Can someone from EY share how was the performance review done in EY? and in average how was your performance bonus since working with EY?

Halo, may i know how many partners they have in FS pwc?

Hi, not sure if my question is suitable here but it's still related to big 4

thanks for spending ur precious time on reading such a long story
appreciate if u could share some info with me thank u once again

update: thanks all~ solved

This post has been edited by Hazellez: Oct 22 2016, 04:52 AM

Most people go in Big4 for efficiency.
The hours spent in OT essentially translates into faster promotion rates, where exit opportunities have more breadth as audit experience is a useful entry ticket to any industry. After exiting, certain auditors may find problem in learning the whole new erp / accounting system initially, but time will solve the problem.

TLDR: Audit trades hours for promotions;Audit experience is a safety net for hardworking / risk conscious people; Your mental strength will be mad hardened too, not sure if it's a plus or not.

Being an account executive, you will be more familiar with the operations of the company, but you need to make an early choice, as being specialized in a certain industry, say property, may result in certain skills or knowledge in software being not transferable to another industry. (e.g. IFCA is pretty much a popular software for property industry, while SAP or Oracle is pretty much the norm for MNCs and such). However, if you are really really good and fortunate enough to be in a good company under *important* a good boss, your career advancement can beat auditors. Certain companies have promotion policies, where X amount of years are required, so you better have a good boss to vouch for you. It's not easy to have a good boss who is willing to fight for you.

TLDR: Industry experience allows early specialization and familiarity to operation;you need to make an early decision compared to auditors.


My 2 cents : I am from an accounting background, I've been in financial audit, accounts operations, account software support and IT audit. I don't like the lifestyle of BOTH financial audit and finance reporting. Both are pretty much routine jobs. Plus to financial audit is that you work in projects, that makes it less dull. In my software support days, I really feel bad for the consol people who crazy late for month ends.

OH! I forgot to tell you this. Every month end / year ends can be full of OTs for those working in the industry. So you're not really OT proof afterall!

p.s. Thank god I moved myself out of accounting & finance.

I think Big4 is a good place for people that are not sure of their interest and strength. I think it’s very difficult for a graduate to answer effectively the question to the 3, 5 and 10 year plan. Big4 provides an easy route for that (provided you don’t mind staying for so long). Accounting is part of the cost centre of the organisation so career development is a bit slower than revenue centre like corporate development, strategy, sales and marketing. For Big4, audit is part of the revenue centre whereas for PLC, internal audit is their cost centre. Promotion is always faster in revenue centre.

One problem I found in audit is that, the usual excuse “not enough time, no people and lousy client” excuse cannot be simply applied once you switched to corporate world (especially when they pay you handsomely precisely to solve those problems!). Those that have made the jump should know what I mean.

This is especially true. Your CFO won't have the time to listen to your excuses, especially when the meeting with MD is due in a few hours. Fail that and you're gonna get it.

Hello, I've gotten an offer letter from EY to intern in assurance. I've mentioned to them my 1st preference is HPI and 2nd preference is NRG. I am interested in these 2 groups but have little knowledge about it. Is there any senior or kind soul mind sharing to me about these 2 groups (clients, travelling, people, culture, OT)? Pretty please

intern in Big4 no need OT ,if im not wrong.

If full time, can I leave when I finished my work or is there a culture where I need to stay with them until the end?

This post has been edited by MrSnorlax: Oct 16 2016, 09:30 PM

First of All, i am not from big4, but midtier instead, but i think thing work similarly.


If at Office
Answer : I would suggest you ask the senior whether is there any urgent thing need help if you have the job booking on that day. If she /he does not have urgent task for you, i guess you can leave first. I usually cabut early if i am in office, cause senior usually sit at difference place

If at client place
Answer : try ask your senior whether can you back first , or anything urgent that need you to help up on the day. Otherwise try ask the senior whether they still need you or not when you already completed your section AWP.

For me:
If let say got dinner / dates, i will just tell the senior , i would like to leave early today due blablabla. (*provided you go client place by your own, not car pooling with the senior)

But it is better to stay up and help up other team member's work even though you already completed those section allocated to you. (especially during audit fieldwork period)


Just my 2cent.

This post has been edited by fcuk90: Oct 16 2016, 09:42 PM

Noted. Will keep this in mind

Anyone joining pwc FS assurance recently? who's going to be the interviewer for experienced hires? Are their assessments more towards technical knowledge?

This post has been edited by Hackmon: Oct 17 2016, 07:03 PM

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the valuable inputs contributed.

I think I have some question yet to be discussed and which hopefully others will find useful.

