I think you gotta understand what mercury IS REALLY TRYING TO SAY dreamer (u really gotta stop your judgementalism sometimes to force your own pov onto others), if you take the profession of accountancy v.s engineering or other less-governed body of profession, that statement is not really fair at all. Engineers, overall, aren't governed by any body as RIGID as accountancy or finance ppl do if you get what I mean, literraly, an enginner can be paid really handsomely even he doesn't have many paper qualification like an accountant does, accountant and finance ppl, on the other hand, they rely really a lot on paper qualification stage by stage to climb the so-called echelon of coporate ladder, degree--->ACCA--->Charted so on and so forth.

You can ague that an accountant CAN quit his current rat race to other field like sales to continue his career path but that I can guarantee you that it is gonna be so much HARDER than an engineer or doctor trying to venture into other less conventional area. The amount of risk that he requires to do this is higher and he's got too much to sacrifice. Or maybe I could put it this way, some professional jobs are somehow DESTINED to be a corporate slaves unless they have the guts to quit what average people do.

I have no idea about the big 4 working environment
But, I can only say that the first part of what TS say is quite true.
Starting from the middle part of his rant is what I called symptoms from a spoon-fed graduate. Luckily my experience is vastly different.

To put it simply,
starting in the field is the hardest, in the first few months you need to put at least +12 hours per day for your work.
After that, it is smooth sailing as you understand the logics and workflow behind your job scope.

Remember, just because nobody want to teach you anymore doesn't mean you should stop learning and improving yourself.
Remember that the company DO NOT OWN you a living.
THEY RATHER you just kuai kuai do your job forever until they don't need you anymore
So its up to YOU to make yourself NEEDED and USEFUL to a lot of companies to give yourself more options and advantages in life. This is probably the hardest thing anyone ever do
And boredom can always be cured by climbing the corporate ladder and taking stress-relieving hobbies.

meebo,

<< Or maybe I could put it this way, some professional jobs are somehow DESTINED to be a corporate slaves unless they have the guts to quit what average people do.>>

You are making one big ASSUMPTION. You are ASSUMING that they had a choice...

<<stage by stage to climb the so-called echelon of coporate ladder, degree--->ACCA--->Charted so on and so forth.>>

You are assuming that a person can stay on this track and survive. And, a person had the CHOICE of staying on this track and not being a road kill...

How many accountants had fallen off this track??

As per my observation again across 20+ years, not many accountants stay as accountant and survive... How many people with accounting degree ended up to be chartered accountant??

My POV is formed by my many years of observation. It may not be totally valid.

Now, what is the basis for your POV??

My wife and most of my in-laws are accounting degree holders. None of them are working as accountant now....

Dreamer

What if we enter Big 4 for the scholarship for ICAEW remain in it till the bonding period is over and leave? will that change the whole senario? Newbie here.

I would like to make friends who work in big 4...

Facts and statistics matter to my POV. Here read my fact

Fact 1:

After university graduation, the NUMBER of engineers end up working in totally unrelated or least related engineering work scope is HIGHER than accountants working in accounting-unrelated jobs.

Fact 2:

MOST medical doctors, pharmacists and lawyers are always quicker to break themselves from the employees' path by forming their own business/firm partnership compared to MOST accountants.

Fact 3:

In the initial 5 years of working experience, traditional non-oil related engineers and accountants are the least paid profession ALWAYS. Statiscally and averagely speaking.

Conclusion:My collection of fact shows that accountant has the most resistance of all professions to stop whinning about their work.

You want to start work at 19 ?

meebo,

We are looking from a different POV. You are looking at first 5 years. I am looking at 10 to 20 years of career.

My point is still stand.

A) You could earn a lot of money by being ABOVE AVERAGE in a profession by AVERAGE people.

Or,

B) You could earn a lot of money by being AVERAGE in a profession by ABOVE AVERAGE people.

It could work out either way. Just because a person is in a profession by average people as per your example (accountant and engineer), a person could still earn a lot of money by being ABOVE AVERAGE.

The poster, Mercury, claimed that only (B) is possible. I counter by saying both (A) and (B) are possible.

It is VERY SIMPLE.

Average people are not rich. Rich people are not average. You have to choose one: Average or Rich.

Dreamer

Anyway just something a bit out of topic, in malaysia anything is possible if you have the right cvonnections. U practically don't have to work and money keeps falling from the sky (like some of our dato who have connection.) Remember the klang MP who is clearly below average but living like a king?

mercury8400,

He has ABOVE AVERAGE connection...

Dreamer