Thinking about switching from a big 4 to a mid-sized firm. For those that have done it, was the culture change significant/what was your experience like?

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If you want a change in culture i would recommend a regional. I have experience at big 4, national, and regional, and the national firm was my least favorite culture of the three.

The national felt like it wanted to be big 4, but brainwashed its people into thinking it had so much more flexibility and significantly less hours (it didn't). But maybe I just had a bad experience.

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Left big 4 for RSM, returned to big 4 11 months later, nuff said

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Yes, it’s a big change. The biggest thing is to learn the policies and methodology of the new firm, not point out where it’s wrong or how your previous firm did things better. Your priority is fitting in.

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I never worked over 65 hrs in a week at the regional firm, where I worked for four years. I’ve had around eight weeks where I’ve worked over 100 since joining PwC (two busy seasons).

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Interned at big 4. Worked at mid tier and regional.

The hours are simply better at mid tier and I'm at a pretty major city. Generally the smaller offices have better hours than the major ones.

Now you can obviously get screwed at mid tier and put on super shitty clients. But the odds aren't nearly as bad as big 4.

Also - you get to switch from client to client more often which I greatly prefer.

Pay at mid tier is similiar if not equal to big 4 but regional is a bit lower.

Culture wise it is a little more laid back but somewhat similiar..

Best decision I ever made was leaving pwc and going to Mid tier World of difference and the hours are WAY less

Senior Assurance Associate 1, what made you go back?

Started at big 4. Tried smaller firm. Found the perfect fit in the middle.

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