There are so many applicants apply to big 4 every year. Why are they still understaffed and have their employees work till 9pm + weekends ?

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they hire and staff for the non-busy times and not for the busy times. also honestly the only people who are working really hard are either good performers who just love what they’re doing or people who don’t know how to set boundaries.

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A couple years ago they released a statistic that % of applicants who are accepted into the Big 4 is less than those accepted into Harvard. Not sure if I believe that, but it seems like they don’t hire just anyone.

Also, the reason why they don’t hire more is to control their costs. Big 4 firms grow by headcount. In down periods, they want a lower headcount to maintain a steady margin. In up periods, they want to increase headcount to be able to attend to more clients (growth). However, in both ups and downs, they know it’s “Big 4 culture” for people to work harder. So they factor that into their headcount goal. Typically, they keep a headcount just slightly above their need. Therefore, in heavy attrition periods (like now), they become understaffed.

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We will literally take anyone with enough accounting credits and a pulse right now.

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