Pros and cons of moving from a Big 4 firm to a local cpa firm? People said it’s less hours and better pay. Just want to see if the overall experience is worth it.

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In tax so YMMV. Below senior manager, I wouldn’t. Unless you find a really unique firm, the hours aren’t less (often more) these past few years and pay overall is about the same.

Overall, training, exposure, and technology are vastly superior at a big 4 versus a smaller firm. I say this as someone who has jumped from big 4 to a much smaller firm.

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I moved from a big four to a top-10 after spending some time in industry. I think you might find the talent isn’t as good and the clients are a lot messer/you have to walk them
through more although they are generally nicer to you (in my experience minus a few here and there). I also work on many more clients than I did at the big four but they are smaller and less complex. On the plus side, the hours and pay were definitely better and I feel more appreciated. Im happy for now, but also miss the caliber of client and coworker from the big four.

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It depends on the office. I’ve been in both and smaller firms are more nimble, you stand out faster, and you feel like you can make a difference. Pay is quite competitive and if you can bring in business the sky is the limit (networking is way easier in a smaller firm and it’s easier to develop those networking skills early in a smaller firm than trying to attract the giant clients of a big firm early in your career). Depends if the local firm has a niche market though. Big firms can be fun for a while but smaller definitely has far more potential and less stress if it’s a good fit

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It really depends on the actual office. Do you mean local cpa form like under 10 people total?

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About 100 people

I went the other way... small cpa firm to big 4. And not because big 4 was what i always dreamed of but actually because my local firm was small and when I had to move for family reasons.... big 4 was only one that would hire me.

I think answer depends on what service line you are - but going this way (ie small to big 4) makes me think must be really hard to go other way. And before I continue will say that I think a lot of my ‘success’ at big 4 came from foundation at small firm. But... if you are audit... I mean at small firms you barely do any audits... you are a book-keeper... you learn debits and credits because you have to close books... but you don’t learn about the different accounting standards.... I would think that big companies industry positions are more likely to take folks from big 4 (knows 404 worked on the 5 recent standards familiar with 10-k and 10-q) v small firm person (knows debits credits, doesn’t know what 606 is).

Just my 2 cents .... and my small firm was prob ...80 people

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I moved from top 10 CPA firm to big4 and I work less hour :)

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Curious too

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