Big 4 Public Accounting Exit Opportunities for Audit, Tax, and Consulting

The Skills Gained in the Big 4

Before exploring specific exit roles, it’s important to think about the key skill sets that you have acquired during your time at the Big 4.

Let’s highlight a few of the resume bullets that Big 4 experience yields:

• Client and project management abilities –  Juggling various clients and projects under tight timelines builds great multitasking and organizational skills. These abilities will enable you to thrive in new leadership positions requiring organization, prioritization, and coordination across groups and projects.
• Relationship building and communication competencies – As an employee at the Big 4, you are exposed to a number of different industries, stakeholders, and management teams. This exposure helps you develop exceptional presentation and relationship-building skills. Not only do you need to deliver findings, results, etc. to diverse audiences, but you also need to develop personal relationships to continue to win over clients. These skills will suite you will in your next role.
• Focus on execution and results – Daily billable hour requirements help develop important prioritization skills. In the Big 4, it’s essential to prioritize key goals and initiatives, focusing on what matters most for your client. These assets make you attractive to future employers.
• Work ethic – The Big 4 helps you develop work stamina and the ability to perform under pressure. You learn to meet deadlines with quality results.
• Finance and accounting acumen – Through auditing financial statements, building models, and helping value companies, Big4 professionals gain financial expertise that few others obtain so early in their careers.

Now let’s explore some of the best exit opportunities by practice…

Exit Ops from Audit and Assurance

Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)

In FP&A positions, you can leverage your financial skillsets for budgeting, forecasting, profit analysis and reporting to provide intelligence to corporate management teams. FP&A roles can lead to CFO.

Investment banking and private equity

While these roles are often difficult to land, and more suited for ex-Big 4 consultants, the skills acquired at the Big 4 may help you land a PE or IB position. This is less frequent but can be done.

M&A due diligence

Audit roles are key feeders into due diligence positions. M&A due diligence, also called deal advisory or financial due diligence, is a great career path that can be very financially rewarding. These roles rely heavily on accounting and financial acumen acquired in audit.

Accounting Manager and Controller Roles

Depending on your seniority at the Big 4, you may be able to transition into an accounting manager or controller position. These roles allows you to apply your deep technical accounting skills. Move into overseeing the accounting function or SEC financial reporting for a public or private corporation.

Internal Audit Leadership

Obviously, audit roles at the big 4 are great lauchpads for shifting into internal auditing, which are focused on developing risk and control programs. Progress into Head of Internal Audit Director seats at large corporations.

Exit Ops from Tax

Vice President of Tax at a Corporation

Big 4 helps you master complex tax codes, compliance regulations, and planning concepts. These skills bode well for leading tax strategy for a corporation.

Tax Director at a Hedge Fund, Private Equity Firm or Venture Capital Fund

Apply expertise around deal structuring, mergers and acquisitions, international tax implications, etc. to enable favorable tax treatment for complex alternative investments.

International Tax Advisory Services

Leverage knowledge of global tax nuances into advisory roles helping multinational corporations conduct cross-border transactions and expansions while optimizing their global tax spend.

Exit Ops from Consulting

Management Consulting at Top Firms (e.g., Bain, BCG, McKinsey)

Big 4 consulting can be a great way to transition into strategy consulting for tier 1 firms. In these positions, you will be conducting due diligence, building market entry plans, producing executive presentations, and more.

Strategic Planning & Analysis

Big 4 consulting roles enable you to shift into corporate strategy. These corporate strategy roles leverage your problem-solving and intellectual curiosity skillsets. Lead annual strategic planning cycles, identify growth levers, spearhead key initiatives and report insights to executive leadership.

Corporate Development/M&A

Big 4 consulting provides diligence, financial modeling and deal analytics experience to help evaluate and execute mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and JVs.

Which Path is Right for you? 5 Key Considerations

As you can see, there are numerous exit opportunities from the Big 4, and these are only the ones that we have called out. It’s important to choose your next role wisely. As you weigh various opportunities, reflect on the following:

• Industries that you are interested in – Is there a particular sector you want exposure to? Healthcare, media, finance and tech represent attractive growth markets.
• Desired work/life balance and work preferences – Big 4 roles can be demanding. In many cases, ex-big 4 employees are looking for a better work/life balance. Its important to investigate company values, leadership styles, work environments and career development opportunities. Contemplate preferences around travel, hours flexibility, and remote vs. in-office settings. Before jumping into your next opportunity, leverage resources like Glassdoor and FishBowl app to help you gather information.
• Compensation – Starting pay and pay progression are extremely important to vet. Research salaries for target roles on LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Payscale and have discussions with connections in the industry. Ensure room for advancement and continued career progression.
• Learning opportunities – especially early in your career, its important to be in a role where you will continue to grow and learn. Make sure the position you are evaluating is not to narrowly focused and will help you develop valuable skillsets that you can leverage down the road.

The Bottom Line

You’ve gained tremendous skills from public accounting. Avoid underselling yourself in the search process. Leaving public accounting marks an inflection point in your career. It’s important to understand that while you may not love your job in the Big 4, it offers an opportunity to learn from a diverse set of experiences as well as consistent career progression through promotions.  However, transitioning to the right position can springboard your career. Think through your professional goals and lifestyle objectives before making the move. Your background yields many options to create professional and personal success on your own terms.