<p>Top Canadian school, undergrad in business, 730 GMAT, 3.7 GPA.
Currently in Big 4 audit, about 2 years now.
I have the opportunity to transfer to the firm's financial advisory (ex. M&A, corp finance, etc) or consulting practice.</p>
<p>BUT</p>
<p>Transferring would mean starting at the "junior" level again whereas in audit, I would make senior this year (ie. takes a year longer before I make senior, if I transfer).</p>
<p>My goal is to get into a top 10 MBA school in the next 3 years (basically I'll have 4~5 years work exp). I know they look favorably at leadership roles/experience, but people also say diversity in experience is good.</p>
<p>This is a tough call. I can definitely say that if I were you, I would stay in audit and then apply this coming fall once I made senior. That way I could apply a year sooner.</p>
<p>Yes, your chances might be better if you made the transfer and applied after making senior in advisory, but not significantly enough, for me at least, to make me want to transfer and wait another year.</p>
<p>Good point… I agree the 1 year wait is a bit of a downer, which is why I’m on the fence right now. But I do think there’s some value in transferring to develop a new skill set. Audit is a good start but it provides limited learning opportunities. Financial advisory might provide more interesting experiences for me to write about.</p>