My big 4 graduate scheme experience and why I left (AMA!)

Disclaimer: This post is entirely based on my own experience, perspective, insights, and opinion on the Big 4 and being in a client focused role i.e. Audit, Tax etc. I understand that people may disagree with my views, but again, this is my own perspective. This is simply to share my experience with others who may find it helpful and beneficial.

Here's my short summary: I joined a Big 4 company in the UK on the graduate program as a new analyst. I was there for approximately one and a half years, completed the part of my professional exams, and then left without anything else lined up (which I do not recommend!), now I'm on the job market looking for some totally different (I would not go back to that environment).

First of all, my expectations of what the Big 4 would actually be like were very different before I joined. I expected it to be extremely structured, with a developed pattern of work, and I would know what I would be doing on each day. However, this was far from the reality. Ultimately, there is little to no structure, you're doing different kinds of work for different clients, most of the time you don't have a clue what's going on, but that's "normal." You would form particular relationships with senior colleagues who would delegate you work, and then you would have these sort of "bonds" with these people and stick with them for future work, which leads me to one of my first issues I had.

Personally, I found it very strange that I would need to get on good terms with and almost suck up to senior colleagues. I'm a very independent individual, and I didn't like having to form special relationships with people to develop myself. In my team, everyone was very friendly, but seeing past the normal pleasantries, there's always the matter of how they perceive you individually. If people didn't like you personally, then they wouldn't get you on board with work that they do. So I had to try and put on a face for so long.

At the Big 4, fundamentally, you would need to really get onboard and have "interest" in the work that's going on. In my case, I just saw work as work. I wasn't really "interested" or "enjoyed" any of the projects that were going on. This is the opposite of how you need to be. If you're someone like me that doesn't care about seizing opportunities, really getting hands-on in the work with an eagerness to learn more, you're going to be VERY unhappy as I was. And there are actually many senior people like this in the Big 4, and let me tell you, they are very, very dissatisfied and unhappy people from my experience. The people who were happy were the ones who were the real "go-getters," winning their clients, digging for the latest information etc. For me, I really didn't care about helping a client make an extra £1000 profit. I could care less, there are more important things in the world for me to worry about. Just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it – that was my personality, NOT THE RIGHT TYPE. This lack of interest also causes problems in learning and development. If you're not interested, then it's going to be more of a big struggle to pass your qualifications. This isn't the type of job where you work your hours, you go home, and do the things you want. There are jobs and roles out there where you can simply cruise along, take a more laid back approach and just do your tasks and leave it at that. You can't do that at the Big 4, you have to really integrate yourself or at least attempt to.

You also have to be into the social culture. Every week there would be drinks down at the pub. Most folks in the UK here like to drink beer all evening and talk smack/small talk over trivial things – I don't. And I wouldn't make an effort to conform and attend these events. Others that I know didn't enjoy it still would go because they know if they didn't they would lose popularity, which would affect their work relationships and subsequently future opportunities. Me personally, I couldn't care less how popular I was with other people. My attitude was "I don't care, I am me and you are you," and this did have a big effect on my work relationships naturally. I was still open and friendly with everyone else, but there was no genuine connection other than that except with a few odd people I found similar to myself.

When you're like this, you can only keep it up for so long. Don't get me wrong, somewhat similar individuals like myself do remain at the big 4, they do manage to complete their qualifications and move on, but they end up being VERY UNHAPPY and dissatisfied. It's a great career path for many, with great growth opportunities, pay increases, etc. But it just wasn't for me personally. I could've stuck it out, put my head down and suffered, but I simply didn't want to and I did not see it as a career for me besides.

I could go on and on in great detail, but I think enough been said to take in by readers I appreciate all those who read my little experience. Please do share your comments and thoughts, I’m happy to answer questions about the Big 4 and my experience or if anyone wants to msg to talk directly happy for that too!

