r/Big4

I'm an FS Audit Associate in my first year, and I'm asking why only my manager's feedback is relevant for the project I have been working on?

He hardly knows everything I've done. He only sees the results. I worked much more closely with my assistant manager, and he knows exactly what I did well and what could be improved, but his opinion isn’t relevant to my bonus and performance review?

My manager also only worked part-time and hardly ever noticed what I was actually doing. This is ridiculous.

I think I now will get bad feedback because my results weren't perfect, but my ass manager already assured me that I'm doing very well in the way I participate, ask questions, etc. I'm concerned that this feedback will turn out badly even tho my ass manager would hand me a good feedback

Hi, I'm currently doing a MSA program this fall and was wondering if anyone knew when the Big4s start FT recruitment for next year. I heard it's around early September? Also if anyone has advice for recruiting, anything would be much appreciated. Thanks!

For moths I’ve been trying to leave tax. I got an offer that’s underwhelming with time off but is a wash comp wise. I’m debating if maybe I should just stay in tax and hate what I do forever (or try to like it) because my b4 job just has so many benefits thats hard to give up, or just keep apply to senior accountant roles (not tax) and hope for the best. Either that or take the underwhelming senior accountant non tax role.

Context- 3 years of tax and 1.5 of digital assurance. Currently tax senior.

What do you all think?

Has anyone gone through the office transfer process at EY? Any insight on the process would be much appreciated. Specifically, who you should talk to outside of your counselor? Did you talk to your current engagement team before submitting your transfer request/talking to recruiting?

Genuinely curious why some of you feel the need to post every single personal life update like weddings, having kids, literally everything that happens at work. “I’m absolutely honored to participate in Impact Day.” “I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to attend DU.” Like bro… you guys are so fucking corny if nobody’s told you yet.

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re all doing well.

I’m looking for some advice and guidance about my career path because, honestly, I feel a little stuck at the moment.

I currently work for the Canadian government as a Tax Officer for small and medium sized enterprises. I have experience in taxation and financial services, but I don’t have an accounting designation such as a CPA. Before joining the government, I also worked as a Financial Advisor at a Canadian bank, so my background is mainly in taxation, banking, finance, and dealing with clients.

A lot has changed in my personal life since the passing of my father. One of my priorities now is to be closer to my mother, so I’m seriously considering either moving to Europe for work or finding a remote position that would allow me to spend more time with her.

I speak both English and French fluently, although neither is my native language. I’m wondering how realistic it would be for someone with my background and experience to find a job in Europe, particularly without a CPA or another formal accounting designation.

I would really appreciate advice from people who have experience working in Europe or who have worked in international companies.

For someone with my background, what types of positions or departments should I be looking at? For example, would I have a chance in areas such as:

• Taxation / international tax
• Banking and financial services
• Compliance
• Risk management
• Financial operations
• Client relationship management
• Finance departments
• Government or public-sector organizations
• FinTech or other financial companies

I’m also wondering whether Canadian government experience is considered valuable by European employers, and whether speaking both English and French could be an advantage.

I’m open to retraining or obtaining additional certifications if that would significantly improve my chances. I’m also willing to start in a different role if it gives me a good opportunity to build a career in Europe.

If you were in my position, where would you start, and what types of companies, positions, or countries would you target?

Any advice, personal experience, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much in advance for taking the time to read this and share your thoughts. 🙏

For context, I'm an accounting major on the CPA track who will be graduating this December with my 150 credits. I completed two internships only with KPMG: the Embark Scholars Internship in 2026 and the Advisory consulting in Non-Financial Risk this summer. I realized during the second internship that advisory wasn't really what I wanted. I originally wanted to pursue forensic accounting, and I'd much rather do traditional accounting such as tax or audit work.

I also didn't receive a full-time offer from KPMG. From talking to other interns, it seems like return offers have been pretty competitive this year, even for some people who received good feedback.

I'm now considering applying for entry-level Audit Assurance or Tax positions at PwC and EY.

For anyone who has been in a similar situation: Did you intern at one Big 4 but ultimately apply to another Big 4 for your full-time role? How did recruiters view the fact that you had interned elsewhere? What were some questions you came across during the interviews?

I'd especially appreciate hearing from people who successfully made that transition.

Just curious how busy senior associates and managers in audit are in the US for Big 4? What are busier and slower times like? What’s the busiest it gets and how many hours?

Has an international student that interned this year received a full time return offer from EY US??

