Are your talents being recognized? Are you in a job that is allowing your career to develop? If not, then now is the time to assess your employ-ability, perhaps consider moving jobs and making that all important move up the career ladder. But knowing how to get the ball rolling for yourself, so that you can develop your own career plan, requires some serious thinking and careful planning and that's where leading recruitment organisation Kelly Services can help.
1. Know yourself If you are to win at work then you need to understand yourself. Have a clear picture of your own strengths and weaknesses, identify what makes you successful and what doesn't and try and ensure that your job is one that plays to your strengths. We all have weaknesses and if you have something which you feel might hold you back then stop worrying about it and take some action. There are very few difficulties that can't be overcome one way or another. 2. Set your goals Everyone needs to have goals in life both professional and personal and this is one of the most essential aspects of your career plan. If you want to achieve them you need to set some measurements for yourself on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis. If you don't know what you want then you'll never know when you have got it. 3. Update your skills Make sure you are getting the right training at work to enable you to do your job effectively. If you aren't then make your Personnel Manager aware of why you need certain training and be enthusiastic about wanting it. If the training is not offered in-house then find out who runs the course you want, where you can do it, when and how much it will cost. Outside of your workplace you can enhance your inter-personal skills with activities such as competitive sport which is brilliant for team building or perhaps acting which is a big confidence booster for many people. 4. Commitment Everyone talks about commitment these days but it is absolutely crucial that you believe in the organisation you work for and respect the senior management who are leading it. You have to be in tune with the company philosophy, understand the company strategy, its direction - know where it is that the company is going and make sure that you are on the same train going in the same direction. Without this sense of commitment you lose something in terms of motivation and enthusiasm for the job. 5. Make your voice heard There is a real difference between making your voice heard, i.e. being assertive, and being aggressive. Don't be too pushy and alienate yourself from other people particularly your peer group because their support and respect for you is vital if you want to get on. Develop the art of timing, of presenting your ideas and views logically, of making sure that they will work and of being receptive to other people's ideas. 6. Take responsibility Being able to take responsibility and to take the consequences of that responsibility is absolutely crucial. As companies move towards a flat management structure it has two main consequences. First, more junior jobs are becoming more responsible and more interesting but this greater level of empowerment for individuals also means that you have to be able to cope with increased pressure both physical and mental. It may be that suddenly you find yourself reporting to a Board Director with no-one in between which can be difficult. It may require some changes in the way you operate but it's not impossible. 7. Flexibility As you become more senior in your career it is likely that you will not be working a 9-5 routine, and that you may have to travel, stay away from home and plan your own schedule. Companies need to see that you are prepared to be flexible to do the job that needs doing wherever it needs doing. A critical factor here is having a partner who is empathetic to the requirements of your job, who understands how important it is for you to be able to develop your career and who gives you support at home. 8. Networking The importance of networking both within your own organisation and outside cannot be under-estimated. Internally it is important that you are respected and seen as being helpful to your peer group and it also helps if you are liked. Try and be the sort of person that other people like to bounce ideas off or ask advice from - be prepared to put yourself out for others. Outside the office you should be developing contacts with other like minded people so that you can provide mutual help for one another. If you want to keep your career plan on track, then getting to know the right people can help you to get ahead. 9. Mentoring The value of having a mentor at work provides an ideal environment for positive career development. Ideally at a more senior level your mentor should be someone you respect, who doesn't have any direct line responsibility for you and who represents good working practices. It is with your mentor that you can discuss difficulties about your job, the people you work with etc. without any fear of repercussion. Your mentor will also be able to give you an objective view of situations and provide helpful advice. Whilst you may be looking for a mentor it is also worth remembering that you could perhaps fulfil that role for someone else. 10. Taking risks Taking risks is never easy but at some point in your career you will have to do so. It may be taking on a new job in a different area, it may be putting yourself forward for a more senior position or it may even be giving up your job and studying for qualifications which you believe will open new doors. Whatever it is, weigh up seriously all the pros and cons before you make your decision so that when you do take risks they are calculated ones and you are aware of the consequences. But at the end of the day, particularly where work is concerned, there is often an element of 'nothing ventured - nothing gained'. 