<p>given the two options, which is better and why?</p>
<p>SPA pays more and is a much more technical job. IE you will never find yourself out of work. But the payscale isn’t as wide as most other fields. If you become a SPA associate, expect to make 100k for the rest of your life and stay in a similar position as there is an extremely low turnover. At UCLA, PWC interviewed a grand total of 3 applicants for SPA, myself, a comp sci major, and a third person I never met.</p>
<p>Tax is less competitive such that there’s a higher turnover for associates which requires a constant flow of hiring. On the other hand, the payscale is much broader if you move up. Partners can easily pull down 200k+. Off the top of my head, I think PWC interviewed close to 30 students.</p>
<p>It all depends on what you want. SPA has better hours usually and pay starts at about 15k over a tax associate first year. But don’t expect a 25% raise in year two if you saved your client billions.</p>
<p>I was the third applicant for SPA at UCLA. Still haven’t received a phone call :(.</p>
<p>Hey JPNguyen,</p>
<p>Thanks for the response. Could you elaborate on what a typical day for a SPA employee might consist of?</p>
<p>Jazz, do you have any career events where PwC would attend? You can ask them firsthand about what they do.</p>
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<p>I can’t tell you exactly as I was never employed by PWC</p>
<p>From what I was told by the associates, typically, you run tests on the controls of the accounting system used. Most likely oracle and peoplesoft accounting suite. You ensure that the numbers demanded of the financial auditors are correct. IE, depreciation isn’t double declining but is straight line or taxes on an item are at 8 and a quarter versus 7 and three quarters etc. Essentially ensure the numbers are coming out right.</p>
<p>Then you report back to the programmers who go in and make the necessary changes in the software.</p>
<p>This is all done on the client’s site. You’re rarely in the office unless you’re an intern who is creating ad-hoc reports for the associates you’re working for. </p>
<p>The advisory side does the selling of the services; platform, etc</p>
<p>JPNguyen - Did you manage to snag an offer from PwC SPA?</p>
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<p>If I say yes, you will hate me. But if I say no, you will disregard my comments.</p>
<p>If you got an offer, congrats. If you didn’t congrats because we both at least made it to second rounds. It was very competitive this year, so getting second rounds or the offer is very impressive.</p>