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Social Life at big4

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In general, alot of people are annoying, so I don't enjoy talking to them.

Oh dear!

You'll find in the Big Four, a lot of it is about the people. I've heard mixed views on the individual firms, e.g. KPMG and Deloitte have the most "friendly" people. In those firms it's definitely those individuals that get along with everyone else and are known throughout the department that are promoted quickly.

The best way to do that is to join the sports teams/go to socials/etc. You have to be someone who's happy go lucky in those situations though ha.

Reply 41

montyr

Original post by Kemik

Kpmg and deloitte are t he friendliest? The big4 really are the same, as I picked ey based on them being the friendliest.

Reply 42

fail@maths

EY are evil and not friendly. (credible internal source ^>^ )

Reply 43

mastergrad

Sorry gonna have to disagree!

Friendliest is EY by far - really depends how you show yourself from day one.

Get on the bad side of everyone then yes not the friendliest place. This is common everywhere. The more friendly you are then the better!

Reply 44

Zacho

Original post by mastergrad

Cool, so i assume you have worked at them all?

I am joining Deloitte and read on various forums that they were generally very friendly. I have no idea though.

Reply 45

Kemik

Original post by mastergrad

EY work you like a bitch. They're pushing for more market share by going in with lower fees based on support from the US. They're restricting recruitment in order to keep costs down and put pressure on staff to complete jobs quicker in an attempt to keep recovery around the same level with lower fees.

Reply 46

jfqwerty

What about Grant Thornton? Are there many societies/sports to get involved in?

Reply 47

Samtheman1

Original post by NW86

I really don't want to get into an argument on my lunch time on this, and to be honest based on your earlier posts I doubt I'm going to change your mind :smile:

So I'll just give a quick opinion on this and I'll leave it at that!

Networking is about personal or professional gain, in one form or another that is definetly true.

I am certainly not an ass kisser, I don't suck up to people, I don't blow smoke up anyones arse to try and impress them.

Networking however is somewhat different, in the early stages of your career it's about making seniors, whether thats SMs, Directors, Partners aware of your presence, it's about showing interest in a certain sector, picking up pieces of work ad hoc that are relatively small to cut your teeth, as it were, and prove you are hard working.

The when an interesting project comes around your name is remembered and you get decent roles. I can catagorically state that resourcing are not the be all and end all. The BEST project roles are hand picked to certain people, usually based on directors and partners experience of those people, whether it's through internal work or whether it is through strong project work you have done recently, or for them in the past.

You need to understand that networking is about building a brand for youself. And then being able to utilise that network to make sure you get the interesting roles, the roles that stretch you and the roles that develop you.

I am not being facetious when I say this, I am not the smartest person from those who remain of my intake. There are new graduates coming in with masters from oxford who are amazingly smart and bright, but I do well because it's not just about your ability to do great work, that simply isn't enough in our industry, it's about the ability to be recognised for great work, and have a wide network of people to reach out to in downtime.One last example and then I'll shut up, i promise :smile:

I recently rolled off a project that I had been on for 18 months for what we call some bench time, basically doing internal work and supporting bids etc, a lot of consultants get best time, and those with good networks within the firm can utilise this time really well, by reaching out to a wide range of people you know in the firm you can find really small interesting pieces of work, that may only last for a few days, but it keeps you chargeable, where a lot of people without a solid network struggle here and find their chargeability dropping, or end up doing the less glamorous pieces of work, maybe a dull research piece.

Thats my slightly more than 2 cents on the topic, apologies if it's a bit fragmented however I just kinda brain dumped on this topic

Uggghh - PwC lingo.

Fully indoctrinated

Reply 48

NW86

Original post by Samtheman1

Uggghh - PwC lingo.

Fully indoctrinated

I don't work for PWC :smile:

Standard consulting language :smile:

Reply 49

ok_cub2008

Original post by s1lverr3db0x

Yeah they do, on to summer internships though, not full time ones.

Wow, you sound lovely. For most people, interacting with others isn't quite the chore it seems to be for you.

Reply 50

MagicNMedicine

Interesting thread on socialising and networking etc.

I personally do believe there is an art to networking and getting yourself known which is slightly different from just going to all socials.

Sometimes young graduates start work with an attitude a bit like freshers at university. They want to get to know all their other fellow new graduates and make new friends/have people to socialise with - which is fine - but then they start hooking up into couples and then breaking up and forming cliques and you get people who hate others and so on and this is where it gets childish. Often the people who are higher up the pecking order than you in a company will have young families and responsibilities and they will take a dim view of graduates acting and talking like students.

I think there's an art to getting yourself known around a company positively but you want to people to know you as someone who is sociable in a work sense rather than just sociable per se. You want to project the image of someone who is confident, competent and professional.

As regards the socialising with work mates, I think it's healthy to not do it too often. You might not want to be associated as being part of the group of 'kids' that go out on town together on Friday night, post pictures all over facebook and then spend Monday going on about it.

Reply 51

Staker

Original post by Samtheman1

Uggghh - PwC lingo.

Fully indoctrinated

Standard business language there dude.

Reply 52

Kemik

Original post by MagicNMedicine

snip

Like with many Wire fans, I disagree.

I think it's very healthy to go to social events with your work mates. It's now become that my best friends are work mates. I live with people at KPMG, we go on nights out together, etc.

By the age of 21, usually older when joining, most people should be aware that what happens outside of work stays outside of work. Yes, people chat in work about social events but no one is going to argue or anything like that in work.

I personally think work would be a lot duller if I wasn't such good friends with the people I work along side. Remember the hierarchy and understand what you can talk about in work and you'll be fine.