11. Office politics There are office politics in all organisations, but it is probably true that the larger the company the more chance there is that office politics assume a greater importance. There are two factors here which are really important. First you need to have someone at the head of the company that does not take part in office politics and basically who disregards them. Secondly, you need to develop a fairly thick skin so that you don't take every rumour and bit of gossip personally. Try and avoid office politics, it is a dangerous game which takes people's focus away from the their career plan and often creates a whole host of problems for them. 12. Work Smarter Don't fall into the trap of trying to be the person who works the longest hours. Concentrate on delivering results and making sure those results are the best you can achieve. Be confident of your own success and other people will have confidence in you. 13. Being a winner So what does being a winner take? Certainly commitment, enthusiasm, determination to make things happen, ambition and a real drive for responsibility. It takes all of that plus the right attitude and being in the right place at the right time. Even if you are not looking to move now, you need to be monitoring what is happening in your marketplace. You need to be managing your own career getting yourself ready for your next move rather than waiting to see what might or might not happen. MERITS
Here are some of the best benefits to working at one of the Big 4 accounting and consulting firms: – Exponential learning curve. Very few careers, if any, will expose you to so much so fast. You will have the opportunity to learn something new every single day and you will constantly be presented with new challenges. It is no secret why people from the Big 4 firms are so highly coveted by virtually every other company. By working at a Big 4 firm you will rapidly develop skills and expertise that simply cannot be learned anywhere else. If you were to look at the career trajectories of an employee at a Big 4 firm and one of their peers in corporate, they would barely be comparable. The results would be so skewed in favor of the Big 4 employee in terms of the importance and complexity of tasks they are able to handle and the speed with which they acquire certain skills that it quickly becomes difficult to believe the two people could have started from the same place. Simply put a career at the Big 4 allows you to acquire knowledge and expertise at an unmatched rate. – Opportunity to take on large amounts of responsibility very early in your career. Before you have worked your second full year at a Big 4 firm you will become directly responsible for overseeing employees. We are not referring to jobs where people assign tasks from time to time to incoming personnel, or train new hires for a few weeks. We mean that every single day you will have one or more people who you are responsible for. You will have to manage their workload, find ways to make sure they succeed, and report to your boss on their progress. There are very few careers that allow you to start obtaining direct managerial experience by age 24. For example, if you chose to leave your Big 4 firm after four years you will be able to tell an interviewer that not only do you have experience managing people, but for that last two and half years you have directly overseen one to three people every single day. Translation: it will make you very unique. – You will work with incredibly smart and successful people every single day. These people can serve as examples and mentors for the rest of your career. When you start your career you are essentially a blank slate. Many of the habits and ways of doing business you will pick up will stay with you for the rest of your life. The benefits of apprenticing under highly successful and intelligent people are difficult to quantify, especially for someone early in their career. Another benefit to working with very motivated and smart individuals is the enjoyment and satisfaction that comes from a job well done. Though the work can be very challenging at times, most people at Big 4 firms have a lot of personal pride and enjoyment when they look back on projects they successfully completed through collaboration with a team full of stand-out individuals. In fact, one of the biggest reasons cited by people who return to the Big 4 after previously leaving for another job is the quality of the people they get work with on a daily basis. Not everyone in Corporate America is young, energetic, and motivated. These qualities can be difficult to appreciate when they are all you have known your entire career. However when you come in contact with someone who has done the same job for the last 15 years, wants to punch out of work as early as possible every day, and could not care less about improving the way things are done or thinking ambitiously or creatively then the importance of the type of people you work with becomes much clearer. – You will have every opportunity to prove yourself and succeed. At a Big 4 firm you will be able to take on as much work and responsibility as you are capable of. You will not have some horrible boss that holds you back or forces you to work within the confines of the corporate structure. You will not have one or two people above you who are a bottleneck for all opportunities within the Company, and who decide your fate and where your talents and skills will be used (or not used) based on the tasks you are assigned. At the Big 4 you will be working