[luyiqing]

Hi,

I have been in my new job at the big firm for 4 months and it has been either quiet or misc help. Our practice is not like auditing or tax compliance which are big practice. Our team doesn’t have the scheduler which means the work is randomly distributed. What is your experience from a staff to senior and did you feel competition within the group I mean among staff level employees? what does it take you to become the next level if you are busy of course, but if you are not busy I mean just helping seniors when they need me and the work are more admin like. Thank you for any potential comments. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Hi – do you work at a Big Four firm? Do you mind if I ask what industry/group you work in?

[acamp]

Would you say you are equally on par with your peers, in terms of work assignments, or do you tend to be picked up less than other people?

If your business line as a whole tends to be slow, provided they have the need, you will likely move up if you are producing quality work and receiving favorable reviews. If you are being picked up less than your peers, you might want to work with your counselor to figure out the reasoning and possible ways to address (if you had poor performance reviews, it can lead to you being picked up less) in which case, you almost definitely will not advance.

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[luyiqing]

Thank you for the above. I am in Indirect Tax group in a big four firm in NYC. Our practice is small and we have around 20 people in NYC office. I have been recently joined and I have been helping with sending emails, organizing excel files, and setting up GTAC and drafting some documents. One of the seniors who worked with me did tell me that my draft needed to be amended a lot but he didn't give me very clear and specific instructions when he gave me the work.

I notice that the seniors and managers are busy but they don't want to delegate since they think it would save time and they don't want to teach. I have been constantly asking for work but no fixed projects yet just very small help here and there.

The other staffs they joined earlier than me so there were put on projects so they are busier than I am. But the problem is that I can only learn and improve when I do the work and practice more. I talked with my counselor and he told me to keep asking seniors and above and wait but till now I still only have small work more admin like such as billing and scheduling meetings and excel organization.

What's your experience from a staff to a senior and what is the best way for me to do in this kind of situation? Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I am curious about that too. I am actually leaving my current firm (mid-tier) and going to a Big Four as an experienced hire (2nd year staff) in Mobility Tax Group. They told me they will promote me to a senior next year if I do a good job but now I am worried after reading your post since the specialty group I will be working in is small as well compared to other big tax compliance practice groups.

[Anonymous]

Is this an area that you are interested in? If not, why aren't you working with your counselor to be moved to a group that does work that you have interest in and could use after leaving B4? In my opnion, I wouldn't want to be part of a goup that I'm going to learn something so specialized that I wouldn't be able to find a job outside of B4. Like I said just my opinion since I wouldn't want to stay in public forever.

[luyiqing]

Thank you for the inputs. My group is very specialized but I chose my group over tax compliance group since I believe it's more interesting (tax planning/analysis/advisory versus tax returns preparation). I am interested in the practice I am in but it's still a small and expanding practice so we are not that structured and organized than other big practices. I haven't been in any big fixed projects yet and still wait for bigger projects and hopefully I can do more technical work. At what point would you usually get promoted if you don't have much work I mean not busy? And even if I am busy, I have been just helping with small things such as billing, organizing, emailing. I drafted an email and it was amended by the senior a lot as I mentioned but he didn't give me very clear instructions and I probably didn't ask a lot of questions before I wrote. I know auditing and tax compliance groups are always busy because they are more routine but I would think the work might be a little boring for tax compliance. I know it's very hard to get work if not enough projects going on I mean no staffer or scheduler everything is random.

[luyiqing]

Anyone can share your experience ? thank you so much!

[luyiqing]

Anyone can share your experience ? thank you so much!

[Skynet]

You can always try to memorize the Entire Tax Code.

AUD - 90
BEC - 78
FAR - 84
REG - 87

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[luyiqing]

can you tell more details? the entire tax code? Our practice is more international so we don't deal with US tax at all. We deal with international transactions and mostly EU tax, Latin America tax and Asia tax.

[Anonymous]

^^ @skynet he was joking!

[Author]

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