Info

Big 4 Accounting Firms Podcast: Accounting Career Tips and Accounting News

We discuss the latest accounting news and accounting career tips on how to succeed at the big 4 accounting firms. Learn the rankings of the largest public accounting firms in the world, big 4 interview tips, big 4 salary details, big four news and career tips. We also discuss other topics like what it takes to pass the CPA exam and how to be a successful accountant. We cover the latest news regarding Pricewaterhousecoopers, Ernst and Young, Deloitte and KPMG.
RSS Feed Subscribe in Apple Podcasts
Big 4 Accounting Firms Podcast: Accounting Career Tips and Accounting News
2023
December
October
June
May
April
March
February
January


2022
November
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2021
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2020
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February


2019
November
October
May
February


2018
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October
September
August
May
April
March


All Episodes
Archives
Now displaying: March, 2017
Mar 27, 2017

Fortune recently ranked the top 100 places to work for in 2017. The big 4 accounting firms usually get ranked but they have never been ranked as high as they have this year.

Visit our best accounting firm to work for page (https://big4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/best-accounting-firm-work-2017/)

This year Deloitte came in 4 out of the big 4 accounting firms. They were ranked 64th overall. Some reasons they obtained their ranking was because of Deloitte University, good paid leave and a health subsidy.

EY came in 3rd out of the big 4 accounting firms in the ranking. They were 29th on the list out of 100 companies.

PwC was the second best accounting firm to work for out of the 4 top accounting firms. They were able to achieve this ranking by having a casual dress code, student loan paydown program and good compensation.

KPMG is the best accounting firm to work for in 2017. They were 12th overall on the fortune 100 best workplaces in 2017, but they were number one out of the 4 big accounting firms.

Mar 14, 2017

 Welcome to episode 30 of the big 4 accounting firms podcast brought to you by big4accountingfirms.com.  Make sure to subscribe to this podcast, share it with a friend and rate it when you get a chance.

Also make sure to check out Big 4 Accounting Firms Interview Questions book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XK9VZYF . It has over 30 questions and answers from big 4 interviews. 

Today we are going to be discussing college grade point average and how it affects big 4 recruiting.

Let’s answer the age-old question does GPA matter at the big 4 accounting firms . Can you get a job at the big 4 accounting firms with a low GPA?

I think this question has to be tackled from many different angles.

There is no yes or no answer to this question. I’m sorry, but it depends on the person and the circumstances.

For example, if you live in a small town in Wyoming and go to a small school in Wyoming, then yes you need a good gpa. If on the other hand you go to the University of Texas or BYU, and your gpa is low, then I wouldn’t worry about it.

The Big 4 do have minimum gpa requirements, but they aren’t the same at all schools. At some schools like Texas and BYU they are only 3.2. At other schools, the GPA requirements are 3.7. That is because the big 4 receive tons of candidates from those other schools with really high GPAs.

It’s much harder to get a 3.9 at BYU or Texas than it is at Baruch or University of Phoenix. Now I know I’ll get a bunch of emails from the Baruch people telling me how difficult it is at their school, but I’d ask them to go to BYU or Texas and then let me know their thoughts.

How to get around having a low GPA

  1. Move to a big city with a lot of openings and apply to all the big 4.
  2. Move to a big city and apply to all midtier and reginoal accounting firms. Once you are accepted at one of these firms. Gain a couple of years of experience and then transfer to big 4.
  3. Work at a client of the big 4. Going into industry is not a death sentence. Make sure you go to a company that is growing and that you will like though. Then make sure you work really hard and get good reviews. Then transfer to the big 4.
  4. Accept a lower position. If none of the above examples are suitable to you. Then join the big 4 internal firms services department. This means become a recruiter yourself or become an admin at the big 4. Once you are inside of the big 4, it is much easier to transfer around. It is harder getting inside than it is transferring around. I once saw an executive assistant who was a supreme brown noser go from executive assistant to senior associate without an accounting degree or clients. It also helped that she was optically pleasing, but this just goes to show you that it is easy transfer once you are inside the big firms.
  5. Look on linkedin and indeed to see where the most big 4 openings are and ask your big 4 recruiter about that city. Make sure you specify the line of service as well. The big 4 always need bodies somewhere. Sometimes the recruiters don’t know where though. If you identify that area and bring it up to your recruiter, you have a chance at nailing that job.

Conclusion

Can you get a job at one of the big 4 accounting firms with a low gpa. Yes I believe you can work at KPMG, PwC, Deloitte or EY with a low GPA, but you truly have to believe in it. Write it down somewhere everyday. Make it all you think about and your conscious and subconscious brain will get you there. Your brain will solve this problem for you if you let it. You will either use some of the strategies I have above or you will come up with a derivative strategy on your own.

make sure to visit our site: https://big4accountingfirms.com for more strategies

Mar 7, 2017

In this episode of the Big 4 Accounting Firms podcast we discuss the raid of one PwC's largest clients, Caterpillar. This episode is brought to you by https://big4accountingfirms.com

Caterpillar had 3 of its building in Illinois raided by three federal agencies on March 2, 2017

The departments conducting the raid were the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the US Department of Commerce.

