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A&M, that would be an exit option after B4 anyway
Mentor
Personally, I don’t think I could ever go back to B4 and be happy. That being said, the thing you should consider about your personality is whether you can be a self-starter in a somewhat unstructured environment or if you need more structure. If you can self-motivate and develop relationships with more senior colleagues quickly, you will probably learn more and advance quicker at A&M. If you need the camaraderie of a larger start class of peers and are looking at FDD as a stepping stone job, go to B4. The MBA comment is a little silly because you’ll already be making post-MBA money as an SA unless you want to transition to IB or PE.
Mentor
It’s really hard to separate the other things without the pay. Retention is much higher here partly because of the pay. Because retention is higher, it makes it easier to grow, and people are treated more as individuals instead of resources. The comp model and profit sharing structure makes it so everyone is accountable and contributes. I also like not having the conflicts of an audit practice that can limit personal investment options. There are also some other neat things I didn’t know before I joined that would never be possible in a B4 or public company environment. We are much smaller than B4 still, so growth potential is higher. Would this all be possible if we paid below market? Probably not, which is why you have to look at the overall package. If the environment was toxic, the money alone wouldn’t be worth it for me.
Wherever you can get hired.
Mentor
Probably because OP admitted in another comment that they didn’t have offers from both, which they subsequently deleted.
Pretty obviously when the conversation pivots towards MM halfway down the thread.
I’d start out in Big 4 for the standardized training then transfer over for the $$$. We try with the training, but Big 4 cohort based training just can’t be beat.
Mentor
If not B4 definitely choose A&M
Subject Expert
If you have an A&M offer now, take it. You’ll probably learn more at B4 but there’s no guarantee you’ll get another chance to work at A&M
A&M is the ideal exit opportunity for B4 (unless you go into IB)
Subject Expert
I did A&M out of college. DM if interested.
Edit to add: I think anyone saying to transfer later is kind of misguiding you. You shouldn’t base your decision on something that may or may not happen in the future. There’s no guarantee you get an offer again later
Subject Expert
So now I think is where we are getting somewhere and the convo can be fruitful. Getting down to more ‘tangible’ items for lack of a better way of saying it. Cause I can agree with some of the points you’re making on training, networking, etc.
My overarching point at the beginning was just to say, that while we can (and should) make decisions keeping the future in mind, we just can’t assume there will be certain options available. But for now, in the current moment, we can definitely evaluate the positions as they currently stand and dissect the differences in the topics you’ve mentioned.
Subject Expert
Big 4. No doubt
Subject Expert
X
Subject Expert
Get an offer first.
Bml
Subject Expert
A&M for money and Big 4 for everything else.
Subject Expert
Big 4 then potentially move to A&M
You'll learn more and have more resources for learning at B4, and you'll work on relatively larger teams compared to A&M. You'll work on larger deals too, plus you get the B4 name if it turns out you don't want to do FDD and want to transition to something else.
B4 FDD also performs better in MBA admissions than A&M (from what I've seen)
This was very helpful, thank you so much
AM
Would personally recommend B4 coming out of college. It’s effectively a professional university/college, and you can learn and grow at your own pace. Exit ops will be there once you’ve got a year or two under your belt - A&M or elsewhere.
Big 4. More resources on training and more restructured organization due to higher overhead spend on these areas. Move to A&M FDD later if u still enjoy and wanna make more money