Getting into the Big 4 and Your Future Career

It isn’t a surprise to see USC on this list — it’s a big university known as a top feeder school for Big Four recruitment. USC also sent the second highest number of total graduates to a Big Four firm after the University of Illinois – Urbana Champaign. KPMG has a reputation for being more European than some other Big Four https://simple-accounting.org/ firms. Staff insiders describe a culture that is quirky, with less pressure to fit into the stereotypical city graduate lifestyle. KPMG is also big on learning and development, with a high spend on coaching and mentoring, both structured and informal. Measured in terms of revenues, Deloitte is the biggest Big Four firm.

And at KPMG, staff numbers continued to grow, with the firm employing almost 227,000 people worldwide. Christian Wolfe is a successful big 4 accountant and a contributor to the big4accountingfirms.com. At an average big 4 billing rate of $300 per hour, that’s $30,000 of big 4 value that we put into this course. We could have been spending that time billing out to clients, but we put How hard is it to get into a Big 4 accounting firm? that into a course to help big 4 candidate demystify the big 4 interview process. Having been employed by a Big 4 Firm carries a lot of weight in the industry and can offer you career opportunities you couldn’t get elsewhere.Below we’ve outlined the 7 steps to become a big 4 accountant. In 2013 the firm reported their revenue at $25.8 billion and an annual growth rate of 5.8%.

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I’m an upcoming junior in a five year program to get 150 credit hours. I’m working 60 hours a week right now (busy season training? lol), so time isnt always available for me to work on it, but I’m trying to. Obviously not really a stepping stone to financial M&A, since it’s not exactly the same skillset.

They are like department stores for professional services, each with specialities and areas of strength and experience. The Big Eight gradually reduced due to mergers between these firms, as well as the 2002 collapse of Arthur Andersen, leaving four networks dominating the market at the turn of the 21st century. Such a high level of industry concentration has caused concern, and a desire among some in the investment community for the Competition & Markets Authority to consider breaking up the Big Four. In October 2018, the CMA announced it would launch a detailed study of the Big Four’s dominance of the audit sector. Ernst & Young is rated number three out of the top 100 accounting firms in the world. The firm was formed by the merger of two companies, Arthur Young & company and Ernst & Ernst.

Audit quality and ethics

Typically, in this round, HR discusses a candidate’s monetary and other expectations, as well as the terms and conditions of employment.

If I had the time, I would have personally sat down with all 40 people to hear their story.. So I had to quickly rely on other indicators, such as GPA , school activity, work experience, and other experiences that they listed on their resume. MBB firms have been standing head-and-shoulders above the rest of the consulting industry, including the Big 4. In addition, the sheer geographical scale of Big 4 operations make their jobs more available. Each Big 4 firm operates in 150-ish countries – so unless you live in the poorest and least promising markets, you will find at least one Big 4 firm in your home country. All of the Big 4 firms originate from the accounting industry – in fact, they are usually referred to as “Big 4 accounting firms”.

What Do You Do as an Associate, Manager, Director, and Partner?

However, with bonuses and profit sharing, the gap between MBB and Big 4 firms widens . The greater number of Big 4 consulting projects, as well as higher level of involvement compared to their MBB counterparts demand more manpower. This lowers the barrier and allows each candidate a better chance at a consulting career.