I will say ICAEW for the ultimate choice (they have these statistics in europe that ICAEW holder likelihood to become CEO & CFO is 5 times higher than all the qualifications & degrees combined, not sure how accurate though).

My recommendation is ACCA-ICAEW route.
Reason being is the "exemption" part.
Degree is not really recognised in the eyes of ICAEW compared to degree so you will only have only 3 or 4 papers exemption. ACCA has more than 13 to 14 paper exemption.
Period is roughly the same : 4 years but the latter route you may end up with 2 professional title.
If you only take ICAEW and not pass all then you are stuck with degree & part ICAEW. If follow acca-icaew route then you may have acca if cannot finish aca.

The most important is go ICAEW website now & check their exemption structure.

CFA applies only if you want to stick with banking, if not then its usefulness in commercial sector is quite limited. Commercial companies (or MNC) will require jack of all trades rather than bank which requires speciallist. Thats why acca serves as the most solid platform for you to launch your career. Notice my word, its platform to launch not the ultimate goal. If you can get promoted or recognised very quickly then you don't need any paper to proof your credentials. But banking is the only line that can rob your life but they will seriously rewarding in terms of $$$.

Its only when your talent is not recognised then you will need all sorts of paper to back your claim. Sometimes less is more, just read the Abe Lincoln Gettysberg address speech, short & crispy.

Almost everyone in the end will one way or another takes up ICAEW (for those ambitious ones). So its ICAEW will need to draft an exemption system for students to refer to. ACCA will have the highest and easiest no of exemptions since both are quite related. You can go to their website and check (Ie : putting your degree and university's name or professional qualification possessed).

Big 4 will sposor you albeit reluctantly unless you expressed a very clear desire to stay until partner level. Its bcos you will spend roughly 4 months out of 1 year for study (including study leave & exams). So firms will not really enjoy that, but the offer to bond for ICAEW attracts certain graduates at the first place.

To launch you career, starting off in large MNC or Ltd firms will be quite risky being :
1) They will consolidate all their financial & accounting operations under a single entity like (Shell : Shell Shared Services Centre).
2) They will separate their divisions by classifications of a/cs like revenue, cost, interco, GL, treasury,....
3) So if you are selected into revenue, then you will stuck at revenue for the rest of your life (or it may not)
4) If your boss is there for good, then your promotion or increment will be lesser compared to others.

Being working in Big4 but I am not being bonded (I already possessed one) the bonding thing is actually a very subjective issue :
- if you fail in exam, then your promotion will stuck at junior level until you passed those exams.
- if you are extremely unhappy you cannot just simply choose to leave since you need to repay them (normally 4 years)
- they rarely give full bonds, since ICAEW is quite expensive they normally have a ceiling range and you will bond the rest.
- however if you performed well they may scrapped partially of that bond.

Well if you can get a job in UK that is quite good since I known some UK grads colleagues that UK have some domestic bias especially towards asians and they do have their own financial difficulties and unemployment problems. Not to mention the visa application issue....

Salary should be around RM2450 which is standard in MYS for Big4. RM2600 if you are an acca affiliate.

I don't think its a P&C thing, I am with EY MYS.
Audit is also not my first choice since I am not really looking forward to the the "job" itself. But its a great stepping stone and a great shortcut to jump to other career. Most of other professions requires the juniors to perform tedious works for their first 2 or 3 years. After joining audit you can join those company without experiencing those few years (but you have to suffer your own audit work as well).

If you are unsure about where to go or what to be then my suggestion is to stick with Big4 first for exposure. You may be exposed to audit work which involves analytical skills which is applicable in a lot of industries. Next you may be also exposed to accounting and many other sides of the company itself depending on your audit scope & engagement (and allocation by seniors or managers).

I am not promoting for Big4 but its quite essential for new grads to get these kind of experience while they are still young. I have received far better offers in terms of prestige and pay but those are only for short term. By the way advisory or consultancy position is not really recommended to join as fresh grads being you won't learn much compared to joining as experienced hires. You need to experience the operations itself before advising people. But if you see your future in it why not apply, interview session is really illuminating for me.

Starting pay : BDO is the highest I think, RM2800 to Rm3000 (but their increment is very little compared to others)
Training : PwC is very famous for their high tech and complete system.
Workload wise : Everywhere is the same.
Culture : EY has been noted to have friendly working environment (but got a few bad eggs as well)

PwC dealing with large conglomerates so you will have chances to audit them (and join them in later years), however being the client is too large : auditor are mostly stick within the same division or part of operations. Hence the general view of its "specialization".

EY is quite contrast with PwC, EY deals with more companies than any other Big4 (have big,medium and small). So as an auditor you may have a lot of different exposure. For small and medium (you may in charge of the whole company or most of it). For large company you will be in charge of one or two subsidiary.

KPMG is like a mixture of both Ey & PWC. Generally they will handle all sorts of clients in their respective depts. Their structure is very much like PwC as well.

Deloitte is rarely discussed so I hardly knew much about them. But they have the best tax dept.

Thats a really good insight and I really appreciate that. Really large MNC's are hard to come by not to mention very few openings. And jumping straight to those companies without any idea or exposure can be quite daunting.

In accounting firms, promotion is automatic every year until managerial level which is slower but promotion is still there until partner level. I am not too sure about how the system goes in the past but generally it is right now.
There will be a point in 3 to 4 years time that the staff will leave, so the dilemma is why they should stay at the firm.
I heard pay increment in Big4 for am or mgr is quite high (if reach that stage quite early). I think earning around RM6 to 7k p.m around age 25 or 26 will be very attractive for some. Since its always understaffed at Big4 I think its safe to say those that leave is more than those who stayed to be promoted.

For MNC, I think job hopping will be less compared to others. So its quite unfeasible to have so many managers or directors just bcos they are due for it. In accounting firms, they have no restriction on numbers of managers or partners (depending on number of clients). If they fufilled the minimum standards for KPI then they will get promotion or they stuck on their professional papers.

Do you join the MNC that is being audited by your firm ?