I have a list of questions:
What have you decided to do now based on what you learned from this experience? Looking back, would you still have made the same choices in joining the Big 4, despite deciding now not to go back?
What were your specific reasons for joining the Big 4? I know there are usually a list of reasons for joining, but I am keen to know the ones that were most relevant for you
Was there anything you particularly regret in your experience? Was there anything you was particularly grateful for?
How big of a factor is having the right personality for the role or attitude for the company that you work for? Is it more important than other things that are considered in the recruitment process e.g. academic performance, experience, skills, etc.?
How much time do you actually have in studying for your exams? Did you find it a struggle to keep up with things?
They say there is often a lot of support in the Big 4 for your development in your career. Based on your description, would you say this is still true despite what it's actually like?
It's said that there is often a lot of churn in the companies; does the fact that there is a lot of attrition in retaining staff afftect the corporate culture? If so in what way?
How easy is it for the companies to get clients? Generally getting clients are pretty difficult for accounting services but this can be polarised due to the brand names, and I was wondering whether being in the Big 4 made any difference.
Were you based in London? If so, did the salary give you an "adequate" standard of living in the City?

Feel free to answer as many or as few questions as you like. I appreciate that some of the above questions might infringe on certain aspects of confidentiality and might be a bit too personal. If this is so feel free to add as little or as much detail as you like.

Thank you.

Great post! Many thanks for posting.

It isn't a case of "sucking up", but understanding how to get on with your superiors and colleagues. It oils the wheels much better than trying to be too independent. There is no "I" in teamwork.

If you don't enjoy the work it will show. Unmotivated colleagues are bad for morale.

Would it have too been difficult to go to the pub and not drink?


TBH it sounds like you were completely unsuited to the role, although this job sounds like my idea of a nightmare as well.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! Your detail is really insightful, especially where you've described your personality type, and what kind of personality suits that environment. I've heard so much general info about the big4 but its very interesting to hear your first-hand experience. I do have 2 questions:

1. What was it like being in such a big graduate cohort? Do people befriend each other? Or is it very competitive between graduates? Is there a lot of drama?
2. What key skills do you think you learnt from your time there?

Thank you!

Hey there, thanks for your reply and great questions!

With the team you’ll be assigned to there will (usually) be other graduates joining you in the same team, and so you will be on the journey together with them. Grads usually make friends with each other, and they all tend to be supportive and friendly unless you’ve got some pompous grads joining. There are likely to also be some international grads, it's a bit harder to relate and be friendly with them obviously because of the cultural difference and language barrier. It can get a bit competitive when you want to impress seniors to work more with them, a lot of grads will naturally want to impress the seniors however they can. Also when it comes to exams with studying, scores etc but because I was so disinterested and couldn’t care less about who I impressed, I dissociated myself from all that.

Key skills I would say are project management side of things, admin procedures, teamwork and basic analyst knowledge of the field/area you’ll be working in: audit, tax etc.

Building close relationships, having an actual interest in work, having the right personality, having to work in a team, fitting into the company culture, and work being unstructured at times are factors that would apply in any job

I would strongly disagree, not meaning to offend but it seems as though you're speaking out of ignorance. Have you had an opportunity to work in different environments/roles to see similarities and differences? I've worked in a civil service role where the approach and factors needed were very different. Where your work is more independent and individual managed, there's a far lesser need to worry about your relationships formed and the type of personality you maintain. I've worked in the education industry where you have to follow policy and guidelines but once you do that, there's little expectation for you having to have a right kind of personality, working in a team and unstructured work. Are you meaning to tell me that working in a Big4 grad scheme would be the same as working in a completely different industry like teaching or pharmaceuticals?

Many organisations for example don't try and formulate a "culture", a culture is only formed when people of shared interests come together to set a standard. If a standard is never set then there's never a culture formed. Also for example in a non client facing role, structure is a lot more concrete. In the grad scheme you don't know what you'll be doing tomorrow for example, a client can shoot a request or a new major project could come in at any moment that you need to jump in on or else but in a non client facing role say in internal functions or operations, you know exactly what you're going to be doing each day and each week. The workloads and activity will fluctuate but ultimately it's a lot more monotonous.

I've worked in quite a few jobs in different industries, probably more jobs than I can remember because of temp assignments. And sure working in a factory for instance didn't really require a personality, but it was still worth developing it by talking to people and developing my social skills. Discounting things that might not be necessary (but it's still possible to develop) is a negative way of thinking. Any experience is good experience imo. The factory work might be small but it's still worth something I can draw upon. In my current role a growth mindset is required to progress and succeed in your career. It's probably why I get invited to lunch and learns and events that have nothing to do with my job because those skills probably will be needed one day so it's useful to gain some experience now.

