Big 4 Firings, My Post Big 4 Life and the Failed Merger

Hey guys, its the Accountant here.  Its been a while guys! =) 

Big 4 Firings

First off, Big 4 firings.  I'm pretty pissed off at Big 4 firms that have blantantly lied to people to get them to stay during busy season and fire them once its all over.  There has been numerous Big 4 firings post busy season from Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and Pricewaterhouse coopers. 

Here are some of the activity that firms have been doing lately.

a) Lie to Repeat UFE writers in 2011 that they will get a second chance after busy season and then fire them. *cough Deloitte*
b)  Fire them for trying to acheive work life balance even if they are working 60 hour work weeks during busy season.
c) Fire people when they are 1-2 months away from getting their CA.  *cough Deloitte*, *cough GTA Deloitte*
d) Fire juniors, intermediates, seniors, managers, senior managers if they are slightly underperforming.  No one is safe.

The truth is everyone is expendable.  No one is safe.  One bad performance, One partner you piss off, and your axed just like that.  I've talked to a top performing manager for 5 years, have an arm accident where he was out for 1 month, and he got axed.  If you deny this fundamental truth, you probably are too far along brainwashed into the Big 4 system. 

My Post Big 4 Life

I am officially Ex - Big 4.  I left as a Senior 2 (6 months away from my manager promotion) and also coincidentally just after I got my CA.

The last month I can say has been one of the happiest months in my live.  I've accomplished so much personally and professionally in just one month, then I did in a year under Big 4.  Ultimately, lots of people ask me if you were a University student again and would you go the CA route again., I will answer ernestly from my heart No.   I am grateful for what I learned, but ultimately, Big 4 wasn't a good fit for me, and it wasn't what made me happy.
  
If you put me back as a 19 year old, after completing my first term under Big 4, I would quit and not look back.  I followed rationality (It's a good job, It's worth completing, I worked so hard already) versus what my heart told me and what would ultimately make me happy. ( I don't like it here, I really don't think it will get better, I want to explore and do other jobs.)     

I also advise students who have done just one or two coop terms and decided that its not for them to follow their heart.  Ignore the people who tell you, "you'll regret it, its such a great job and everyone has to pay their dues"  You will only end up resenting yourself if you have the opportunity and don't seize it.  I encourage you to explore other jobs out there.  You will definitely find jobs you do like and jobs you don't like, but if I were in university again, I would do different coop jobs and explore and see what I truly wanted to do. 

Do not follow the herd.  Follow your heart.  It sounds cliche, but after seeing the emotional breakdowns of several of my colleagues, and close friends, this is valuable valuable advice. 

With that said, I defeinitely met tons of awesome people and close friends at Big 4.  I will miss them dearly, but its time for me to move on. 

My thoughts on the CA merger

Today the CMA and CGA pulled out of the CPA merger, and wtf is CA Doing?? Trying to merge with themselves now?

This merger is ridiculous and a waste of our membership fees.  I am a strong opponent against the merger, and wish we can just put an end to this.  The ICAO needs to really start listening to its members, who you guys represent, and stop trying to run the show for your own personal agenda and personal gains. 


Best regards,

The Accountant





 

 

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Busy Season is Over!

Finally, my nth busy season is officially over!  If you're wondering about the 'nth', actually, I lost count of how many busy seasons I’ve gone through since I became an auditor right after my university days. 

This busy season was extra-challenging for me.  I actually thought I would skip this one out.  For those who could remember my post 8 months ago, I wrote about closing my own firm.  Back then, I thought I would try my hand on another career, something different from accounting or auditing.  I didn’t really think that was the end of my accounting career though but I was willing to try other things.

Well, I did try another path – online jobs such as writing and such - but I only lasted for 4 months!  For one, I wasn’t earning enough.  For another, I wasn’t really cut out working only 4 to 5 hours a day.  Call me a workaholic but I was missing the time when I worked for 8 hours a day or even more.

So what did I do?  Well, I went back and worked with my former employer (a big accounting firm).  It was rather easy or to be more precise, going back to the firm was an easy enough thing to do.  They welcomed me with open arms.  They even gave me my old position (I previously resigned when I was in the Manager 2 level) back.

What was difficult was the fact that I’ve been gone for more than 4 years so I had to make a lot of adjustments.  Let me tell you, 4 years is a long time to be away from an accounting firm, especially a big one or even a mid-sized firm because a lot can happen during those 4 years. Add to this is the fact that it was right smack in the middle of the busy season when they took me back in and what do you get?

Gone for 4 years + went back middle of the busy season = one heck of a quick adjustment period!!!

Thank goodness they only gave me a few clients.  Mind you, these were not the clients I handled before, these were new ones.  But since they were not that complicated and they were not really big ones, hey, I should count my blessings right?  But that doesn’t mean I got off easy.  I still have to do overtime work, late night (or early morning) work, week-end work, etc., etc.  I still had to deal with my client’s accounting staff (there are some who are really hard to deal with) and, sometimes, difficult juniors.  So it’s the same-old, same-old thing again.

So now what’s next?  Well, I still have a lot more things to catch up with.  Still have to deal with the usual after-busy season work like staff evaluations, filing of working papers, planning for the next busy season, etc.  Hope I get to write more about it in the future.  And yes, I do plan to write more about this during my next blog posts.  So bye for now and see you on my next post! 

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