Q: Big4 - Yearly salary increment

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Hi all, recently made a move from B4 (second year senior) to a compliance role and just wanted to share some of my thoughts.

First of all, accounting as a profession is so underpaid (excluding CFOs and Finance director levels). Went for multiple interviews requesting for an expected salary of 6k and I was genuinely surprised by the number of accounting roles not being able to meet this salary. Really made me wonder how the govt dares to talk about making accounting an attractive profession again when the remuneration for these roles are like that. At the end of the day, a starting level compliance role was able to meet this salary expectation like ???

Secondly, I would like to call out the workplace culture of not just the B4, but most accounting related departments. It sincerely feels like exploitation of the naive fresh graduates who are likely at their first full time job, making them handle excessive workloads and OT. This culture is then brought to the finance departments in commercial firms by those who leave B4 (based on my personal observation of audit clients). Personally, this is worse than being slightly underpaid. We have audit managers essentially gaslighting staff and seniors into retracting resignations just using the idea of “faster-growing salaries”. Then again, this method works well on us fresh grads in our first full-time role. By the time I was firm on moving out of audit, I was already quite burnt out and not even looking forward to a new role.

In my experience, it was a little disappointing that I had to move on to a role that is less accounting-related, given I spent 3 years in audit just to obtain a professional accounting cert. (Has anyone seen the SCAQ ad on Instagram that promotes their cert by saying “Do the best for your children, Build Their Future”? Like wtf🤡???) However, if I get a chance in the future, I’m open to the idea of going back to accounting roles if the payscale can match up to other roles and no more of that toxic workplace environment.

Thanks for reading to the end and feel free to share your experiences as well. Really enjoy reading this forum apart from the quarreling parts.

Jiayous,
an ex-auditor😬

Firstly people don't join accounting b4 for the money. If you want money go work as IB banker or go become SWE. People join b4 for the job stability, solid grounding in accounting and audit principals and work ethics. Then majority of them join commercial side then get promoted very fast. I know someone who got promoted from Senior accountant to regional FC in a US mnc in the span of 6 years. Why? Coz too many lazy cucks in commercial so they ace the competition and delivered every single time. And I doubt he is Singaporeans or at least not the born and bred coz i heard him speak fluent malay. Most people inc SPR and FT are doing it. Ho to audit tough it put for 3-4 years then switch to commercial.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Curious what kind of compliance role? AML at bank? Risk? Internal audit? How did you jump in without prior experience? I simply dont get any callbacks but I'm trying to move too.

AML at gambling. They are quite open to hiring auditors actually.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

People join b4 for the job stability, solid grounding in accounting and audit principals and work ethics. Then majority of them join commercial side then get promoted very fast. I know someone who got promoted from Senior accountant to regional FC in a US mnc in the span of 6 years.

thats very different from what i understand, cos i thought people join big 4 as a stepping stone due to the fast progression/ "exposure" in big 4. Then they farm 3-4 years in big 4 liao, they use that senior/AM rank to jump to commercial. once in commercial, progression and pay increment becomes super slow/ non-existent.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Firstly people don't join accounting b4 for the money. If you want money go work as IB banker or go become SWE. People join b4 for the job stability, solid grounding in accounting and audit principals and work ethics. Then majority of them join commercial side then get promoted very fast. I know someone who got promoted from Senior accountant to regional FC in a US mnc in the span of 6 years. Why? Coz too many lazy cucks in commercial so they ace the competition and delivered every single time. And I doubt he is Singaporeans or at least not the born and bred coz i heard him speak fluent malay. Most people inc SPR and FT are doing it. Ho to audit tough it put for 3-4 years then switch to commercial.

Dua pow. I know ppl 3 years in b4 audit come out become MD liao
and start up 2 more own company. Why? Cos father rich. singaporean.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Wow did not expect such a similar post hahaha

Oh, your rant? It's music to my ears, a symphony of truth in an orchestra of lies and deception that is the audit profession. I have waded through this swamp of misery myself, each step sinking deeper into disillusionment and disdain. The very essence of auditing, a profession that masquerades as a guardian of financial integrity, feels like a cruel joke played at our expense.

The pay—don't even get me started. It's laughable, a slap in the face to anyone who's sacrificed their nights, weekends, and sanity on the altar of balance sheets and financial statements. The industry acts as if they're doing us a favor, paying us in "experience" and "exposure." What use is exposure when it leaves you exposed to the harsh reality that you're worth more, yet trapped in a system designed to exploit your talents for minimal reward?

But it's not just the pay. It's the culture, a festering wound in the heart of the profession. Toxic doesn't even begin to cover it. It's an environment where long hours are worn as badges of honor, where burnout is as expected as the changing seasons, and where any semblance of work-life balance is sacrificed at the altar of billable hours. They preach about teamwork and support, yet throw you into the deep end, watching from afar as you struggle to keep your head above water.