Disclaimer: This post is entirely based on my own experience, perspective, insights, and opinion on the Big 4 and being in a client focused role i.e. Audit, Tax etc. I understand that people may disagree with my views, but again, this is my own perspective. This is simply to share my experience with others who may find it helpful and beneficial.

Here's my short summary: I joined a Big 4 company in the UK on the graduate program as a new analyst. I was there for approximately one and a half years, completed the part of my professional exams, and then left without anything else lined up (which I do not recommend!), now I'm on the job market looking for some totally different (I would not go back to that environment).

First of all, my expectations of what the Big 4 would actually be like were very different before I joined. I expected it to be extremely structured, with a developed pattern of work, and I would know what I would be doing on each day. However, this was far from the reality. Ultimately, there is little to no structure, you're doing different kinds of work for different clients, most of the time you don't have a clue what's going on, but that's "normal." You would form particular relationships with senior colleagues who would delegate you work, and then you would have these sort of "bonds" with these people and stick with them for future work, which leads me to one of my first issues I had.

Personally, I found it very strange that I would need to get on good terms with and almost suck up to senior colleagues. I'm a very independent individual, and I didn't like having to form special relationships with people to develop myself. In my team, everyone was very friendly, but seeing past the normal pleasantries, there's always the matter of how they perceive you individually. If people didn't like you personally, then they wouldn't get you on board with work that they do. So I had to try and put on a face for so long.

At the Big 4, fundamentally, you would need to really get onboard and have "interest" in the work that's going on. In my case, I just saw work as work. I wasn't really "interested" or "enjoyed" any of the projects that were going on. This is the opposite of how you need to be. If you're someone like me that doesn't care about seizing opportunities, really getting hands-on in the work with an eagerness to learn more, you're going to be VERY unhappy as I was. And there are actually many senior people like this in the Big 4, and let me tell you, they are very, very dissatisfied and unhappy people from my experience. The people who were happy were the ones who were the real "go-getters," winning their clients, digging for the latest information etc. For me, I really didn't care about helping a client make an extra £1000 profit. I could care less, there are more important things in the world for me to worry about. Just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it – that was my personality, NOT THE RIGHT TYPE. This lack of interest also causes problems in learning and development. If you're not interested, then it's going to be more of a big struggle to pass your qualifications. This isn't the type of job where you work your hours, you go home, and do the things you want. There are jobs and roles out there where you can simply cruise along, take a more laid back approach and just do your tasks and leave it at that. You can't do that at the Big 4, you have to really integrate yourself or at least attempt to.

You also have to be into the social culture. Every week there would be drinks down at the pub. Most folks in the UK here like to drink beer all evening and talk smack/small talk over trivial things – I don't. And I wouldn't make an effort to conform and attend these events. Others that I know didn't enjoy it still would go because they know if they didn't they would lose popularity, which would affect their work relationships and subsequently future opportunities. Me personally, I couldn't care less how popular I was with other people. My attitude was "I don't care, I am me and you are you," and this did have a big effect on my work relationships naturally. I was still open and friendly with everyone else, but there was no genuine connection other than that except with a few odd people I found similar to myself.

When you're like this, you can only keep it up for so long. Don't get me wrong, somewhat similar individuals like myself do remain at the big 4, they do manage to complete their qualifications and move on, but they end up being VERY UNHAPPY and dissatisfied. It's a great career path for many, with great growth opportunities, pay increases, etc. But it just wasn't for me personally. I could've stuck it out, put my head down and suffered, but I simply didn't want to and I did not see it as a career for me besides.

I could go on and on in great detail, but I think enough been said to take in by readers I appreciate all those who read my little experience. Please do share your comments and thoughts, I’m happy to answer questions about the Big 4 and my experience or if anyone wants to msg to talk directly happy for that too!

Really interesting, thank you for sharing your experience and letting others ask questions.

I am currently on a big4 grad scheme and not very happy on it either.

What was your final straw moment that made you decide to quit? Considering you were doing a qualification that I assume your employer funded, where there any problems with just leaving that? Did they ask you to pay any of the fees or anything back?

Did you have people in your company you tried to talk to beforehand, see if you could switch roles or something similar. It seems pretty rigid to me as long as you are on the grad programme sadly.

Again thanks for taking the time to answer questions, really appreciate it.