She goes to a small no name LAC that we could afford and that recruited her to play lacrosse. She is the ultimate in ‘growing where she was planted’ and managed to take all the right steps to distinguish herself and land a great internship which is likely to result in a starting position upon graduation. She competed with the likes of Penn State in the Cyber Security field and got herself into the door! I am proud and happy for her.
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Whooo hooo! Love this! Congrats to your D!
Congratulations to your daughter and your family…how wonderful!!!
Bravo! Let’s hear it for the kiddos who make the most of their opportunities… and yes, they exist in small “no name” schools!
Terrific news!! Big congrats to your girl : )
Cyber Security should be a great field. Deloitte ?
Congratulations to your D! I wish her the best in her internship!
Congrats! Hope she enjoys the internship and that it leads to a full time job offer. The Big 4 firms are great places to start a career.
Nope - KPMG
Congratulations! Great company, great field!
full time starting position with a Big 4 = long hours, but great experience and well worth it in the long run!
Big 4 are great!!! Not many other places where kids right out of college are able to get exposed to the details of so many companies and quickly interact with upper management within the companies!
Congratulations. I, too love it when kids make the most of their opportunities! Bravo for your D!
The Big 4’s are great for gaining valuable experience working with large, complex multi-national companies in tax, audit, advisory and consulting. They also are big on continuous training, both on the job and in formal classroom settings. The health and other benefits are great and one of things I liked the most working at one was that if I didn’t know the answer to say a tax question, I could immediately pick up the phone and call one of my many colleagues throughout the U.S. who would know the answer immediately. The wealth of knowledge within the firm is unsurpassed.
Some downsides are the long hours (a few all-nighters) especially during busy season(s), the constant push to be “fully utilized” (i.e. charging hours to client billable codes), and the firm can be very political and a huge bureaucracy at times.
Re: interacting with upper management. Yes and no. New associates will be reporting to senior associates and they are not really interacting with upper management (i.e. C-Suite execs) but likely will interact with their client’s tax directors or finance/accounting personnel. Your tax or audit partner will be interacting most with the CFO, CEO, CAO, or VP Tax at these Fortune 1000 companies and your senior managers/directors will be managing the client account on a daily basis. But if you do a good job, you can move up quickly within the firm, 2 years to Sr. Associate, 5 years to Manager, 7 or 8 years to Sr. Mgr/Director and maybe partner in 8 to 10 years. Most partners don’t make it on the first try however and its not just on your specialization or expertise, but you likely will have to sell (i.e. have a sizable book of business and revenue that is significant) to justify making partner. Some luck is important too, if your office has partners near retirement, this may create an opening for your promotion. Otherwise you may have to wait longer or be a partner in a less desirable location out of state, possibly.
Overall, getting Big 4 experience is wonderful and something that will be very helpful in your career, no matter where you go or what you do.
Agree that interaction with upper management of client Fortune 500 companies is unlikely for Associates, Senior Associates & Managers. Possible for Senior Managers, but much more common for Directors and, of course, Partners.
Because of “required” client contact and development of business, some prefer to remain at the Senior Management level. These type of Big Four employees are experts and work horses. Also required to train & develop talent.
A huge advantage of working for Big Four accounting firms is the exit opportunities. Best to stay for at least 5 years if one wants to move over to a major client (Fortune 50).
If in a highly sought after specialty area, one can leave after 13 to 18 months without being promoted and receive a very substantial increase in base salary pay. But the timing has to be right.
You all are posting about Front Office positions. The Cybersecurity is a back office job unless it is with Advisory. KPMG IT gives many internships to the children of their employees so to get in as an “unhooked” candidate is also impressive. If it is Advisory then it is even better. In any case CyberSecurity is hot and being a female in CyberSecurity is very hot. She will have to start collecting various certifications.
@Tanbiko it is Advisory
Now days, due to conflict of interest with clients, the rules for exiting a Big 4 firm to work for that Big 4’s client is more stringent than the old days. This is especially true if your daughter is on the engagement team of that Big 4’s client.
@UCBUSCalum: Interesting comment as some at Big 4 firms still maintain that they like employees to go to client companies because it further cements the relationship between the company & the Big 4.
And many exiting Big 4 employees are told that they will be welcome to return.