BDO / Mazars / Grant Thornton

count66

Hi,

I would love to hear from anybody working at manager level in the financial services auditing, internal auditing, 3rd party assurance or consultancy arms of any of the above firms.

I am thinking of moving from financial services into practice just to get a more rounded experience and was considering applying to the above firms rather then the big 4 - reason being is that from speaking to recruitment agents about this - they all seem to say that it is easy to transfer into a mid tier practice at manager level than it is to one of the big 4 firms.

Plus the big 4 firms like you to go through their structures, i.e. start at a lower level and work you way up through their ranks, which I cannot be bothered to do as from my dealings with a lot of big 4 staff, my knowledge seemed to be way ahead of them re: regulation, industry standards etc.

Anyways if anyone has worked in any of the above titled firms would you mind letting me know what they are like to work for or if the areas that I am interested in working in should be avoided?

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

count66

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

Tumbleweed blows across this thread

censuspro

I've never worked in any of the firms you mentioned but you may have to go in at audit senior level if you're coming from FS. If you're looking for more rounded experience you might be better off moving to a mid tier firm. Top 10 firms tend to be quite procedure orientated and you would work exclusively in audit. Mid tier and smaller firms you would get exposure to audit, tax, accounts prep and co sec. The downside of that is that it's hard to move from a small firm to a larger practice.

count66

censuspro wrote: »

I've never worked in any of the firms you mentioned but you may have to go in at audit senior level if you're coming from FS. If you're looking for more rounded experience you might be better off moving to a mid tier firm. Top 10 firms tend to be quite procedure orientated and you would work exclusively in audit. Mid tier and smaller firms you would get exposure to audit, tax, accounts prep and co sec. The downside of that is that it's hard to move from a small firm to a larger practice.

Thanks Censuspro for being the one person out of 482 people to view this thread to be decent enough to reply! Much appreciated!

Little Miss Cutie

Hi, I trained in one of these firms in the audit dept ( not FS). Tbh I think the FS dept is a really nice dept to work in- I spent a bit of time there.

PM if you want to discuss don't want to say too much here

Clanket

count66 wrote: »

Thanks Censuspro for being the one person out of 482 people to view this thread to be decent enough to reply! Much appreciated!

People look at threads all the time but have nothing to contribute becasue they don't know the answer. I wouldn't read into it too much.

censuspro wrote: »

The downside of that is that it's hard to move from a small firm to a larger practice.

Out of interest, why do you think this censuspro. Having worked in both, I reckon it's harder to go the other way. Larger practice to smaller practice.

censuspro

Clanket wrote: »

People look at threads all the time but have nothing to contribute becasue they don't know the answer. I wouldn't read into it too much.



Out of interest, why do you think this censuspro. Having worked in both, I reckon it's harder to go the other way. Larger practice to smaller practice.

What I meant was that it's harder to get a job in a big practice coming from a small firm, usually because they want candidates with similar background and who is used to very procedure orientated roles. Candidates from smaller firms tend to have better overall knowledge and understanding of accounts and audits.

graduate101

Hi there,
I do need advice choosing between GT and Mazars. would you go for tax in GT or Audit in Mazars... ANy advice is welcome

s15r330

graduate101 wrote: »

Hi there,
I do need advice choosing between GT and Mazars. would you go for tax in GT or Audit in Mazars... ANy advice is welcome

Holy thread resurrection Batman!!

Loughc

graduate101 wrote: »

Hi there,
I do need advice choosing between GT and Mazars. would you go for tax in GT or Audit in Mazars... Any advice is welcome

I can't speak for Mazars, but GT have an excellent grad program and are very staff friendly.

But I think the main thing you should be looking at is, what would you enjoy working in for the next few years Tax or Audit? Where would your preference lie.