The Big4 there main services are audit, tax and advisory. For the first 2 service, they are the market leader in most of the world and hold over 90% of the market shares combined. For the last service, it’s an additional service provided to clients and it’s the smallest service but growing rapidly. Audit and tax are already stagnating and considered cash cow for them. Big4 are large middle players in most advisory fields but will lose out to specialised management consulting or technology firms.

Back to MYS, one of the Big4 had many scandals in the past (and current) that makes them fall of the ranking altogether. That’s why you see BDO move up the ranks. One of the key partner from BDO is also an ex-Big4 partner that bring a lot of clients and staffs to cross over.

Ranking who is better have limited traction for staffs as most companies don’t care which firm you come from as long as its Big4(or 5). It matters to the audit partners as local banks prefer companies to appoint Big4 auditors for loan application. That doesn’t stop some big companies from using other than Big4 though (Hint: It starts with Y).

I rarely find people want to stick to CF for long, hence most treat is as a gateway job to MNC’s M&A dept. To join those, you really need to impress the bosses there you can do deals. For you to do that, you need to be a Qualified Senior Personnel (QSP) working under a Principal Adviser (Ie: Investment Banks). To be a QSP, you need 7 years CF experience + substantial role in advising IPOs, significant acquisitions or regularisation plans.

Working in a Big4 or boutique firm CF will not net you the QSP title. Only IB provides that.

If you want to join a MNC after Big4 or boutique firm, it’s harder as not every MNC/PLC need such a role. Most of the time they will hire bankers anyway so they prefer someone at higher level.

That’s my 2 cents …

CFs in Big4 only have the CF advisory license from SC. They do not have the license in dealing with securities or as principal adviser.

In IPO, shares placement (equities dept) makes the most money which then followed by advisory (CF dept). Next is followed by the legal fees for drafting the prospectus (legal firm). Lastly will be the due diligence team/ reporting accountant (Big4).

In M&A, most of the time, foreign IB bankers (from HK and SG) will be hired for their experience and skills. Then followed by local IB for dealings with SC & Bursa. Then followed by legal firm for drafting all the proposals and contracts. Last again is the due diligence (Big4).

For boutique firm, you will stand a higher chance if you find the right one. At least look for those that has QSP in their team or have advised a recent IPO in Main, ACE or at least LEAP.

I think you can look for the CF dept in Big4 also as you will exposed from a – z in origination albeit at much lesser size. Some make it big, I have few friends who managed to convert their Big4 advisory experience to the government linked investment funds.

You get same pay in SG albeit in SGD. Roles and responsibilities are largely the same but your portfolio has higher value to your firm (again the SGD value). However, that means your budget cost is higher so SG staffs are more likely to travel to other countries. Role advancement within the firm is largely the same in MYS but preference will be given to SGD citizens / expats. In MYS, this is hardly a concern. Outside Big4, you can apply to other SG firms but as a non-citizen, GLCs are off-limits and again preference will be given to SG people first.

Other than that, its good money (currency factor), higher purchasing power but off-set with high accommodation cost. And you need to like taking MRTs around.

My understanding is that you will get an increment of RM1k every year if you meet KPI and get promoted. The quantum will be lesser every year. Say your base is RM3.5k and increment of 1k is 28%. Next year your base is RM4.5k and 1k will be 22%. Say you are a manager and your base is RM8.5k, your 1k increment is 11%. That is still very attractive compared to most companies.

The base salary for Big4 is quite high compared to industry but the ceiling is quite low for senior management and above. A Director in Big4 I understand is around RM20k? In a large PLC or MNC, it will be around RM30k to RM40k easily.
Hence, most auditors will aim to jump ship when they are SM/ Director and above. The problem for jumping at that position is that the skills you learn in Big4 is very limited and less useful outside. Audit skills are a good general skill but its just 1 of the many. To be a SM/VP/ Director of MNC, you are either leading a team or dept, you need to know more than those managers reporting to you. Some Big4 can transfer successfully while majority does not especially if you want to venture beyond financial reporting or internal audit line.

In audit pre-manager, you learn audit or due diligence skills. That is not very useful for most companies as you are not learning to prepare anything or involved in project managements. When you become a manager to Director in Big4, you learn people management, budgeting, review and portfolio management. You will learn more stuffs but those are mostly management related skills and not core skills. Its hard to leverage using those skills in interviews especially if you are applying to big MNCs. Better chances at smaller companies or non-regional companies.

Those that successfully adapt to financial/ non-financial line tend to make the transfer early around senior/ AM level and work from there. Alternatively, regulatory firms that carries supervision or enforcement roles are quite susceptible to auditors as well.

Dont chase money until you hit beyond 30 especially if you are learning a lot. If you are not learning much, keep jumping to learn something new. Start settling for money when you are tired/ exhausted.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents based on my observation after leaving audit firm years ago. May or may not apply to everybody.

Google, facebook, amazon (or known as FANG companies) are in another league compared to Big4. They have some satelite/ representative office here but presence is miniscule in MYS. An intern in google is earning at least $7k, thats RM30k. I think their priorities are looking for IT/engineering people though.

Internal transfer in any organisation depends on 2 things. The transparency of the HR policy and procedure and the influence of your supervisor (or partner). In big4, HR policy is not transparent your supervisor has a very high influence. In this matrix, you need your partner endorsement plus your new dept ok. Long story short, you need their buy in first before transfer. So if you want to bail them in peak period, good luck in getting that transfer. That should answer your question 2 and 3.

In relation to question 1, it again depends on your supervisor arrangement with advisory. The current advisory head for ey is also from audit last time so if you can build a proper bridge/ channel between the partners, it will be easier.

