<p>lol it would be nearly impossible to save $35k while making $70k gross/base in NYC. </p>
<p>I guess if you live in the South Bronx and really enjoy ramen, then perhaps you can get close, but good luck with that.</p>
<p>Tosh. College roomate works for PwC in NYC. Youre wrong.</p>
<p>58k + 2k bonus. 5k first year CPA bonus.</p>
<p>Well, it depends on the individual too. Some people get more, and others less. Yet, you cannot exclude rare cases because they exist. Though, I agree that most of the accounting jobs are paying between 42-55k.</p>
<p>jdb226,</p>
<p>lol, I didn’t include all of those bills into that number.</p>
<p>workingATbig4,</p>
<p>58k+2k+5k=65k </p>
<p>Though I should have said including bonus.</p>
<p>major in finance and stunt like this guy</p>
<p>[Investment</a> Banking "Models and Bottles" - YouTube](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4gnLWoh3fM]Investment”>- YouTube)</p>
<p>Tosh,</p>
<p>I really think your misinformed here. Some new hires don’t make more than others. Pretty much all first-years make the same with minor adjustments for the city. Even then, the first-years at any particular big 4 office make the same. Why are you giving advice on this? </p>
<p>Also that CPA bonus is not guranteed so I would not include it in a salary number.</p>
<p>I have a former student who is a Wharton graduate who works 80-100 hours a week and started at $90,000. (That works out to about $20 an hour.) He loves what he does and does it well. </p>
<p>To quote Citizen Kane…
Thompson: He made an awful lot of money.
Bernstein: Well, it’s no trick to make a lot of money… if what you want to do is make a lot of money.</p>
<p>him88002, </p>
<p>1)“Some new hires don’t make more than others. Pretty much all first-years make the same with minor adjustments for the city. Even then, the first-years at any particular big 4 office make the same.” </p>
<p>Are you sure that the first year hires all make the same? I think that you are misinformed here. Because the salary is negotiable people earn different amounts, even if they work in the same state, and for the same company. Obviously the difference is not big, by only a few thousands. In addition, it may also depend on which division you are working at: tax, advisory, or assurance. </p>
<p>2) “Also that CPA bonus is not guaranteed so I would not include it in a salary number.”</p>
<p>I agree, but that was an approximate maximum starting salary that you can earn coming out of college in accounting.</p>
<p>Tosh. You are wrong. You lack a basic understanding of professional compensation. Salary is 100% seperate from bonuses. The SALARY of some top level CEOs may be $250k. However, the bonuses will top $50 million. </p>
<p>Salary negotations do not happen at the Big 4. The firms, although it is “illegal” all pay new hires in the same area around the same amount so negotations CAN’T happen. They do this on purpose to avoid stealing away each other’s associates based on salary. It is simply not efficient for them to allow negotiations.</p>
<p>I cannot give a 100% accurate answer on this but my understanding is an associate is an associate and earns the same across all departments.</p>
<p>And you cannot call the bonus “salary”. That is a misunderstanding of the basic concept of salary. A salary is set in a contract that “you will earn this much” and the bonuses are performance incentives. Hell, they don’t even HAVE to give the performance incentives. Saying a PWC NYC audit associates salary is 65k because of bonuses is fundamentally wrong. Not to attack you, but you just don’t seem to understand what the difference between salary and bonuses are. The salary is 58k. The bonuses are 7k. You do not add them to get the salary. They are two different forms of compensation.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I came in 2 years ago with 16 other new hires. 12 of us had passed all 4 parts. The other 4 had passed at least 3. Last year we hired 12 new associates. 10/12 passed all 4 parts before coming to work.</p>
<p>It has become MUCH more common for people to come in having passed a majority of the CPA and be well on the way to finishing it up within 6 months. The partners EXPECT you to be done in that 1 year/$5000 bonus range. Hell, it’s not that difficult with Becker and a little determination.</p>
<p>And FutureVPFinance…I never said you did say UIUC would do that. The idea that banking in general would make you a billionare or even an 8 figure salary is ridiculous. Do you realize how RARE that is?</p>
<p>WorkingatBig4, I gotta thank you for shining some light on this stuff. Many of the misinformed posters on here create a lot of damage by spewing nonsense information. The worst thing is that advice seekers will actually use all of that misinformed information. It really irks me.</p>
<p>WorkingAtBig4-I guess I should have mentioned how rare it was then. I just assumed the OP would know that</p>
<p>WorkingATbig4:</p>
<p>I understand that most new-hires are able to get the bonus. Just wanted to point out to Tosh that a bonus does not equal salary.</p>
<p>Tosh:</p>
<p>Like WorkingATbig4 said, you’re totally misinformed. Why are you posting this on an open forum that impressionable highschoolers read? I may not be an expert on the big4, but I am interning at one of them. As as a result of this, I have had enough exposure to be at least able to offer a little bit of knowledge. You on the other hand are giving false information and potraying it to be authentic. Then when its obvious your wrong you make bs excuses.</p>