The reason for the raid was caterpillar’s offshore tax practices. This caps what was already one of the worst weeks in PwC’s history. PwC was Caterpillar’s tax advisor for these offshore practices.

In this article we will discuss:

  1.  What Caterpillar had to say about the raid
  2. Some facts about Caterpillar’s current tax position
  3. Why we think the raid happened
  4. If the raid of Caterpillar by the government is justified
  5. PwC’s involvement

PwC’s involvement

PwC is Caterpillar’s independent auditor, but they were also Caterpillar’s tax advisor for the transaction in question for this investigation. PwC was reportedly paid over $50 million for the planning and consulting around the tax advice for this tax haven idea. Those fees have come way down over the years, and Caterpillar no longer pays large tax advice fees. If you look in past 10-k’s, you can see the huge tax planning fees. This was common in the pre Sarbanes-Oxley era. That is probably one of the reasons why the fees for tax advice are no longer significant.

This has huge implications for PwC. If they are found guilty of setting up sham tax transactions by these governmental agencies, Pricewaterhousecoopers could face some harsh punishment and limitations on their tax practice similar to what happened to KPMG.

Visit out blog for more information

https://big4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/caterpillar-raided-and-irs-investigation/

Mar 3, 2017

Welcome to the big 4 accounting firms podcast brought to you by http://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com.

More and more news is coming out about the partners at the Oscars

First we speak about the two partners from the Oscars Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan. They had both been fired from the Oscars engagement since our last podcast. They are no longer going to be working counting ballots for the Oscars. The Oscar says they’re going to keep PwC for now. But they are considering whether they’re going to keep them going forward.

This week there is also some pretty bad pictures they came out showing Brian tweeting backstage with multiple envelopes in his hand. Now he ultimately ended up giving the wrong envelope to Warren Beatty. But these photos really showed him going to town on his social media minutes before Warren Beatty announced the wrong Oscar.

And the real reason why these two got fired was that after the wrong best picture was announced by Faye Dunaway they failed to act. Martha Ruiz and Brian didn't go on stage to correct their errors for another few minutes. And the producer of the Oscars said that they weren't ready for the moment. He said that they had rehearsed what they were supposed to do if the wrong winner was announced, and they still didn’t do it. The stage manager and the producers had to push them out on stage to correct their error.

Listening to one of my favorite podcasts. Which is the Bill Simmons podcast. He had Jimmy Kimmel on recently and this was one of Jimmy Kimmel’s first interviews since the Oscars.

Now these people are accountants at all. Bill Simmons is just a sports journalist. Jimmy Kimmel is a comedian. All they could talk about was how they this Oscar screwup was. Bill Simmons went so far to say that it would be one of the first paragraphs in Jimmy Kimmel’s obituary. Jimmy Kimmel laughed that off and said I really hope not. To which Bill Simmons said, I don’t think you know how big a deal this thing is. This is still going to be a big deal in a few months. When he said that, all I could do is shake my head. When I first saw this news, I thought it was a huge deal for PwC, but I didn’t think it would be as big as it is for them now. Their name and their brand, PwC, is always going to equal biggest Oscar mistake in history for the average American.

That’s why I think ultimately that Brian is going to have to retire or resign. Most likely I believe he will resign. I think PwC is standing behind him right now because of his leadership position and his years of service. As this bad news for the firm keeps snowballing, I don’t think they can keep standing by him.

Additionally, I don’t think he’ll be able to stay at PwC himself. I don’t think he’ll be able to put up with the embarrassment and the looks that he is going to get from his peers and his clients. That would be a big task for somebody that was mentally tough and prepared for it. The question is is he mentally tough enough and easy ready to handle all that. I don’t think he is and I don’t think Pricewaterhousecoopers is prepared to stand behind a man that is going to get a lot of heat. I really wouldn’t wish this situation upon anybody, and I hope that he ends up okay on the other side of this.

It has now been confirmed that Brian Cullinan wanted to be a celebrity himself. Variety came out with a piece stating that Cullinan wanted to perform a sketch at the Oscars. He pitched an idea to the producers of the Oscars to perform a sketch on stage with jimmy kimmel.

I have been saying all along that these two partners wanted to be celebrities. More specifically Brian. He had been taking tons of pictures with celebrities at the Oscars in the prior and current year. This just shows how much he wanted to be involved in the process. I think that should give some hesitation to PwC as to whether they should keep them. It was pretty evident how this error could occur. Yet PwC took no steps to monitor his social media, and make sure he was ready for this stage. And now they may pay a severe price for his actions.

 Finally the partners now have security after their families have been threatened. Their addresses have been released on the internet along with photos of their homes. There are even photos of Brian's wife shopping that were taken by the paparazzi. 

Check out our website for more details:

https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/pwc-partners-receive-threats-2017-oscars-mistake/

https://www.thebig4accountingfirms.com/the-blog/pwc-fired-oscars/

 

1