<p>Alright, I'm just gonna come out and say it: I'm going to a small state school in Texas. Laugh at me if you want, but a full ride beats college loans. With this painfull confession out of the way, what do you guys think of the plausibility of my plan: I will get my undergrad in accounting (i might double in finance), I'll get my MPA, then - if all goes well- my CPA. I'll work for Ernst and Young for +/-4 years then attempt an MBA. I will probably like to attend U of Texas. My ultimate goal is to work in consulting. However, I like the idea of CPA as a solid fall back. The reason I plan to start at Ersnt & Young is because they are the only Big 4 that recruits my future school. I would like to go into consulting straight out of my MPA, but my school is essentially non-existant in the business world. So my question really is, will top MBA schools (not limited to UT) like an accountant; and what do you guys think of the transition from accounting to consulting?</p>
<p>work in Big 4 TAS (audit/tax is OK, but TAS is where the big boys play), get into a decent MBA (HSWK might be hard from the Big 4, but a T10 should be possible with a good GMAT/GPA and if you can prove you’re a leader at your job), get recruited by a consulting firm.</p>
<p>Really at this point, get a good GPA so you can get a good job, study hard for the GMAT. That’s all you can really do. You may also want to look into starting in corporate finance at a F500 since promotion at the Big 4 is virtually a lock-step, and its hard to show leadership there.</p>
<p>It’s hard to show leadership at Big 4 leading engagement teams and teaching staff? What the ****? Hope that was sarcasm.</p>
<p>Well I’ve heard that its a little bit harder to show leadership (as in rise up through management), since the Big 4 has a pretty rigid promotion system. Obviously, you do gain leadership skills since you work with clients and whatnot, but you have to be in there for a certain amount of time before you can move up and assume more responsibility. That’s what I meant, not that its impossible to go from Big 4 => top MBA since many people do end up doing it.</p>
<p>cream, sorry but you have no idea what you are talking about. You demonstrate leadership skills as a first year teaching interns. You also gain leadership skills teaching first years as a 2nd year. By the time you are a 3rd year, you are automatically a senior. As a senior you are responsible for running the engagement. The manager and partner stop by the engagement once and a while, but the senior is in charge of dealing with all the staff members. On the other hand, if you worked at a F500 in corporate finance as I am now, it will be very difficult to get the kind of responsibilty and leadership one can get after 2 years of exp as an audit senior.</p>
<p>^yeah I could be talking out of my arse here, and I apologize for that. Perhaps I misunderstood the reason, but I have read somewhere that Big 4 audit applicants have a harder time getting into some of the top MBA schools, despite the fact that the Big 4 is the mother of all accounting jobs. That’s why I recommended getting into TAS or showing leadership elsewhere to supplement the application.</p>
<p>Thank y’all so far for your imput, but I don’t know what “TAS” means.</p>
<p>Transaction Advisory Services. Big 4 can be broken down into 3 sections of services; audit, tax, and tas. Transaction advisory services is seen by many to be a little more prestigious/has more interesting work than the other two sections.</p>
<p>It’s also a lot harder to get a job in TAS.</p>
<p>My understanding was that transaction advisory was more a subset under the general advisory header, depending on the firm(Advisory, Enterprise Risk Services, whatever). Typically if you are signing up out of school for an internship position and you select advisory it’s more IT related things. Transaction processing type affairs, IT internal control, IT audit, software implementation consulting, etc etc. Doing transaction advisory is either for a few top graduates from the top accounting schools(like UT, UIUC) or for people plucked from audit. </p>
<p>That’s at least my sense from what I’ve heard. All of the job postings for internships I’ve seen at my school for advisory have been for MIS majors.</p>
<p>So if not gonna be an IT guy, I should intern in audit then try to move over to TAS when I get a job?</p>
<p>That’s how most do it (2 years in audit, then switch).</p>
<p>I think you will have a better chance to be giving advice about the valuation of companies in acquisitions and whatnot if you start as a financial statement auditor than as an IT auditor(or whatever you do as an MIS grad hired into “Advisory” or “ERS”).</p>