Because before the internship started my recruiter said they won’t be giving that return offer to international students despite their performance because of their visa status.

I feel like there are so many invisible expectations and I constantly feel like with this new title, my team just automatically thinks I have upper-level senior capabilities. Maybe it’s all in my head, but I am really struggling with feeling stupid and not where my team wants me everyday. I give walkthroughs and review to the best of my knowledge, which is still decently limited given I have been working at the firm less than 2 years. I ask questions, but often feel like it just leads to my team thinking I am even more incapable than what they thought.

I have truly loved this job and have felt like I was a great addition to the team before (even got differentiating on my reviews last cycle), but now I feel like I am behind the curve. On top of that, I feel like I am struggling to keep up with all the moving pieces, even though I am only staffed technically 40-45 per week this busy season. So I do not even feel like I have the right to say I’m busy, especially to those seniors doing 55+ hours. I did want to stay a little longer and really would not want to leave my team during busy season, but I am really struggling with wondering if they would be better off.

Guys,

I just got promoted to audit manager in big 4 and there was not a lot of hours on my board but the work volume is just crazy. As a manager, you have to take whatever that senior manager and partner wants to do. When a senior manager is hands off, I as a manager, gotta do everything. Dude never replied to my ping. I’m sick and tired of this man..

Felt too crazy that I have to stay past midnight in August. Also, my capable senior is leaving the service line and she ain’t coming back… I’m at a breaking point and I have the urge just to submit my two weeks notice tomorrow. I need to stay for at least a month or so to get my H1B extended and I am planning to do that. I’m a bit burnt out at this point. What should I do yall?

Hi all,

I’ve been working in Big 4 audit for about two years now. I’m really into snowboarding, but unfortunately busy season makes it pretty difficult to get out much during the winter.

I’m thinking about planning a snowboarding trip to Western Canada at the end of March and wanted to get some opinions on whether taking vacation around that time is looked down on or not.

I have three main clients during busy season. I roll off one file in late December, another in mid-February, and my last one in late March. My plan would be to take a week of vacation immediately after I roll off that final March file.

I asked a manager I work with frequently what she thought, and she said it should be fine. I’m probably overthinking it, but I’m curious what other people in Big 4 audit think. Is taking a week off right after your final busy-season file generally reasonable, or could it still be frowned upon?

Thanks!

I am currently in my first summer busy season. Oh my god is it the worst experience of my life. Honestly the spring busy season was not as bad as this one. The hours are insane and it’s really making me want to quit the whole accounting field. The senior I am working with is horrible doesn’t know wtf he is doing. After 9/15 I am really going to have look at my life and see if all of this stress is really worth it.

COL? - VHCOL
SALARY? - 94k
SERVICE LINE? - Tax

I interned at a Big 4 firm this summer and I’m currently waiting to hear back about my return offer. All of the other interns have already received their return offers, but I’m in a different service line within tax. Does the recruiter usually make acceptance and rejection calls on the same day? Also, if we don’t receive a return offer, do they typically call us to let us know, or do they just send an email?

This thread is for CANADIAN interns returning to Deloitte to share their salary and any sign on bonus. Feel free to share your location and business line (and sub) as well.

To start off, Toronto, $75K + 5k sign on, SR&T (FinCrime).

I had to renege an offer and I did so over email (new recruiter for company was assigned and I had never talked to them before so figured I’d just send the email). Emailed them a bout a 2 weeks and a half ago - no response. Emailed a follow up just to confirm receipt 6 days ago - no response. I get if they’re pissed but i genuinely want to make sure they don’t think im gonna show up. Start date is still 3 months, but any advice on what to do here? I can’t believe working, functioning adults can’t respond to a basic email… and they’re not on PTO because I got an auto out of office email reply at first with dates that weren’t in the range of my email

Do I forward to US HR support? Leave it as is? Forward to partner? Advice would be appreciated as I’m still getting onboarded emails.

To those that have already done their video interviews - have any of you guys heard back yet?

I’m a new hire and I just finished the Welcome to EY orientation that lasted two days, and now I have 4 days of consulting training. Could anyone describe their experience with the training?

They went ahead and sent the playbooks and I’m worried since it seems very hands-on. Do they cold-call people? Are the group activities really intense? It looks like there’s cases, drafting emails, analyzing data, and other random activities.

Do these exist, and would big 4 FSO audit experience help land them?

What is the largest base+bonus you’ve typically seen for someone with 5-8 yrs of big4 experience?

What about B4 exits to firms like Blackstone or hedge funds ?