Has anyone left big 4 for a staff accounting role within one year of joining? I’ve been here for one busy season and am sure this isn’t for me. Would really appreciate if anyone could give advice.

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I'm trying to do this now. I'm targeting senior accountant and financial analyst positions. Honestly, at this point, I'll probably start targeting staff accountant positions as well. I couldn't care less about "muh career" beyond making an inflation adjusted $80k for the rest of my life.

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Doesn’t normally work out well, especially if you want to stay in accounting. people who come in as a staff accountant will be constantly leapfrogged by their peers who stuck it out a year or two more. I always tell people to go look at the LinkedIn in profile of clients who have jobs you would one day want. Very few of those people left public before Senior in my experience.

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If you job hop, the long run outcomes are a wash.

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Had people leave within a couple of months... so yes

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Do you know how they ended up after leaving?

Let me explain this way... a senior I met when I was an intern left after 4 years in B4 to work as a senior accountant at a client, by the time I was a senior I was reviewing work they did. They eventually left the client for a manager position at another B4 firm and still at manager same as me when their peers are experienced senior managers. This is the same if you leave at lower levels to stay in accounting. Most people who leave 1-2 years in do not stay in accounting or if they do, they go to another B4 or PA firm with similar promotion timelines.

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If you stay in accounting and the same metro it could be awkward. Really though that’s all it will be is sort of awkward, you won’t starve to death and career progression speed is only important if you think it’s important.

I think work-life balance is more important to me than career progression speed. Earning a higher salary would be nice, but it always seems like the higher paying jobs demand more from its employees.

likesmart

I’m sure there any many people that will disagree with me but I cannot think of a job I’d rather do less than be a staff accountant. That being said, if you’re fine with the monotony of it and the career/learning progression is not that important to you, you can certainly find much less stressful roles.

Really appreciate all the responses. Truthfully I’m not sure what I want in terms of career progression. It’s just that I don’t feel I belong with the big 4 culture, and that I’m consistently feeling anxiety over the uncertainty that comes with working here. I think I’m more so concerned about leaving then I am keeping up with all of my colleagues.

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