I come from an engineering background and from a local uni but for some reasons found interest in exploring CF or management consulting career. So, I'd like to have a realistic understanding of my chance in breaking into Big4 or mid-tier firms.

It'd be great if anyone could share the following data for both (i) deal advisory/corporate finance and (ii) management consulting at Big4 or mid-tier firm:
-Size of the team at KL branch (including entry- to the most senior executives)
-No. of analyst/associate (entry level or fresh grad)
-No. of analyst/associate with non-finance/business/accounting background


I have <1 year corporate strategy/finance experience at a startup, but no accounting/finance certificates apart from several subjects taken in uni.

What are my odds of breaking into Big4 deal advisory/CF entry-level role? (I know consulting shouldnt be a problem for non-finance/accounting background)

I'd be most grateful if you could share insights

MC and CF are not Big4 forte. Department size is not big. Size of team is rarely larger than Bezos’s 2 pizza rule. Big4 have no CF license to operate as advisers hence you may want to look at IBs.

If you want to join the entry level, they will look at which university you graduated from, your CGPA, your course (whether its financial or not) and in that order. As the field is quite specialised, you will have to be trained from grounds up no matter how good you are in finance/accounting. That’s why Big4 normally perform recruitment drive directly from top universities (similar approach to large IT firms)

Unless you come from a very prestigious start-up, I don’t think the HR/recruitment manager will really care. They will still look at your degree especially entry level. Strategy/CS work in a start-up is very different compared to Big4 and MNCs level and scope. You may able to highlight during interview though but don’t count it as a huge bonus.

Hi Topace111, thanks for the detailed input.

Looking at the 2 pizzas-sized team, its probably difficult enough for finance background to join their CF and on top of financial background preference in their hiring decision like what you mentioned, does this means realistically I should look elsewhere?
(if this helps: first class honours degree from UM with active extra-curricular participation and achievements, <1 year Corporate Strategy experience at a public-listed startup, and a finance internship at a MNC)

What I gathered so far, IB doesnt seem realistic for non-finance background like me even for local investment banks, since they have pools of top finance graduates from global top tier unis to choose from. But of course I hope to be convinced otherwise.

Would I stand a better chance as financial analyst or CF role at local companies I wonder?

----
I'd be most grateful if someone from Big4 (or any firms and companies) CF could have a brief phone conversation, at your convenience. Please let me know. That'd be great.

This post has been edited by XxAC3xX: Oct 18 2016, 06:33 PM

If you're that interested, I suppose you have done your homework.
Why don't you just try applying?

Not really, Big4 & IB also took those with IT or engineering background due to their problem solving skills. As most grads are required to undertake professional qualification, you also need to study again. I have seen top finance graduate losing out to non-finance. Work is not study any more.

CF in IB and CF in company is a bit different. For example, if a PLC is doing a rights issue, the IB will arrange the underwriting, calculations, project management, coordinating with regulators, … The PLC CF will prepare the items required by the IB. Many PLC are creating their own CF department if they foresee a lot of capital or corporate exercise. CF at PLC is quite hard if you don’t have IB experience.

May I know when is the peak periods for construction/hospitality industry?

guys can i knw if my internship period is from january to march 2017, which is the best time to apply? if i apply now which is in october now is it to early? (ps . applying to the big 4)

I would tell you that Big4 experience is very good but not essential. There are ppl who also directly go into Commeircial/inudtsry and still able to be CFO/FD. But you hv more choice to manuever when you want to apply jobs next time, if you are from accounting firms. Sometime, when you go into a certain industry, and you try to apply another industry, even though in terms of your accounting work, it really doesn't matter, but those ppl from HR and the hiring finance head will be only looking for ppl from the same industry. So, if you are from another industry, you don't stand a chance....unless you are from accounting firms. AND if you are from BIG4 you do stand a higher chance of being selected for interview. You can check job advertisements and see. Many have the "preferred candidates from audit firms", "candidates from Big4 preferred"... something like that. But I agree with you that life in BIg4 sucks...it sucks BIG TIME actually. I don't like the ppl there nor the culture. But it looks good in my resume and I can highlight my experience while there. If ypou dontl like to work too much OT, try apply to the firms at the branches... not KL. But KL's OT is also not as terrible as say SGP's or HK's. And as the others have said, you cannot really escape from total OT either in the commercial/industries. C'mon, several hours of OT sometimes during the month won't kill you, right? If the hiring manager knows that you hv a OT problem, believe me, you won't get hired. Good luck in your life!

This post has been edited by darrenboy: Oct 21 2016, 04:34 PM