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I interviewed for Data Analyst role at EY, it went well and the job sounds great, but I'm a bit hesitant to leave PwC because I really like the firm and I'm just 8 months in my job as an associate at a subgroup of ITS that has some focus on technology and analytics but it's mostly tax compliance.
I do want to transition to data analytics but I'm not sure if it's a good idea to go to another big 4, or maybe just look for a position in industry.
Any advice or similar experience?
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We don't bill of course but my team still asks us to report time to supposedly help Management determine resources on future Similar projects. If you spend an insane amount of time on something or you put admin hours everywhere, you get questioned. Otherwise, timesheet is just a formality.
IA here as well. We also keep time. You generally don't get questioned on it as long as you're not booking an outrageous amount of time to something or booking a ton of admin.
Short answer is no; a position in industry is equally if not more complex and challenging as its counterpart in audit (Unless you are an A/P, A/R, or payroll clerk, which no B4 alum would be). But the underlying management structure, communication/knowledge sharing process, is drastically different.
Are you sure that B4 truly has billable hours? Are the "questions" you receive about why things take too much time really reasonable? Your seniors and managers can greatly influence your productivity, or lack thereof, in very subtle ways.
It's certainly reasonable for any employer to monitor the productivity of its employees, but I'm just sure if that is really what is happening in many cases when a B4 employer questions your time spent. Have to keep those kinds of things in mind.
Industry is a much more legitimate challenge and doesn't have the toxicity of B4. Everybody is working towards a common goal of getting a relevant project done, and there is a much more fluid system of communication and knowledge sharing. In industry, you can move around within the company easily and learn different parts of the business. Accounting departments are often closely linked to the FP&A function, which allows you to get more experience beyond the accounting.
In industry, they aren't going to send you to a Lake House or to Disney World for Training, and they aren't going to assign you three mentors that you never see other than your mandatory quarterly meetings. Working in industry isn't career suicide. The firms work very hard to create that myth because they want people to stay in public at below market salaries. You might be committing career suicide if you go get a job as an A/P clerk, for instance, but nobody coming out of public would go to a position like that. To be sure, it can still be political in industry, but it's not near as likely to be toxic as PA is.
If it did I'd have had to charge "napping" last Friday.