesting as watching paint dry....

    While that was definitely the case for me, in truth most people have developed interests outside audit after three to five years and head of to pursue them. The accounting qualification is only a starting point not an end point, what you do with it is up to you.


  • Registered Users Posts: 651 ✭✭✭Nika Bolokov


    Jim2007 wrote: »
    Because audit is about as interesting as watching paint dry....

    While that was definitely the case for me, in truth most people have developed interests outside audit after three to five years and head of to pursue them. The accounting qualification is only a starting point not an end point, what you do with it is up to you.

    Would second this. Audit is incredibly dull. I don't know if it still the case but in my day Managers were often more fixated on how pretty your workpapers looked rather than the content in them.

    All Big 4 contracts are more or less the same , for now anyway. I wonder is the day approaching given it's all electronic that audit work especially funds audit will begin to be outsourced.


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  • Registered Users Posts: 21 kbacc


    What would be the types of jobs that people would generally go on to do after 3-5 years in audit in a big 4? Thanks.


  • Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 9,921 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    kbacc wrote: »
    What would be the types of jobs that people would generally go on to do after 3-5 years in audit in a big 4? Thanks.

    The more common would be:
    - Join another practice
    - Join the accounting area in some MNC or other company
    - Concentrate some other area - tax, corporate finance etc..

    Other options might be:
    - Start a practice
    - Start a business (3 from my group did this)
    - Public service (dept. of finance, revenue etc.)
    - House wife (works from home part time for about 30 clients)

    The odd balls, myself included:
    - Sheep farming in the west of Ireland
    - Manages a sheep station in the Australian outback
    - Professional musician
    - Prisoner in a foreign jail for fraud
    - Freelance software engineer & technical writer (me)


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