within the hierarchy of a team. Partner through staff you will all have the same ultimate goal which is usually the completion of a project or engagement for your client. Certain tasks are absolutely expected of people at each level, however if you are able to complete your assignments adequately you will be welcomed and encouraged to go above and beyond your current level. If you have the ability and skills the sky is the limit. – Annual promotion. At the Big 4 you either rise up or you move elsewhere. There is no dwelling at the same level for years on end. If you continue to work for the Big 4 year after year it is basically a guarantee that you are advancing your career year after year. After just three or four years at the Big 4 you will begin to get job solicitations from other companies that will offer you substantially more money than your current salary. One of the biggest reasons people turn down these offers and stay with the Big 4 is because of the rapid advancement they know they will enjoy in the coming years. A real life example from one of the members of our team is a perfect illustration of this: As a second year staff our team member watched his Associate/Senior leave the firm for a 30% pay increase with the client. Four years later our staff member was half-way to becoming a Senior Manager (professional with 9+ years of experience who is one step away from Partner) while her former boss was still an Associate/Senior with her previous client. The business model of Big 4 firms is built so that there is always room for high performers to continue advancing. There are no such guarantees at many companies on the corporate side. – World-class experiences. The Big 4 accounting and consulting firms work with the best companies in the world. Their clients include every company in the Fortune 500 as well as most every notable company not in the Fortune 500. This in turn means that the Big 4 are actively involved in nearly every event of significance with these companies. The following experiences are things that become hidden gems on resumes; they are very rare and very valuable experiences. However at the Big 4 firms, opportunities like those listed below are commonplace.
– International opportunities. The Big 4 firms have operations and offices in nearly every country in the world. These companies literally span the globe. They work with the most successful multi-national corporations in the world, and are able to offer their services in any location that their clients do business. As a result, the Big 4 have developed an incredibly integrated structure that provides many international opportunities for those seeking them. For example, a multi-billion dollar oil company that has revenues greater than the GDP of most countries is not interested in receiving primary services in the US, with some auxiliary services in Great Britain and some sparse offerings in Japan. No, companies like these demand the same great service whether they are operating in Nigeria, Mongolia, Canada, Brazil, or any other place on Earth. This means that the Big 4 ultimately provide fairly similar and comparable services throughout the world, which gives their employees fantastic opportunities to take the skills they have developed in one place and use them in another. As another example, someone who worked in New York during the height of the financial crisis to help banking clients overcome their balance sheet issues could now go to almost any country in Europe and provide similar expertise. In addition to the multitude of ways that skills learned at the Big 4 are transferable to other countries, these firms have all developed programs specifically for providing great international experiences. These things are like the study abroad programs of the corporate world. Big 4 firms will giving you housing abroad, they will have someone prepare your taxes for you so you don’t have to think about the complexities of international law, they will create a plan for you to integrate you back into the city of your choice in your home country when you return. In a world that becomes smaller every day, where global integration and experience become ever more important, the Big 4 offer some of the best professional international opportunities out there. – Exposure to high ranking client personnel, including executives. If you take a job at a large corporation you might get the chance to work with the Controller after 10 or 15 years. It may be more than 5 years before they even know your name. If that same corporation is the client of your Big 4 firm, you may be interacting with that individual in as little as three years. If you work on a smaller client you could work closely with the controller during your first month there, and you may even have opportunities to work with the CFO as well. There is no faster way to experience working with high-level people at a company than to join a Big 4 firm and work with their clients. – Stamp of approval on your resume. The Big 4 firms command a massive amount of respect in every industry and every country in the world. If you decide to leave a Big 4 firm you can take your resume to prospective employers and have confidence that you will immediately be respected. Once you have that Big 4 name on your resume it is an immediate signal to people in your future endeavors that you are an intelligent and hard-working individual. You will not have to go to 15 interviews to try and convince people that your previous jobs really were challenging and prepared you well for the future. When prospective employers see that name on your resume it is an instant credibility indicator. DEMERITS Working at a Big 4 firm is not all sunshine and roses. There