Value of Big 4 Accounting Internship Forum

[Anonymous User]

i will be attending a regional law school this fall on a good scholarship. before i made the decision to head to law school, i lined up an advisory internship with a big4 accounting firm in a large financial market over the summer. the internship ends a week before orientation at my law school, so it will be a busy summer. is the benefit of having a big4 accounting internship on my resume worth the possibility of heading into 1l burned out? long term goals are securities, tax, and m&a.

[Pokemon]

If you are looking for big law, grades, particularly from a regional school, >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Internship.
But, I do not understand why your internship would make you burned out. I worked until three weeks prior to law school and I was not burned out. Additionally, if you miss biglaw (statistically speaking, you probably will), big four tax will probably not be a bad option, and maybe internship will help you in that are.

[Anonymous User]

right on, thanks. i'm afraid of being burned out because i'm expecting 80+ hours during the internship, and i'll be moving out of the internship city and into the law school city two states away over the course of a week. i totally agree with the thought that the internship might lead to a big4 in. is there value to having the name on a resume to law firms rather than acctg firms?

[Pokemon]

right on, thanks. i'm afraid of being burned out because i'm expecting 80+ hours during the internship, and i'll be moving out of the internship city and into the law school city two states away over the course of a week. i totally agree with the thought that the internship might lead to a big4 in. is there value to having the name on a resume to law firms rather than acctg firms?

They are not going to make you work 80+ hours. It is an internship. Also, I do not understand your last question. Having big 4 experience is something that firms will appreciate, but not enough to make a student who will not make it to that firm, finally make it.
Big 4 experience helps a median at t-14 get a job instead of strike out, or makes a top 1/3 at t-14 get v5-10; basically, it helps people in grey areas. But it does not help someone who via their grade/school combination would not make it there, actually make it.

[rad lulz]

Will the internship lead to a job? If so, I'd take the job so you can 1) save $, 2) get work experience, 3) have time to retake, and 4) have money and time to party.

[biglawww]

right on, thanks. i'm afraid of being burned out because i'm expecting 80+ hours during the internship, and i'll be moving out of the internship city and into the law school city two states away over the course of a week. i totally agree with the thought that the internship might lead to a big4 in. is there value to having the name on a resume to law firms rather than acctg firms?

I worked at a Big 4 and did internship there before law school. You will not burn out because the internship is meant to be fun and easy so that you would consider coming back to work (then you will be able to work 70+ hours when you're full-time). Also, they don't want to pay you over time. So you should expect 35 hours + 5 hours of social events per week.

It's good to have some professional work experience so you can have something to talk about when you have interviews. But you still need your grades.

[KidStuddi]

i'm afraid of being burned out because i'm expecting 80+ hours during the internship

Come on, man. 80+? You think you're going to work 12 hours a day, and then come in and put in 10 hours on both saturday and sunday at an internship? No. Just no.

[Anonymous User]

right on, thanks. i'm afraid of being burned out because i'm expecting 80+ hours during the internship, and i'll be moving out of the internship city and into the law school city two states away over the course of a week. i totally agree with the thought that the internship might lead to a big4 in. is there value to having the name on a resume to law firms rather than acctg firms?

You won't be doing 80+ hour weeks or anything close to it. When I was a summer intern at a big 4 I didn't work more than 40 hours a week. Often less, and often on silly internship projects like planning an office wide party and going to recruiting events to tell people how awesome it is.

[Pokemon]

i'm afraid of being burned out because i'm expecting 80+ hours during the internship

Come on, man. 80+? You think you're going to work 12 hours a day, and then come in and put in 10 hours on both saturday and sunday at an internship? No. Just no.

What? You do not think that the partners and the clients at this particular Big 4 will be dependent on the work product of this intern???

[hephaestus]

Will the internship lead to a job? If so, I'd take the job so you can 1) save $, 2) get work experience, 3) have time to retake, and 4) have money and time to party.

Credited.

[Anonymous User]

A friend of mine did an internship in a Big 4 and she worked around 80 hours a week if you count the time it took her to travel to the clients about 1 hour away from her workplace. She worked every weekend. It's a really shitty job. You work the same or worse hours as in Big Law and you only get paid around 50k. The chances of becoming a partner suck and most end up going solo. At least you get your own group of junior auditors to exploit after a few years but after that you're most likely stuck. Even though the company offered her a full time position she declined the offer.

I completed all the requirements to sit down for the CPA exam but never took it (just in case I scored 150 on the LSAT). I knew what the big 4 were about (almost the same as big law but you do get paid more which I think makes the work more bearable... plus slightly better growing opportunities).

Edit:

I'm not saying this happens to every intern but it happens. Oh and BTW the big 4 in my region pay their full time junior auditors 46k (not including a small bonus).

[patrickd139]

A friend of mine did an internship in a Big 4 and she worked around 80 hours a week if you count the time it took her to travel to the clients about 1 hour away from her workplace. She worked every weekend. It's a really shitty job. You work the same or worse hours as in Big Law and you only get paid around 50k. The chances of becoming a partner suck and most end up going solo. At least you get your own group of junior auditors to exploit after a few years but after that you're most likely stuck. Even though the company offered her a full time position she declined the offer.

