Summary
Today we’re talking about two popular career paths – starting out at one of the big four or going into a government role. The Big Four is the nickname used to refer collectively to the four largest professional services networks in the world. These include Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
Joining me in this discussion is my old schoolmate Jeremy who did a cadetship at Deloitte where he worked for 6 years. Jeremy explains the interview process, culture, work-life balance and salary during his time at one of the big four.
I’m going to be representing starting out in government as I spent the first 8 years of my working life in the public sector.
Some of the topics we cover in today’s episode are:
- What is the process of landing a job and what were the interviews like? (00:05:18)
- How does a cadetship actually work? (00:14:51)
- First year experiences (00:18:44)
- Salary progression (00:21:36)
- Big Four workloads and expectations (00:24:25)
- Government experience, expectations & work culture (00:35:12)
- The pros and cons of both career paths (00:48:28)
- Dealing with burnout (00:56:49)
- Finding meaningful work that brings purpose (01:00:25)
Current grad here from Deloitte Digital (consulting in creative tech). Few things I will preface this with is that I work in the Digital team, and not Deloitte (ie accounting, tax, risk etc), they are really quite different but the recruitment process is currently the same for both and is a Deloitte wide funnel. I went through the case study interview process with DD and also through initial phases with KPMG, PWC, Telstra and some others. I’m convinced these aren’t nearly as hectic as ones within investment banking but I don’t think they are that bad. They’re definately a bit intense, but not insurmountable by any means. Last thing I would say is that I am quite a restless and ambitious person. Inefficiency and laziness bugs the hell out of me, and being stuck in the comfort zone terrifys me – the idea of gov work currently gives me the shivers. Before accepting DD I also tried the startup world, which I think is very unstructured as a starting point for most, I think your early day growth would more than likely suffer unless you happen to be working in a unicorn.
Before accepting DD, I originally wasn’t sure on corporate and I didn’t think it’s what I would want long term, particularly in a creative field, but so far I’ve been positively surprised. I’ve been resourced on very engaging projects and am surrounded by a lot of talented people. The culture in the digital team is also different. I frequently share the elevator with men in black suits while I’m in sneakers and jeans. It’s not a lot, but the relaxed culture along with remote work makes for much better work/life balance when talking the corporate grind. Main promotion milestone carrots are dangled every 18-24 months or so, timeframes can be influenced/accelerated by performance relative to your current role and the one you are gunning for – ie: already performing to the standard of the next rung.
I’ve not yet suffered from burnout but I have in previous roles (I’m an older grad doing a career switch). From my experience, I think this is also partially personal responsibility. Every project I’ve been on I have made it clear early on that I have firm boundaries around this kind of thing and it’s been respected. I work hard within standard hours and as long as the work is done, I’m out of there no questions – I’ve stayed back a total of 3 times this year for around an hour for hardline deliverables. On one occasion in an open Teams call someone in my team floated the idea of catching up over the weekend and I flat out said no and my manager backed me. I basically said that I want a positive relationship with my work and if that type of thing is regularly expected then I won’t be around long term. It made me nervous to do this, but you have to push back or it will become accepted. This is paramount for me, my industry is also running hot and so I have a high tolerance for risk with this, regardless I am 100% willing to walk. (this is 4-6 months Emergency Fund talking here).
Piece of advice I was given early on, and I think this applies for both sides of the fence both public and private, if you reach a point where your personal development or earning potential stagnants, that’s when you starting looking at the exit door. Give what you need to and take what you can. Some people make the sideways jump early after 1-2 years (almost 100% of the time it’s for money) and I’ll admit this is tempting, but it can end up as a mid-weight postion with a harder pathway upward (ie: small business waiting for a senior to leave). I think the big4 can be very beneficial if you understand what it is and play a slightly longer game as you can gain exposure and training with management/lead/specialist roles very early on (sub 5 years).
All in all for me it’s been a good experience with positive opportunity on the horizon. Understand the beast and make it work for you.
What a brilliant comment Tamala!
Thanks a lot for sharing your experience with us 🙂
Career path for what? Might be worth a bit more of an explaination especially when ‘big 4’ is usually associated with banks
I didn’t want to go into specifics with this one.
It’s more about culture, workloads and pay.
I started in a big 4 accounting firm in IT auditing before moving to internal audit and management consulting within financial services. At that time, my first grad pay was 35k including super. The hours were relatively long but the work was interesting. I was young and ambitious . My pay jumped after my CA qualification. I even managed to secure a secondment to New York just a few years before the GFC . I worked on interesting projects In San Francisco, Washington DC and New York. More hard work but it was one of the most amazing, exciting years of my life. I worked hard, shopped hard and partied hard. My New York secondment with the big 4 led to a permanent job offer.
In the end, I decided to decline the permanent position, return back to Melbourne and was subsequently offered an early promotion to manager.
Another 10+ years later, I am now in my early 40s. I changed jobs, got married and had 2 kids , my career has stalled. I have decided to focus my energy on my primary school aged kids. I want my kids to grow up with me being present as a parent. I want my kids to be kind, hard working and most importantly be good people. I want my kids to look back as adults and say they had a blessed, happy childhood.
So all up, big 4 thanks offers an amazing, challenging experience as a starting point but it is difficult to sustain in the longer term if you want better work life balance. I could never cope , especially when my spouse was also in a highly stressful job.
That’s a great story and I think you ‘got out’ at the right time.
The big 4 offer incredible opportunities for hard-working ambitious people who are willing to put in the work. Where people come unstuck (in my opinion) is giving up too much of their life to climb the ladder.
I worked with a bloke at Deloitte that lived in Belfast but worked 5 days a week in London. He had three kids. I have no idea what his objectives were but I got the impression that he was trying to make partner.
There is such a fine balance between working hard to set yourself up and giving your best years away to work. And it can be really hard for high achievers to slow down on their career progress to pursue other endeavours (raising children, hobbies, interests etc.)
Thanks Hp 🙂