Difference between IB corporate finance and BIG 4 corporate finance

I have been invited for a final assesment day with corporate finance transaction advisory services, with Ernst and Young.

Does anybody know the difference between an M&A graduate advisory role with a big 4 practice and an M&A graduate role with an investment bank?

Is the difference purely the average size of deals, or is there a deeper underlying difference?

Reply 1

johnbarkwith

anyone?

Reply 2

Breitling

Barny

Deal size and hours. Pretty much it.

Er....Pay?

Reply 3

johnbarkwith

the pay is obviously a difference, but i was wondering about more fundamental differences in the actual work..

Reply 4

Ben Dover the Lollipop Man

Breitling

Er....Pay?

Surely thats not the only thing you look for in a job. Ah I guess not...

Reply 5

in_it_2_win_it

Perhaps look at the studying aspect?

Do E&Y offer ACA to Corp Fin people? Or do they allow you to choose between CFA and ACA?

What about BB IB's? Can you do CFA?

Reply 6

johnbarkwith

EY offer ICAS quaification, which is on parr with ACA...

Reply 7

Breitling

johnbarkwith

the pay is obviously a difference, but i was wondering about more fundamental differences in the actual work..

OK well you didn't state you were clear on that in your original post.

I wouldn't say the work would be more interesting at either. More prestigious deals at IB but you probably get more client interaction at BIG 4.

Reply 8

in_it_2_win_it

i was just offering another perspective, other than deals/hours/pay...

Reply 9

-pixie-

Corp Finance at EY includes other areas other than M&A such as Restructuring, Valuations, Transaction Support etc. In terms of deals, M&A at EY deal with mid-market sized deals. However, transaction support which mainly does due diligence work will have huge clients as well, including investment banks as many investment banks don't do due diligence work. In terms of the hours, M&A specifically in IB will probably have longer hours, but hours in EY Corp Fin can still be long.

Also, as EY Corp Fin offers ICAS, pay is not necessarily comparable at the beginning as exam fees are high so analysts are paid slightly less. Depends how much you value the qualification.

Reply 10

tantive_IV

It's an old topic, but hope it will help someone with the same question.

The obvious difference would have to be in the domain. Big 4 CF are pretty much in the mid market M&A segments.

Another important difference lies in the fact that unlike Investment Banks who have capital Big4 do not provide any financing nor underwriting services since they operate purely as a professional services firm. This means to say that not only is there no ECM/DCM department in Big4s, they are unable to package acquisition financing together with M&A financial advisory. They however provide advisory services to help clients source for private placements and debt raising.

Having interned at a Big 4 CF before, I would say that it is a good learning ground to pick up skills as a platform to jump eventually into an investment bank IBD. Even the Big 4 realises that, which is why entry level pay is considerably lower than an IB analyst though the increments are (were) rather generous to encourage retention. Despite that, it is not uncommon to see a sizeable proportion of the CF or even Valuations team turnover in a year.

What you might wanna factor in apart from the learning opportunity is the fact that the because advisory is ultimately a secondary business line to auditing, the independence issues that arises means that the potential clientele for Big4 firms are limited (u can't be an FA to an audit client). Also, the relative dearth of deal exposure coupled with mid-market segement means that the experience at Big4 might be slightly discounted when u eventually wish to apply to an IB. Annecdotes which i've heard seem to suggest that IBs seem to view 2 years exp in Big4 CF as comparable to 1 year IB CF exp precisely becos' of the disparity in deal exposure.

Hope that helps.

Reply 11

Neocortex

tantive_IV

Annecdotes which i've heard seem to suggest that IBs seem to view 2 years exp in Big4 CF as comparable to 1 year IB CF exp precisely becos' of the disparity in deal exposure.
QUOTE]

Well IB CF also works much longer hours, their 1 year experience in hour wise equals 1 year and half of Big4 CF:P