Government accounting vs. Big 4

[Lusitan]

Thanks for everyone's advice. Will accepting offer from big 4 starting Sept 2009 (audit for financial industry). Will get my CA and probably move on to tax or a mid-size.

Congrats on your new job. Sounds like it will be a lot of work, but while you're young and single you can work hard and play hard too, just make sure you do both.

Don't get caught up in an expensive lifestyle, and you will have many options to choose from in a few years. Good luck!

 

[RedHawk]

Congratulations. I have a second interview with on of the Big 4 in two weeks for a summer internship.

 

[idoru]

Good luck! The rest of the school year is so relaxed after getting an offer.

 

[freebird5825]

i worked private sector for 8 yrs and federal civil service for 18 yrs, in that order, in the US, so i had a taste of both.
civil service was overly bureaucratic and eventually became unbearable for the "idea person" that i am, but the "while w*rking" and post FIRE benefits were superior to private sector.
private sector was more unstable with respect to long term employment. benefits were much worse than civil service.
salaries were about equal only at entry level, but salary growth in private sector had more potential.

oops. i just saw your accepted a j*b in private sector. congratulations!

 

[jIMOh]

Coming out of school, I would not take the job that had the shortest path to FIRE as the primary criteria. Make sure you enjoy what you do to some extent.

Decide what you want to do right NOW. Then when you get a salary, save 20% of it. And also keep your skills up to date so you can change jobs or careers as needed.

I graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree from a top 5 school and around my Junior year I realized that was not my path. I finished the degree, then found work in software. Turns out I had a great skill and passion for teaching software and 11 years later still doing something with the software I started with.

But at same time I have had to re-train myself on 4 different software packages to keep my skills current (we are bought and sold a lot- I am on 4th company name in 11 years).

This has opened some positions where I could train on taxes, financial planning and similar. No way would I have seen that door 11 years ago. I am setting aside 20% of gross pay along the way. FIRE is hopefully in 18 years.