My bro just finished studying in uni. He haven't got his completion letter yet so he still can't apply as permanent staff in most companies. He got an offer to do internship at Deloitte. However, he also received an offer to work in a small accounting firm near our house as permanent staff, the salary is 2.4k. He wanna go for the small firm because he can't wait any longer to earn money. But I advice him to go for Deloitte since he got high chance to be absorbed as permanent, and the salary will be much higher. Any opinion guys?

This post has been edited by iammasivers: Feb 7 2018, 05:01 PM

the internship is 3 months. Intern in big 4 got high chance get absorbed as permanent if you don't screw up big time, at least that's what I heard la.

Just sharing what I hear from my friend: He was an intern in KPMG then absorbed as permanent staff.
However the working hour is awful (lots of OT, and usually need to work on weekend from home), and very limited to certain role.
He will tender after staying there for 1 year.
He said he didn't learn much things, job is repetitive, and no work-life balance.

Deloite may be better though. Let's wait if there is any Deloitte staff here able to advise you.

What did Jack Ma say: start your career at a small company, learn and be exposed to all parts of the business and then later go into specialization and go deep.

Isn't that good? He should then accept Big 4 internship opportunity. After his internship period, he can decide whether to accept the position of a permanent employee (in the event he receive an offer) or reject. At least he'll know what it likes to work in a Big 4.

As for small/medium sized firm - don't worry about it. I believe if you have interned in Big 4, it's likely there will be companies waiting to hire him.

just take the offer of internship at Deloitte..

then work there for few years..

later.. sure there's a lot of offers coming...

I would suggest he do an internship with big 4, preferably other than Deloitte (no offense, Deloitte in Malaysia is not that famous for audit but they are for tax or advisory)

Request to turn to permanent when he can; Even if the big 4 he interns for will not accept him for a permanent position, with the big 4 internship experience, it is not difficult for him to land a job somewhere else.

Things about big 4:
- Starting salary should be around RM3k for bachelor graduates (I could be wrong, left audit quite few years ago)
- Work is never ending and people have high expectations and standards; Be ready for your life to be consumed by work ... no night life, no weekends
- Big 4 experience is good for your resume, you have better leverage for your next job (easier to find a job and higher pay provided you quit at the right timing)
- How much you learn and how much exposure you get depends on your team, senior, the job and yourself; As long as you are willing to learn and ask, people would teach you and give you opportunity ..

Yeah that's what I thought. But he's so eager to earn money. I told him think about long term.. but he just can't wait

that's what i told him but he stubborn

I will show this advice to him. lol

How about tax though? The internship is at tax department. Is working hours better? Although I think it's ok for young people to work hard, since building experience is the most important

Your starting salary is 3k in Deloitte? Damn I should've went for accounting back then lol. How about OT pay though? If you're well compensated it should be ok I think.

Stubborn??
Try to "brain wash" him 😉
Show the details.. The advantage etc.
Surely he would understand 🙏

Your friend in audit line? Because from what I've heard auditors really suffer work in big 4..

Yup in audit line, no life mang...

Im not in accounting. I work in a small company. Can really say, your life dont cut short faster. You get what you paid for. As far as I know if your pay above a certain number or exec level you get nothing for OT. Allowance is the only thing u get. Perpared to, work be sick and stressed out of your life. The extra income is not worth it.
The only benefit is the name of thethe big4 and maybe financial support/benefit once u manage to be permenent for further studies/extra papers.

Please, internship is only 3 months and not 1 year. During the period, interns are also being paid a small allowance if I'm not mistaken. Tell him not to be impatient and grab the right opportunity at the right time. He can join small time firms any time but probably not when it comes to Big 4.

agree with many here, take the intern position and it's only 3 months. after that, plenty of "better than small firm" opportunities (including being turn into a permanent staff in Deloitte) will come along his way.

it's only 3 months for the internship, not 3 years. So i guess it's better to wait for it. 2.4k is not very high, later Deloitte offer him 3k as permanent staff he regret die. hahaha...

This post has been edited by tehoice: Feb 8 2018, 11:15 AM

My sis went thru that...

Its gonna be shit for the first few years... Big 4 KNOWS ppl need to have their name in the resume... so they will work you like slaves. Even once u get into a permanent position they will STILL work u like slaves...

Big 4 dont treat u well until u get up to certain position, so either you tough it out,... or work a few years and have their name/experience in your resume before bailing just like 90% of the people does..

tax should have slightly better working hours than audit. Deloitte tax is good 👍

i am not from Deloitte lol but big 4 have the same rates ... 4 years back starting salary is 2.85k for ACCA fresh grad for audit . salary jumps fast from senior level onwards and bonus is 2 months for average and much more if you perform above average. No OT pay,. depending on engagement budget, you may be able to claim time off. It's a norm for auditors to go on leave for one whole month during off peak with the OT hours they put in. All this from audit department lol, not too sure bout tax.

Very true that you should work hard when you're young. i never regret my years in big 4 because i learned so much and they helped me shape a good working attitude. Learn as much as you can when your body still allows you to sleep late and work long hours.

Hi usually for big 4 the cgpa requirement is 3.2. If your bro is that grade from his previous results, usually big 4 will offer you a conditional offer, where the condition your final results do not stray so far from your previous results.

I would definitely recommend him to take up the deloitte internship. Some people will say it’s good to work in small company first as you get to learn a lot of stuff is pure bullshit la. You’ll also get to learn a lot in deloitte, it depends whether you wanna learn or not only. Working in a small firm, You’ll end up being too comfortable at your 2.4k (damn low) job and be reluctant to move out from small companies. Your career growth will be significantly slower too. Not every gets the chance to be in a big 4 you know. But any tom dick and harry can be hired in any of the small firms.
Working is all about networking, am I right? the amount of people you will meet in deloitte will be way better in terms of quality and quantity. How many staff are there in a small firm right. moreoever, you’ll be stuck with all the uncles and aunties with their backward mentality. Another downside of working in small firms is that they don’t invest much on canggih systems like the big boys do. Since you’re still young, it’s a good time for you to learn to use these systems because your brain is still fresh to grasp it. The tech in small firms are like batu zaman as compared with big corps.
Gotta think about the long term. Why so hurry to just earn the extra rm3k…. lol not worth it man. Chances you’ll get absorbed into deloitte as permanent is pretty high, unless u screw up big time la.
Reasons why u should pick deloitte:
1. Better career growth
2. You get to build your network
3. Better staff benefit
4. The ‘atas’ name … one of the Big 4s. you can boast about it.
5. Better pay/bonus. Confirm promotion and increment every year.

Addressing someone’s comment above that deloitte’s working hour is crazy… its normal. Even more normal for auditing. I’d rather get paid 3.5k to work like a dog in a nice office than get paid 2.4k to work like a dog also in a shoplot office.

same here. but i have to say its worth it.

tell me which above-average paying job does not require long strenuous working hours?
you'll need to be prepared for the long working hours la, especially audit.

SOme say the current generation are more delicate and prefer to have good money with little work....

Tsk tsk tsk .. I belong to the current generation too.. some of my friends are having super high salary with MNCs or investment banks. but the really work like dog man. Weekends also need work and night time also need work from home . I guess the high pay is justified by the hard work

Well most of the itme when you have a big pay cheque, it will come with equal volume of target....

Sure you can relax and slack off, but if you dont meet the target off you go...

This is especially evident in the banking sector... miss the target for a single year.. and my acquaintance got kicked out