are challenges and difficulties involved as well. – Long hours. The single biggest complaint that comes from employees at Big 4 firms is the large amount of hours that are required over the course of the year. If this one issue could be resolved up to 90% of the negative aspects of the job would vanish for most people. However, we are not living in a fantasy land, in the real world the long hours at the Big 4 are a fact of life. It can be countered that the long hours are a requirement for some of the leading benefits of a Big 4 career. For example, it is difficult to learn and gain experience faster than everyone else when you are only working 9 – 5. Likewise, experiences like IPOs, significant acquisitions, and large implementation projects do not get done over the course of a 40 hour work week. Regardless, this section of the website is about cons and the long hours take their toll on everyone at some point. Big 4 careers require a commitment to the job that will undoubtedly require sacrifices in your personal life at different points in time. During very busy periods such as auditing year-end financials, tax season, or the weeks leading up to the go-live date of a consulting project, it would not be uncommon for an employee to wake up, go work all day, and come home and go straight to bed. The time commitments within the Big 4 are very demanding and need to be considered before deciding you want to start your career there. – Stressful workloads. At times your workloads at the Big 4 will be quite intense and even overwhelming. In fact you will likely be pushed past what you thought were your limits at some point. Success at a Big 4 firm requires the ability to handle a multitude of tasks and responsibilities at the same time, much more than what a normal person would usually face. While this can be exciting and interesting at times, it can also be very frustrating and difficult to cope with. The phrase “there just are not enough hours in the day” can come to have new meaning on an especially difficult project with a tight timeline or a shortage of capable personnel. – Client demands. While working at the Big 4 can provide access to some of the greatest and most respected companies, these companies are also some of the most demanding. Many of your client contacts are expected to put their personal lives and agendas on hold for the company when necessary, and their expectations of you will be no different. Deadlines are deadlines, it does not matter if they fall on a weekend you had big plans. If a project is running behind schedule some clients will expect you to clear your own schedule to fix to fix this inconvenient fact. Client demands are the primary reason behind the first two cons we have discussed. – Pay discrepancy (after several years). Starting pay at the Big 4 is actually quite good. It compares very favorably with almost all of the jobs you will consider as you start your career. However after about three years there becomes a noticeable discrepancy between a person’s Big 4 salary and what they could earn if they made a lateral move to a client (took a position equivalent to their experience and skill set at the Big 4). Part of this reason is because of the rapid career progression enjoyed at Big 4 firms. For example after four years at a Big 4 firm you might have acquired the skills and knowledge to be able to work in a position at the client that normally takes six or seven years to get to. However this can be a small consolation when you have mortgage payments to make or want a new car. The simple fact of the matter is that people with more than three or four years experience at a Big 4 firm can usually find a lateral move that will increase their salary by up to 30%. There are obviously additional benefits to continuing to work at a Big 4 firm or else everyone would leave at this point. Therefore it really becomes a personal decision of when is the best time to leave. However as long as you are with the Big 4, you can plan on having to realize that some incompetent person at the client is somehow making more than you. Summary The cons of the Big 4 really come down to the type of lifestyle you need. From a professional career standpoint, there are very few careers that offer you the opportunity to learn as fast or as much as you will at the Big 4. A quick glance at our article on the pros of a job with the Big 4 will make it obvious that there are some unbelievable professional benefits to careers with the Big 4. The tradeoff for this is that you put in a lot of hours, and will likely face some stressful and frustrating situations along the way. Everyone is different, so the impact of the cons really comes down to personal preference. Some people want to get out of work every single day when the sun is still up and have several hours to pursue their own personal interests. While this lifestyle is certainly achievable some, if not a majority, of the time at a Big 4 firm, we can guarantee it won’t always be the case. Conversely, some people have a very specific vision for the quality of life they want to have and a target salary they one day hope to earn. While others simply want to start out on the best career track possible so that they have the best possible options (career-wise) later in life. For these people, the long hours or stressful workloads may be necessary evils that they are willing to deal with to get where they are going. The cons listed above are the things that Big 4 employees universally find difficult or annoying about the job. They need to be considered in conjunction with the pros of the job, as well with individual life goals and lifestyle objectives to determine whether a career with the Big 4 is a good option. |