I completed all the requirements to sit down for the CPA exam but never took it (just in case I scored 150 on the LSAT). I knew what the big 4 were about (almost the same as big law but you do get paid more which I think makes the work more bearable... plus slightly better growing opportunities).

Edit:

I'm not saying this happens to every intern but it happens. Oh and BTW the big 4 in my region pay their full time junior auditors 46k (not including a small bonus).

Still better than having a quarter million dollars in debt with no job prospects and missing out on 3 years of earnings potential.

[Anonymous User]

A friend of mine did an internship in a Big 4 and she worked around 80 hours a week if you count the time it took her to travel to the clients about 1 hour away from her workplace. She worked every weekend. It's a really shitty job. You work the same or worse hours as in Big Law and you only get paid around 50k. The chances of becoming a partner suck and most end up going solo. At least you get your own group of junior auditors to exploit after a few years but after that you're most likely stuck. Even though the company offered her a full time position she declined the offer.

I completed all the requirements to sit down for the CPA exam but never took it (just in case I scored 150 on the LSAT). I knew what the big 4 were about (almost the same as big law but you do get paid more which I think makes the work more bearable... plus slightly better growing opportunities).

Edit:

I'm not saying this happens to every intern but it happens. Oh and BTW the big 4 in my region pay their full time junior auditors 46k (not including a small bonus).

Still better than having a quarter million dollars in debt with no job prospects and missing out on 3 years of earnings potential.

Yea, my little brother is starting out at the Big 4 straight out of undergrad, which was paid for by a full state scholarship. No debt and a decent amount of upward mobility. If he feels like it, he can always get his MBA, if he wants to take on debt. Not bad at all.

Also, I have heard that a few months a year, you do work 70 ish, but the rest it is closer to 40 or 50.

[Anonymous User]

A friend of mine did an internship in a Big 4 and she worked around 80 hours a week if you count the time it took her to travel to the clients about 1 hour away from her workplace. She worked every weekend. It's a really shitty job. You work the same or worse hours as in Big Law and you only get paid around 50k. The chances of becoming a partner suck and most end up going solo. At least you get your own group of junior auditors to exploit after a few years but after that you're most likely stuck. Even though the company offered her a full time position she declined the offer.

I completed all the requirements to sit down for the CPA exam but never took it (just in case I scored 150 on the LSAT). I knew what the big 4 were about (almost the same as big law but you do get paid more which I think makes the work more bearable... plus slightly better growing opportunities).

Edit:

I'm not saying this happens to every intern but it happens. Oh and BTW the big 4 in my region pay their full time junior auditors 46k (not including a small bonus).

last year, at a big 4, i billed 1200 hours and was ranked top 3 in my year. No intern at my office works more than 40 hours a week. The senior would get in mega shit. This is a myth.

[rad lulz]

1200 hours sounds like a dream

[patrickd139]

1200 hours sounds like a dream

True story. An associate at a midlaw firm I summered with just got shitcanned because she billed less than 1300 hours last year.

[biglawww]

A friend of mine did an internship in a Big 4 and she worked around 80 hours a week if you count the time it took her to travel to the clients about 1 hour away from her workplace. She worked every weekend. It's a really shitty job. You work the same or worse hours as in Big Law and you only get paid around 50k. The chances of becoming a partner suck and most end up going solo. At least you get your own group of junior auditors to exploit after a few years but after that you're most likely stuck. Even though the company offered her a full time position she declined the offer.

I completed all the requirements to sit down for the CPA exam but never took it (just in case I scored 150 on the LSAT). I knew what the big 4 were about (almost the same as big law but you do get paid more which I think makes the work more bearable... plus slightly better growing opportunities).

Edit:

I'm not saying this happens to every intern but it happens. Oh and BTW the big 4 in my region pay their full time junior auditors 46k (not including a small bonus).

Did you friend work as an intern or full-time employee? I asked because I can't think of that much work for an intern to do when they don't have the technical skills and properly requires the associates/ seniors to explain everything? If you were working full-time, 80 hours is not unusual though.

Taking the CPA exams is a time consuming process but it's doable. I would only do it if the firm is paying for my exam fees.

[R1chardParker]

.

[Anonymous User]

If the big4 internship leads to a FT offer, I would give it serious thought. Your job prospects coming out of a regional law school aren't going to be great (likely worse than FT gig at big4). I worked big4 before law school, and the stuff I can contribute is this:

1) no way are you doing 80+ as an intern. They want to shield you from the reality of the gig, they'll send you home at 5 most days. Our team would get shit from the manager if we even alluded to how many hours we actually worked when the interns were around.

2) big4 is lots of hours for garbage pay once you work FT, that is all true, but there are decent exit opportunities after 2-3 years there. It is also true that your upward mobility goes out the window once you exit public, you become much more dependent on the person above you leaving to get a promotion than anything merit-based.

3) the market for accounting (at least as of 2011 when I left it) is night and day better than the legal market. Headhunters are everywhere because there are droves of miserable people in big4 who want to jump ship, and a lot of employers out there to take them. I still get headhunters calling/emailing me and I'm a 2L now. My friends who started with me are all either managers at big4 or senior accountants in the private sector. Those in private sector are earning a decent paycheck with great quality of life (less quarterly and annual closings).

[Anonymous User]

Do you think your big 4 accounting experience before law school play a role in OCI? How do employers value big 4 experience and a CPA?