Which internship? corporate finance, audit or tax?

Hi,

Im in 2nd year of uni and Ive been accepted on to 2 summer internships at Deloitte (3 weeks audit or enterprise risk services, and 3 weeks tax) and EY (corporate finance - transaction support).

I dont know which one to choose.

As a firm, I preferred Deloitte, much more friendly, young and dynamic.

However, i have been led to believe Corporate Finance will be a better career option. (I think both will offer ACA qualification training after uni)

Could anyone give me any advice? in terms of potential salaries 10 years down the line at the 2 firms, and generally in audit, tax, and corporate finance?

Thanks

Reply 1

paradac

I cannot advise you moeny wise, however my boyfriend had an internship with deloitte last summer and loved every minute of it..he will not stop talking about everything...he said it was just an awesome environment..I am actually looking into corporate finance internship...how did you go about finding yours?

Reply 2

mendelssohn

1

Deloitte is a better firm in virtually all respects. Bigger, more interesting clients etc. Also I thought E&Y only offer the ICAS qualification not the ACA??

disclaimer- I will be doing the deloitte internship this summer...

Reply 3

dancingqueen

11

mendelssohn

Deloitte is a better firm in virtually all respects. Bigger, more interesting clients etc. Also I thought E&Y only offer the ICAS qualification not the ACA??

disclaimer- I will be doing the deloitte internship this summer...

I know a lot of people at EY don't seemto be doing ACA, so agreed, that should be a factor I think. Although if you do an internship at one of the big four I'm sure it would make it easier for you to get a job at another if you didn't like the original firm or service line.

Reply 4

Redeyejedi

7

mendelssohn

Deloitte is a better firm in virtually all respects. Bigger, more interesting clients etc. Also I thought E&Y only offer the ICAS qualification not the ACA??

You'll soon see that big does not equate to "more interesting." Maybe when you are an Exec+ yes, not when you are an associate.

Reply 5

bowdiddly

OP

mendelssohn

Deloitte is a better firm in virtually all respects. Bigger, more interesting clients etc. Also I thought E&Y only offer the ICAS qualification not the ACA??
...

is there much difference between the aca and icas? in terms of prestige/difficulty etc?

Reply 6

Barny

17

As it's a summer internship I'd thoroughly recommend you completely discard notions of "friendliness" from the decision making process. For 8-10 weeks it doesn't matter a %%%%%%%% how friendly the firm may seem as its only for 10 weeks. The big 4 are filled with the same kind of people anyway, so any perceived differences in friendliness or other such factors is probably surface deep anyway.

As for which service line to choose, corporate finance would be my choice simply because it will be far more interesting than audit/tax combined. As for salaries, like for like corporate finance will be better paid, and if you get the chance to study as a chartered accountant(ICAS/ICAEW) then you'd be mad to choose audit/tax over that.

ICAS/ICAEW are pretty much identical qualifications with identical levels of prestige attached.

Reply 7

mendelssohn

1

what exactly would you be doing in corporate finance in a big4 though? People say it is the same as the banks but on a smaller scale, but i just cant believe that can be true...do you do financial modelling and valuation and basically learn the same stuff you would as an analyst in the ibd of an investment bank?

Reply 8

Wstroud

1

what exactly would you be doing in corporate finance in a big4 though? People say it is the same as the banks but on a smaller scale, but i just cant believe that can be true...do you do financial modelling and valuation and basically learn the same stuff you would as an analyst in the ibd of an investment bank?

It is basically the same stuff - I've done about 4months as part of my scheme at Deloitte in Cf and you work on proposals for investments, learn about how to structure various finance deals and other things.

Having done audit, tax and corporate finance, for a 10 week internship i would probably not do corporate finance purely because there is very little that you will actually be able to do. It takes a while to learn how to create financial models or to know how to write proposals and so you are unlikely to be able to do much.

With tax, and particuarly with audit there are things that you will be able to do right from day 1, so i would probably go for Deloitte for the internship. The other thing that you have to rememeber is that you can do you ACA in tax/audit, and then move over the corporate finance when you pass.

In terms of long-term career aspirations it really depends what you do. If you work in corporate finance, then initially you will be on a bit more money at the big 4. If you work in tax and audit, then you will be on less until you pass your ACA. After that, if you stay in the big 4, salaries are similar in both divisions. Obviously if you move to an investment bank (M&A) then you will be on a lot more doing corporate finance.

Reply 9

mendelssohn

1

in terms of moving to a bank after doing an ACA, do you think the banks would look more favourably on you if you have worked in corporate finance, or transaction services in the big4?

which service line would be more highly regarded by the banks?

I know someone here said transaction services, but I'm still unsure, as PwC offer the chance to do the ACA whilst in the corpfin service line...

Reply 10

Barny

17

ACA Corporate Finance > ACA Transaction Services > CFQ Corporate Finance.

As for wstrouds advice, the reason you can start doing audit work from day 1 is because its monkey work - ticking boxes and ticking lists. You have to choose whether you want to sit about twidling your thumbs or sit about ticking boxes.

Reply 11

mendelssohn

1

Barny what do you do out of interest?

I have an offer for a summer internship in assurance at PwC, but now realise that I def do not want to do audit as a career. How easy do you think it would be to switch from an assurance internship to a corporate finance grad offer at PwC? and so you think that would be the better option to working in transaction services at deloitte?

thanks

Reply 12

Barny

17

I'm a Maths/Phys undergrad at Nottingham, and a part-qualified accountant.

Working in Corp Fin at PWC is much better than transaction services at deloitte as far as options down the line go, much better.

Reply 13

Wstroud

1

the reason you can start doing audit work from day 1 is because its monkey work

I didn't suggest otherwise, but you'll learn a lot more from doing audit than from sitting on a CF desk doing nothing all day, which is what invariably happens when people join corporate finance as interns. Its a different matter if you are talking about graduate jobs, when i would agree that you would go for corporate finance over any other service line.

Reply 14

john williams

15

Id chose EY any day, even if your doing nothing all day it'll look better on your cv and at the big4 training schemes your gona learn the different areas/roles regardless. Plus id rather stare at a blank screen than work in risk services!

Reply 15

Kalz

Go for Deloitte.

I did an internship there in Consulting but realised i'd prefer CF.
At the the end of the internship I asked to be interviewed for a grad pos in the CF division instead of Consulting and they were more than happy to do this.
Likewise, others on the internship in audit, tax etc were free to choose any division to be interviewed in for their grad position.

Reply 16

iownworld

Anyone has any idea abt the CF in KPMG?
Cheers

Reply 17

mendelssohn

1

very good apparently. you study the corporate finance qualification (cfq). ask brabzzz, he works there and is very helpful.

Reply 18

YouAreWhatYouEat

iownworld

Anyone has any idea abt the CF in KPMG?
Cheers

KPMG run rings around the other big4 in terms of CF (they even out compete IB's as they get alot more deal flow through mid market which is what the big4 specialise on)

check the league tables (i.e. independent tompson) as they consistently come top miles ahead of any big4

Reply 19

YouAreWhatYouEat

mendelssohn

Deloitte is a better firm in virtually all respects. Bigger, more interesting clients etc. Also I thought E&Y only offer the ICAS qualification not the ACA??

---> in terms of ey vs deloitte - maybe

yes in europe, but no in other areas such as the US where ey has a better rep (but obviously the op is concerned about the UK i guess)

---> in terms of the big4 - no

Which internship? corporate finance, audit or tax?

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