Help in Choosing a Big 4 Audit Firm:

Hi everyone, I made this forum as I have been offered two apprenticeships at KPMG as well as EY for Audit and they are both in regional firms. I have 2 weeks to make a decision on which one to go for but I am lost for trying to choose one as they both seem neck and neck in different aspects. Can anyone here who knows any important differences give me info on the two firms based on working life/career progression/social events as I am quite a social person and am open to the high workload up to a reasonable extent. Thank you!

Thank you for both of your responses, they have been useful as it got me to think of other factors.

Both of them are for auditing in private enterprise sector and they are both ICAEW and the exams are structured in similar fashion in terms of batches and exam failure policies.

KPMG is 5 years and it includes AAT Level 3 & 4 but EY says 4 years so I assume we don't do AAT for Level 3, does anyone know if it is beneficial to take the Level 3 AAT as it may give me more knowledge for the harder ACA exams.

The offices are close together and the commuting factor is negligible as they are both near the bedfordshire area and commute time is more or less the same.

The key differences is that the EY office seems to be much better in terms of size and there are more online posts about the social events they take part in as an office. But the recruitment process was much smoother at KPMG and the communication with their apprentices/graduates at the Assessment Centre was top tier as they were all passionate and confident when speaking to use. At times, the communication from EY was blunt and they made quite a few errors along the way.

In the forum's opinion, would people be less interested in you as a recruit after your qualified if I end up taking the KPMG option as although it's a big 4, I see a lot of criticism of it since its the smallest in terms of revenue compared to other top tier firms.

Thank you for both of your advice. So it might be better for me to choose EY due to quicker qualification time as well as company profile when it comes to auditing opportunities. If anyone else has any thoughts please post here, I would appreciate it

My thoughts (unless you are very much a glass half empty person or entirely averse to going to university) is that if EY is 4 years compared with 5 elsewhere that is such, such a huge difference when you are working that you should grab it with both hands.

I understand your point because the extra one year could just be avoided since it's not significant in helping to get the ACA and will result in quicker promotion . I have applied to university and think I would also enjoy it there but for accountancy/finance I believe it is better to go straight to apprenticeship route as most people have to go on to graduate scheme anyway after they finish uni. Thank you

I understand your point because the extra one year could just be avoided since it's not significant in helping to get the ACA and will result in quicker promotion . I have applied to university and think I would also enjoy it there but for accountancy/finance I believe it is better to go straight to apprenticeship route as most people have to go on to graduate scheme anyway after they finish uni. Thank you