And let's talk about the emotional manipulation, the carrot of "career growth" dangled in front of us, always just out of reach. It's a manipulative tactic, designed to keep us chasing shadows, believing that if we just endure one more busy season, one more thankless audit, we'll somehow make it. It's a mirage, a deceitful promise that leads only to more of the same.

I, too, have fantasized about escaping this abyss, of throwing in the towel and walking away from the years of toil and tears. The certification that was supposed to be our golden ticket feels more like a chain, binding us to a profession that takes everything and gives back so little in return.

Hearing someone else voice these frustrations, to articulate the soul-crushing reality of our profession, it's both a relief and a rallying cry. It's a stark reminder that we're not alone in our hatred, not alone in our desperation for change. But hope is a dangerous thing in the audit world, a flicker quickly extinguished by the next deadline, the next impossible demand.

Thank you for sharing your torment. It's a bitter pill, realising that our collective suffering is woven into the very fabric of this profession. Perhaps, in this shared misery, we find the courage to seek out paths that respect our worth, that offer more than empty promises and exploitation. Until then, we stand united in our deep-seated hatred for a system that fails us at every turn.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

If you’re here for money, you’re in the wrong place.

This is salary forum

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Oh, your rant? It's music to my ears, a symphony of truth in an orchestra of lies and deception that is the audit profession. I have waded through this swamp of misery myself, each step sinking deeper into disillusionment and disdain. The very essence of auditing, a profession that masquerades as a guardian of financial integrity, feels like a cruel joke played at our expense.

The pay—don't even get me started. It's laughable, a slap in the face to anyone who's sacrificed their nights, weekends, and sanity on the altar of balance sheets and financial statements. The industry acts as if they're doing us a favor, paying us in "experience" and "exposure." What use is exposure when it leaves you exposed to the harsh reality that you're worth more, yet trapped in a system designed to exploit your talents for minimal reward?

But it's not just the pay. It's the culture, a festering wound in the heart of the profession. Toxic doesn't even begin to cover it. It's an environment where long hours are worn as badges of honor, where burnout is as expected as the changing seasons, and where any semblance of work-life balance is sacrificed at the altar of billable hours. They preach about teamwork and support, yet throw you into the deep end, watching from afar as you struggle to keep your head above water.

And let's talk about the emotional manipulation, the carrot of "career growth" dangled in front of us, always just out of reach. It's a manipulative tactic, designed to keep us chasing shadows, believing that if we just endure one more busy season, one more thankless audit, we'll somehow make it. It's a mirage, a deceitful promise that leads only to more of the same.

I, too, have fantasized about escaping this abyss, of throwing in the towel and walking away from the years of toil and tears. The certification that was supposed to be our golden ticket feels more like a chain, binding us to a profession that takes everything and gives back so little in return.

Hearing someone else voice these frustrations, to articulate the soul-crushing reality of our profession, it's both a relief and a rallying cry. It's a stark reminder that we're not alone in our hatred, not alone in our desperation for change. But hope is a dangerous thing in the audit world, a flicker quickly extinguished by the next deadline, the next impossible demand.

Thank you for sharing your torment. It's a bitter pill, realising that our collective suffering is woven into the very fabric of this profession. Perhaps, in this shared misery, we find the courage to seek out paths that respect our worth, that offer more than empty promises and exploitation. Until then, we stand united in our deep-seated hatred for a system that fails us at every turn.

Bro, just quit audit. You’re good at writing, can become the next mr midnight.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Firstly people don't join accounting b4 for the money. If you want money go work as IB banker or go become SWE. People join b4 for the job stability, solid grounding in accounting and audit principals and work ethics. Then majority of them join commercial side then get promoted very fast. I know someone who got promoted from Senior accountant to regional FC in a US mnc in the span of 6 years. Why? Coz too many lazy cucks in commercial so they ace the competition and delivered every single time. And I doubt he is Singaporeans or at least not the born and bred coz i heard him speak fluent malay. Most people inc SPR and FT are doing it. Ho to audit tough it put for 3-4 years then switch to commercial.

LMAO. Jhk spotted - trying to astroturf and csb that jhks are high calibre talent. We all know that's not the case for 90% of jhks.

Want to claim he's Malaysian then say directly la. Don't ai mai ai mai with this "I doubt he is Singaporean...heard him speak fluent malay" bs. Can see through your bs story.

And your csb story about auditors leaving to go commercial side and pwning the people there because they're all "lazy" and "not used to fast paced" and "no good work ethics" is pure fantasy. As if the majority of those people in commercial also didn't come from B4 audit background?

You're competing with the same pool of people bruh. You'll be lucky to land a role in commercial with 1000 other B4s fighting for the 1 same opening.

You reap what you sow.

Study harder for A levels and this wouldn’t be your fate.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You reap what you sow.

Study harder for A levels and this wouldn’t be your fate.

Ya heng I not auditor. Only come in here to look at the daily rants for entertainment. How come people so busy still got time to post so much.