Career Advice Please

Career advice please

I’m in the UK and I’ve currently got an offer for an audit apprenticeship in investment management and private equity with a B4 firm. For those who don’t know the apprenticeships in the UK are 4 years long where you work and get paid very decent money and end up ACA qualified by the end, plus a full time offer once you qualify. The apprenticeship is supposed to be equivalent to a masters degree, but you don’t get a masters degree, only the ACA.

I know it seems like a really good offer, and it is, but I’m not sure if it’s for me.

I picked audit as I was under the impression that it was very broad and you can you move into other services lines after qualifying such as consulting afterwards, but the more I’ve looked into it I realise this isn’t true, and the people who have managed to do it normally have a degree or consulting qualification. Also, the only exit opportunities in audit to the best of my knowledge are other accounting/bookkeeping roles in industry companies, which would pretty much leave me trapped in audit. I also don’t know how far up you can move in a companies as an auditor, and whether your career may platueau at one point. Also I don’t know if I’ll be able to move to other countries and work with just the ACA as it’s not recognised in all countries such as the US.

My alternative is going to a pretty good university in the UK for a masters in mechanical engineering and then going into other industries such as consulting, data or tech afterwards. I wouldn’t mind this however it will cost me a lot of money and I can’t guarantee I’ll get a good offer like I have now after university as graduate schemes are very competitive. However, during university I can do lots of internships and work experience to decide what I really want to do. Also for university I would have to move away from home which I’d prefer not to do for personal reasons.

I’ve already signed my B4 offer and I start in September, but I need to decide soon as ideally I’d like to let them know but mid-end July if I’m not going to join the firm.

I’d really appreciate any advice as this is a problem I’ve had for months now and I really just don’t know what to do and it’s just draining me every day causing so much stress thinking about it.