Prospect of pi hard to say. Most treat it as platform to another job rather than and end career. The closest will be internal audit or quality analyst as your focus is more in financial than engineering/ supply chain where real consultants come in with six sigma belts. That's another discussion already.

If you get promoted to manager, you will have higher floor next time. The problem with promotion in big4 is it will be harder and harder for you to leave due to diminishing skills acquisition and expectation for higher salary.

I will just focus on question 2. Work life balance is actually up to you. 9 to 6 is the minimum. Anything extra is up to you on whether you want to get promoted, deal social pressure and superior expectations. No one can actually force you work late. For example, your superior will just tell you they want the work next morning. You can log off work if you can deliver. If you can't, work late until you delivered. If you don't care, your superior might scold you in public or complained about you with others which may harm your long term prospects.

In relation to big 4 reaction, if they want you they will contact you further. If they reject/ don't want you now, they will either keep quiet or put something like of future opportunities come along. Big4 rarely reject openly unlike certain industries.

What's to worry, thousands applied to big4. They have no shortage of supplies.

Nothing new here. Been like that since ages.

If you have other offers don't wait for this one. If not, wait and see.

This is a common rejection reason by consulting position as they don't need people at this moment or you don't meet their specs. Project managers need to perform almost immediately and not much time to hand hold or guide you.

Other common excuse:
1) You will be in waiting list when project opens up
2) We are recalibrating/ restructure resources and will contact you if any opening
3) We will contact you when the project materialised or expanded

No this is normal. It's not common to approve/ hire on the spot as they still have to do further checking and comparison with other candidates. Unless you have other offers, you can wait or keep applying.

I think most important is the audit client or team you will be attached to. If you didn't get this info during interview, then skip this.

Generally pwc tend to have lesser but bigger clients than other big4s but you may not end up on those teams. See which interviewer impress you more.

For me, the 2 is like choosing between Toyota and Honda.

Nothing new here. Big 4 will still see thousands of applicants and will have no issue getting new staffs. I don't have exact numbers but ratio is around the rule of 5. 1 partner with 5 manager and 5 staff for each manager. Bigger clients will have different compositions.

I think all big 4 wants to reduce low quality clients and keep the big ones. Clients like Maybank and Petronas easily eats up 50 staffs (audit, tax and consultancy).

Most consulting/ project have this issue. Budget will depends on the charge rate of the staffs. Let's take example of:
Associate: RM100 per hour
Manager: RM500 per hour
Partner: RM1000 per hour.

So if the audit fee is only RM10k and assuming 20% margin/ consistency. We are looking at:
Partner: 2 hour (RM2000)
Manager: 5 hour (RM2500)
Associate: 35 hour (RM3500)

That's average of 1 week job? Most big4 rarely charge full OT to the time charge as most clients won't pay.

And for some reason, on paper it sounds like they assume a manager can do 5 associate workload.

Just to share further points:
1) Business strategy: Audit and tax is the cash cow for the firm as it's a statutory requirement, consulting/ advisory is the growth where amount charged can be higher. It's common for the audit dept to charge fixed/ low growth fees to ensure they get the consulting work. With disclosure required by Bursa, this is less likely as firms need to disclose ratio of audit Vs consulting work. For example, audit can be pwc, system audit by KPMG and consulting by EY.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&...JsOat5bbb8xIL7z

2) Retention rate: Audit needs lots of associates to do field work. Only need a handful of manager and definitely not many partners are needed. No fixed numbers but 10% retention rate won't make partners blink. Yes, most money comes from profit sharing partnerships. Big 4 is increasingly using titles like directors/ partners to entice staff to stay longer with same/ lower pay. Banks been doing this long ago.
https://www.afr.com/companies/professional-...20190724-p52adf

3) You are right about costing, there are many other fixed cost to be absorbed chiefly from staff salaries, rentals, laptops, royalties, ...etc. In Asia, it's mostly unspoken that full OT rates are not charged in to keep the fees reasonable to client until the client grow in size to be next Maybank or Petronas. Best clients are actually subsidiaries of large MNCs that can easily afford the lower local currency fees.

4) Charge rate quota. There is also a minimum hours to be clocked by partners for certain engagements especially PLCs. Whether they spend that much time in actual is different story but most budget is worked backward and the stress is always on the manager to ensure timeline and budget is met and associate to deliver it .

Audit definitely not for everybody due to slow market growth, demanding timeline, lack of resources and increasing regulation by AOB and Bursa. However, the statutory requirement and highly standardised work provides lots of employment opportunities. There are staffs that left big4 to setup their own smaller firm to absorb clients their ex bosses deferred/ referred to. Win win for everybody.

Comparing western and Asia is not easy and there are many factors.

My perspective it's easier to budget due to:
1) In the west, clients quality are generally better. Clients are bigger and can afford to pay more audit fees. This leads to more resources from audit firm and client with higher profits are also easier to audit due to higher materiality. Audit staffs can focus on analytics than manual work.
2) Currency exchange is better leading to easier targets
3) Audit staffs also higher quality coming from better schools
4) As most western clients have higher standard of governance and culture, the audit work is easier too. Eastern culture tend to be harder for auditors

Asia is developing country as compared to mature western so there are many other aspects. A key development is that in the west, only the bigger companies need to be audited so all the audit work monopolised by big4. In Asia or Malaysia for example, even small sdn bhd needs to be audited. This creates a lot of job for smaller audit firms. There is a law not too long ago that provided some exemptions but tax law may be contradicted. I don't really follow the news anymore but in Asia the focus is still more on quantity than quality.