Big 4: London or Regional Office?

I currently hold an offer for the London office at a Big 4 firm but currently live outside of London, a train stop away from one of the other PwC offices. I initially applied to London as I wanted the whole working in London lifestyle but I'm not a career girl, I'm not at all interested in being there for the networking or to claw my way into a IB position. I'm wondering whether I will get a (marginally) easier life (and less of a commute) if I was to transfer to the regional office in my second year if I find that London is really not for me as I keep hearing things about how the hours are even longer in London and you get to see less of the process as you become a specialist cog in the machine, which really doesn't appeal to me at all! If anyone could shed any light on this in terms of recent times as this thread is old, this would be really helpful!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 1

2late

Very similar salary, better hours, smaller clients - if that's for you then yes, go for it.

Reply 2

M1011

As above, the salary is broadly similar (you'll earn a few thousand more in London, but the rent is higher).

The hours don't just vary across regions, they vary across departments and individual engagements, so that really comes down to the luck of the draw in my experience. Sometimes I work 9:30 - 5:30, sometimes I work from eight in the morning to midnight. Random! However in general the big PLCs tend to have the longest hours, so you're more likely to get exposed to that in the London office. So there's pros and cons to that really.

Someone else may be able to enlighten a bit on travel in the regional offices, but in London the bulk of the clients tend to be a commute rather than an 'away job' (hotels etc). This may be the same in regional, I'm not sure. However again, it's a bit luck of the draw as and people differ totally on whether they prefer hotel jobs or not.

As for getting "to see less of the process as you become a specialist cog in the machine", I don't agree with that. On large clients you'll see less of the process, but we have plenty of small ones in London as well so you'll get a mix to work on. I imagine you get just as broad an experience.

I don't think it's going to affect you largely either way you choose, so ultimately you might be best picking it on the other aspects. Would you enjoy the big city experience or would you prefer to stay in the area you're in now?