Career advise: been offered a few training contracts, ACA, and am stumped as to which one to go with.

[Mazzerpaz]

Hello clever people, I'm in the UK, mum (33) of two small children (1 and 3). I have offers from a top 30 firm, top 10 firm and top 6 firm. I like them all from what I've encountered, although probably the smallest best tbh (I havent applied to Big4 as I value family life.)

I think my end goal is self-employment, but havent really decided where I want my career to go. Maybe practice > industry (aiming for interesting company, decent growth, really good salary) OR specialisation (eg. Tax, ESG auditing, M&A) > self employment?...

Would the top 30 firm be better if my goal is self employment or is bigger name always better? I'm worried about getting pigeonholed at a big firm because I've heard experience is everything down the line (more then big name). Also, top 30 firm is supposed to be very flexible and known as a good place to work.

I feel like I want the big firm training, opportunities and CV credentials, but smaller firm variety and exposure. I want to keep my options open and get the most out of training. Is there a way to have it all?

Thanks!

I would consider the individual benefits offered with each role rather than the size of the organisation. I would focus on the here and now rather than planning your CV for the future. Which role fits in best with your life currently? What role offers you the most flexibility re. working hours/ salary/working environment/commute time/role training?

You will find it easier to find your next role down the line if you have good references and a solid working history aka not jumping ship after 6 months because you chose the bigger name that offered little in employee support. The recruitment market is a hard place at the moment so it sounds like you're in a great position to have so many offers on the table. Choose what work for you NOW.

As an aside, there was a post on here just this week of someone who chose Big 4 and was now unemployed after burn out. They were struggling to find another role as the Big 4 experience was, she thought, putting new employers off, due to the lack of diversity in her working experience. The poster of that thread was shocked about this as she thought she made the smart career move by choosing the big name...

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

You have put my mind at ease. You echo what other contacts in the industry have told me: that Big Name is less important then it used to be, experience is more important, and what my husband tells me often: I overthink things.

I have exceptional work experience but my CV is very varied, hence why I have good offers but need to start on the grad scheme.

And thanks for the aside, it's a good example/warning. (And I do think women are more likely to get pigeonholed and less likely to campaign for themselves in the workplace, I am definitely a victim of this.)

Not sure if my experience might be helpful....I trained in a very small firm, a few years after I qualified I moved to top 50 then jumped to industry
I found the smaller/medium firm experience gave me a much wider knowledge base than friends in larger firms and when I moved into industry it was surprising how a small piece of experience was enough to differentiate me from other candidates and/or an unusual skill set tipped the balance (vat +financial accounting).
If I had the choice again and the smaller entity had a reputation as a good employer I wouldn't hesitate to head for them.
Good advice from pp though, I saw aca as opening a door, I could choose where to go after that depending on how things worked out/which areas I enjoyed more.

Thank you for your response, it has been helpful!

I qualified with a big 4 firm in London, then went on to industry and have been self employed in accountancy practice for around 15years.

The big name has impressed people definitely but the reality is that your field of work in a big firm is very narrow. When things are slightly outside your area it gets sent to another department. In a smaller firm your experience is likely to be a lot wider and more relevant to what you want to go on and do as self-employed.

What I actually do in a small self-employed provincial practice now is very different to what I did at a Big 4.

Also in a big firm do not expect work-life balance. I went back after maternity leave and it was awful, I was given the crap clients and not fully respected, I think largely because I was part time. That was a while ago but I understand things have not moved on that much despite the great family friendly claims. I would expect a smaller firm to be far more reasonable.

Hope that helps.

I was definitely glad I was out in the regions when I was with the big 4. It meant I audited a diverse range of businesses and dealt with all areas of those businesses, whereas if I had been in London I would probably only have seen a few parts of one or two different clients. I think diversity of experience is the key thing to be aiming for.

I would opt for a smaller local firm. You will definitely get more variety, wider experience and a better work-life balance. I am unusual as I moved from a very small firm to a Big4 post-qualification but I remained in the same very niche field so my small-firm experience was essential to the role.

Going from a big firm to self-employment would be much more difficult as you are far less likely to have been involved in all aspects of the accounting business and client affairs.

I would go with your gut and choose whichever feels the closest fit culture wise / whichever felt most right from the recruitment processes. I trained in the big 4 as a graduate then moved to a firm just outside of that after over a decade. Never realised how toxic/negative the big 4 environment was until I left, but I personally wouldn’t go any smaller as any firm feels small after the big 4! A smaller firm would feel too small to me.

you don’t say whether the offers are audit or otherwise?

Thank you all for your responses. The roles are all audit.

Another question arises:

Although I'm yet to join the industry to get a proper idea of what I want, and have no idea if this is even realistic: If my dream were to become a fractional CFO (still self employed), would this change your advice?

Would probably aim for:

• Startups and small businesses
• Rapidly growing companies
• Businesses planning major financial events/transactions

Surely you'd need to be a not-fractional CFO first? I think it would probably be a fairly long road to getting to that point so I would be focused on the journey rather than the destination. Presumably you'd need to train, then maybe stick around for a bit, then go into industry, then get promoted in industry, then go into self employment if that's the end outcome you're thinking of?

So that means the thing your first job would be going to need to focus on is how to get the positions in industry you want to showcase you for that sort of role.

That's a pretty different beast from e.g. self employment running a single person practice.

Oh yes totally. This is long-term career goal that will require experience in FP&A and Advisory/TS. I am aware it is very different to self employment practice. So I was wondering if advice would change on which firm would best get me there.

But I think I've landed on that it doesn't matter which firm for this right now, I can make those moves further down my career.