[Anonymous]

I understand the basic pros and cons of working in advisory vs assurance (advisory is more interesting and slightly higher pay, but unpredictable schedule, lots and lots of travel, more susceptible to layoffs in economic downturns). It seems auditors usually advance to industry with hopes of becoming CFO. Where do people from advisory typically end up in the long run? I’ve heard that exit opps in advisory are narrower but higher quality (if that makes any sense).

EDIT: Also, any opinions on economic outlook for these service lines? It seems lately advisory is eating into assurance and tax. https://www.big4.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The-2012-Big-Four-Firms-Performance-Analysis.pdf (pg. 16-18)

[fuzyfro89]

To which service line(s) in advisory are you referring? There are quite a few…

There is a very big difference between management consulting, IT implementations/project mgmt, financial advisory, restructuring, M&A, Risk Assurance, etc.

[Anonymous]

I believe the one I am looking at is management consulting (for the financial service industry). Which does not sound terribly interesting to me. Excerpts from the job description:

“address the challenges of cost-effectively leading and providing day-to-day oversight of finance, tax, human resources, operations, technology, risk and compliance

integrate financial and non-financial systems and processes to achieve sustainable improvements in performance

Create effective corporate performance management tools

Design and build robust business intelligence systems

Identify the most appropriate measures of your financial, operational and regulatory performance

Increase the efficiency and frequency of client reporting processes

Improve the reliability of prospective information, including budgets and rolling forecasts

Develop corporate scorecards to evaluate client performance and drive improvements; and

Link client organizational targets with their employee evaluation and remuneration policies to ensure lasting change”

Sounds like mostly HR and budgetary kind of stuff.

[Ziggycpa]

Looks like this is from the PwC FS Advisory Associate description. I am not familiar with FS CMAAS TS group, but I am familiar with PwC's FS Assurance group.

This position sounds more like internal audit consulting for banks, insurance companies, and private equity firms.

Therefore, I think exit opportunities for this position would be positions within internal audit departments.

[Author]

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