The New York Attorney General alleged that E&Y stood by knowing very well that Lehman Brothers was in financial ruin; masking their debts with Repo to mislead investors that the company was in good standing. I hope that E&Y won't become the next Andersen cuz I hate for Deloitte to dominate the field.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is top dog imo, but you'll be finding, BDO Seidman, Grant Thornton and McGladrey & Pullen gaining even more ground, which is a very good thing imo. Interesting times are ahead.
Deloitte is shit. In Big 5, Andersen was the BEST and hardest to get a foot in the door. If it wasn't for the Enron scandal, Deloitte couldn't have gotten all the top people. Now .. even the best turned into shit at Deloitte. KPMG and PWC exec are more acceptable. Ernst and Young are just as bad but I was really hoping Deloitte that was the focus in the case .. how ironic. Anyway, KPMG and PWC has died down with its power in the industry these days. Grant Thornton and BDO are moving aggressively fast to take over the market share sorta speak. I am not sure about BDO but Grant Thornton execs are cool and down-to-earth.
I agree, I don't like the Big Four, I just feel sorry for the grads who work for them and those who are not partners cus they gota put some serious work in with a pay that doesn't reflect it. A business can only do so much efficiently.. then after that it starts to go downhill, even BDO and GT would suffer the same fate if they became as big. Nowadays i would recommend working internally for a small to medium business or even for Government, salary would be regulated but at least its fair and stable.
The gov is always hiring but the prob is that despite the fair salary across the board, discrimination will hold "Azn" down from climbing up the power ladder. With this kind of econ, even the gov is not as stable as it used to be. MOST importantly, ppl working for the gov eventually turned dumb and dumber .. why? employees have the security of union yet lack updated training in the field. That's why when I reviewed candidates in the past, I typically threw out all those that are working in the gov/non-profit sector .. these two sectors are Kiss of DEATH. You're right .. most com now hires LOCAL and TRUSTWORTHY firms .. it's a bit more pricy (less negotiable room) but the work is top-notched and reliable. My college friend's Dad open a firm in late 80's and instead of opening multiple offices; he just expand it and expand it and hire more and more ppl. According to him, his Dad's biz jumped over 400% this year alone. I think he has like over 50 CPAs working under him now where as before, he started out with himself and a receptionist. Ppl joined Big 5 for the name, training, and exposure .. not there to retire. Like you said, the salary is shitty but everyone gotta do the grunt work when you just graduate from college.
Oh now i did not know that, ill keep that in mind about the gov jobs, but i thought you would be ok providing you maintain your CPD but if you don't want to progress then that is an issue. As you know you should always be improving in accounting. I think in the future i would like to start my own firm or go into partnership, but yeah the BiG 5 are for exposure. Im still studying Accounting (AAT) then after that ill have to decide where ill go depending on if i want to follow my dad and take the management route or something. Pretty interesting stuff there, ill keep it in mind, thanks.
