The Best Time to Leave

I was having a discussion with co-workers about when was the best time to leave Big 4.

This has nothing to do with the recession. I ultimately feel the economy is in recovery mode, especially in Canada.

The consensus amongst them seemed to be after getting your CA, and reaching the manager level. I disagree with this on many levels.

Number one: I have never seen a manager not complain and moan about their job.

Number two: All the managers are stressed, and look way older than they are supposed to.

Number three: To actually reach manager level, you will need 6-7 years of long, hard sacrifice.

It is true that you will constantly be learning in Big 4, and that with each promotion, comes greater responsibility, and less grunt work.

However, the amount of work necessary to become manager is mind boggling.

You are basically working 10 hours per day to get the opportunity to work 12 hours per day during busy season. Nice trade off eh? =)

After doing some observation at my firm, I noticed that the majority of the “good” people left early.

This broke down into three basic groups:

1) Those who just couldn’t take it anymore and left within 1 year – 2 years without their CA
2) Immediately after getting their CA
3) CA and After one year of Senioring Experience

The good people refer to the people who I felt had the highest potential to go on and become a huge success in life. These were the people who got the job done, and who the majority of people liked.

They quit either because they realized Big 4 was not for them, or because they were so heavily recruited by industry. The really good ones are given unbeatable offers by industry early. No one stays in Big 4 if they get a crazy offer from industry.

So really to make manager, you have to be pretty good, but not so good that you are stolen away to industry.

If you want an analogy, this is similar to the NBA before the high school rule.

The best prospects like Lebron James were immediately snatched up. The best college recruits were good, but not so good, that they were taken in high school.

So really, the best of the best leave early.

Which brings me to my final point.

You can get your CA’s in two different ways. Its entirely possible to get your CA by having the necessary hours, and months of experience, but learning absolutely nothing that could contribute to your career.

Progression towards your CA is not the same as career progression.

If you are learning nothing, and getting bad jobs with repetitive work, the CA hours mean nothing.

So in entirety, there is no best time to leave, but it seems the overwhelmingly majority of the good people leave early. Food for thought.