This is a good point. Sometimes you need to move to another public accounting firm to switch business lines. At E&Y during the crisis, transfers were difficult. It also is difficult to move out of audit if you become a key member of your audit team and your partner does not want to lose you.
At my ex-firm it was virtually impossible to transfer (unless you wanted to transfer to an even more awful area) because the flow of people who wanted out of audit was so high and nobody wants to transfer in.
QFT
Sometimes you have to work towards a goal, but sometimes you have to go with the flow and see what the opportunities take you…
the most important thing is to do your very best at whatever you are currently doing! do it with passion or not do it at all!
Hopefully you will stay enthusiastic with your position at a big4 firm - LOADS of people would kill to be in the same place as you!
I agree with this statement for people right out of school. Once a person makes senior, maybe not so much.
Once you are a senior you have paid your dues so you can do whatever you feel, but as a fresh grad you should be grateful for the opportunity.
I think we are saying the same thing, but yes, I agree.
I think Senior associate is the worst job in a big 4 firm. Sh*t rolls down from managers and anything you can’t pass on to associates is your job. On my teams, seniors always worked the most hours. I once heard a partner say the job of a senior is to move the project along on schedule at any cost.
If you think you can do what you want at that level without being a top performer, you probably don’t know a lot of the realities of how these firms operate. In my experience, you start to get some sway once you’re close to manager. Maybe a bit sooner if you suck up to the right partners/HR people.
Big 4 firms are a good place to start your career for a year or two, but if you don’t genuinely want to do accounting, GTFO within a couple years once you have your CPA.
What i meant is that, once you have become a senior, you have more job opportunities elsewhere (outside the firm) to do whatever you want.
I mean, same can be said when you become AM or manager, you are still responsibile for other people’s work, so in a way, you are getting paid more for more work - that’s the reality!
Although a lot of people still prefer to leave big 4 after they make manager only bacause then you can search for managerial jobs out there, and have proven your leadership skills.
Maybe FRM? or an internal auditor certification?? I don’t know too much about compliance, but i don’t think CFA will help you much in this.
CFA is VERY portfolio management focused, honestly if you are not going to be an equity analyst, a portfolio manager, a fund manager, a financial analyst for any kind of (private) equity asset managment firm… you are not getting much out of the program.
don’t do it just to “look smart”, and if you are spreading yourself clean you may miss out on opportunities to network and learn other things.
I’d agree with this… I’m fortunate enough to live in an employee’s market, so I filled out 1 application and got an amazing job from my year of big 4 experience. That said, my year in Big 4 was dealing with toxic HR people and awful engagements. A bad day at my new job is better than my best day at my big 4 job (except for the day I quit, that will be one of the best days of my working life for a while). I still remember the day I quit and it brings a smile to my face!
what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!
looking back you are still glad you have that awful experience, isn’t it?
i just find working in general, is such a long journey, you never really know what is a good job and what is a bad job until years down the road.
All things considered, my vote is for a NO for you. NO you should not do the CFA program.
Work on being the best goddamn accountant you can be and becoming a partner in 12 years.
My work experience and professional certificates & studies are similar to what you’re contemplating, so before I give you my 2 cents here’s a little background.
I was an external auditor for 6.5 years; 3.5 years in non-Big Four, and 3 years in Big Four. I obtained a CPA 2 years into my career, and finished CFA Level 2 while still in audit. After leaving audit 2 years ago, I just completed CFA level 3 in 2013 on my 2nd attempt.
In my opinion you should begin with the CPA for the following reasons:
(1) It will help you in your current audit career by helping increase your chance of being promoted and by being more relevant to your job
(2) It can be finished much quicker than a CFA, so you will have a well recognized designation on your CV and even if you decide to pursue CFA you will have something to fall back on.
(3) CFA might take you much longer to complete than you initially plan, not only because of the more demanding exams but sometimes circumstances might prevent you from studying enough or might prevent you from sitting for the exam in a particular year (reading through this forum you will find people who have taken more than 10 years in some cases to complete the CFA, although I think this isn’t that common). I think on average it takes most people 4-5 years to complete the CFA, and only 20% of those who begin the CFA process end up completing it. So given these risks you should consider the benefit of having a CPA to fall back on while your pursue the CFA.
(4) Studying some financial accounting concepts for the CPA acted as a refresher for me and actually made the FSA portion of CFA level 1 and 2 much much much easier than it was for those with very little background in accounting. And bear in mind FSA is very important in levels 1 and 2, and the concepts learned in CPA (and in your audit career) will help you tremondously here.
Finally, it is my opinion that external audit is the best all around core experience in the big four. Should you wish to switch to corporate finance afterwards do so after getting solid experience in external audit (at least 4 years) and you will find that you can make a relatively painless transition to your corporate finance department and quickly be able to perform well in due diligence assignments. I would think that valuations wouldn’t be too difficult to understand and perform either. The main thing to understand is that as an external auditor you have all the necessary tools to be successful in corporate finance advisory, but you will have to adjust your thinking from a ‘regulatory’ perspective to a more ‘business’ oriented perspective.
Thus, after getting the CPA and getting enough experience in external audit, work on the CFA and try to switch to the corporate finance department in your firm or in another firm to get some finance experience. But don’t neglect the solid (and in my opinion invaluable) accounting & audit experience you will receive in external audit and via your CPA studies; it will be your edge over pure finance folk. Even if you obtain 1 or 2 levels of CFA while you’re in external audit, it’s not entirely useless if a good chunk of your audit clients are in the financial services industry. The main point is, try to ensure that the certificates you study are consistent with the work you’re doing (synergy effect!) and I believe this is the case if you do CPA first, then move on to CFA (again, assuming with the latter that you have a decent chunk of financial services clients)!
As for me, my firm was being a bit stubborn about letting me switch to corporate finance after passing CFA level 2 and after having attained the level of audit supervisor so I found a risk analyst position in a social security fund; better work hours and better pay.
Good luck.
I would go CPA first if I could turn back time. Then I would have the CFA to aspire to and also a higher chance of completing a program. Getting the CFA then going CPA just seems pointless in my opinion. By the way, I have seen a team of CFA / CPA combos. Those guys from wolfe research. Awoooooooooooooooooooh.