Omg…I’m starting an audit associate role with EY in the fall and I’m starting to freak out as I’m reading all these Big4 audit horror stories!

Hit me with the good, the bad, and the ugly…please be honest! EY

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Your life is going to suck for 2-3 years until you leave, but it will open a lot of doors for you. If you decide you want to stay in public accounting, look to move into faas or some other technical accounting roles outside of audit

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Respectfully disagree with the advice here. If the OP gets into his/her audit associate role and is being legitimately and fairly challenged; is being transferred the relevant idiosyncratic/client-specific knowledge to do his/her job; is getting reasonable support and feedback from his/her seniors, mangers, etc., and is working w/ people he/she respects and wants to emulate someday; then by all means its worth it stay. As with any entry-level job, the tasks will likely involve low-risk areas and be relatively mundane, but the underlying environment matters as well.

But, I would absolutely not approach it simply with the mentality that it's simply "going to suck for 2-3 years" but that it "will open a lot of doors" that presumably wouldn't be available if you didn't stay 2-3 years. This is the mentality the firms want you to have b/c they know you are likely to experience a toxic culture because they need to churn through a lot of people to suit their business model.

To be sure, expect to do mundane tasks and probably work a lot of hours--you'll do that at many entry-level jobs. But seek to have a professional and reasonable experience that legitimately challenges you and that introduces you to people you truly respect. If you don't find that, then there is absolutely no reason to stay (and no "career-long consequence of lost opportunities" if you don't).

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Your experience in any public accounting firm will be really good or really bad based on the teams you get assigned to your first couple of years. If you either get lucky or stick it out those first 2 years, you might have a little more sway over the team you're on but it's not guaranteed. So hope you get lucky!

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The word personal life doesn’t apply. Also wipe away any notion of doing cool, thought provoking work for at least a year unless you get a great team/client who aren’t threatened to let you shine.
Due your time and it will be great - don’t get frustrated it will work out but need to grind for a while.

This. Couldn't agree more. WLB is non-existent.

Please look forward to your new career - it will be great experience and you will learn a huge amount. Yes, there will be some days/weeks when you feel overwhelmed or unsure of what you are doing (everyone feels like this when starting out) but ask your teams/colleagues to help and coach you. Over time, you will be on some great teams, meet some lifelong friends and learn how businesses operate. Remember that most people on open forums are likely to post negative comments or amplify the bad, but that's not most people's experience.

It’s really important that you view yourself as a career owner and an active agent in this process. About 1 million years ago I was a summer associate at a second tier accounting firm this summer before my senior year of college. In those days it was a lot different in the firms gave the jobs based on who you knew. Here’s the thing. I hated the audit work in the summer. So I went knocking on partner doors looking for other work. I stumbled into a consulting partner in banking and I had an amazing experience. That experience shaped my entire career. You have to go knocking. I went from consulting to law school and then I became a tax lawyer and then a general counsel. A few years ago I got the crazy idea in my head to build a career app and that’s what I’ve been doing. We have a first 100 day on the job top tap thru program That will help you become a career owner. The program will be fully launched by June 15. You can download the app putting your start date and you’ll get emails and push notifications when your start date comes. You can make the most of this, but you have to put some effort into that. The name of the app is chea seed like career helping expert app and you can find it in the App Store and Google play. It’s free.

www.cheaseed.com

@ey6 why do you say it’s a scam?

It’s a scam based on hours worked to the amount you’re paid. Best case scenario your non-busy season is pretty chill but you’re still the lowest paid at the firm, which isn’t super pronounced the first year but 2-3 years in you’ll definitely notice the difference. People say it provides great exit opportunities but there are other service lines that will get you the same exit opportunities at higher pay with similar or less hours. The companies push audit so hard on campuses because they have an extreme need and margins are getting lower so they need young impressionable talent that will take the lower pay and proceed with their “entrepreneurial” model but there is nothing you need to subject yourself to if you can avoid it.

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