Curious, for those who seem so unhappy, what's stopping you from quitting B4?

Haha I left back in 2016.

Every year got new people come in, don’t like the job, and resign. It’s a cycle la so there will always be people ranting.

Fear of the unknown. Those who have yet to go out always fear if they will hate their new job/progression. Which is pretty irrational when you realize that it is not that hard to get back into Big4 since high turnover is a perpetual issue.

In Big4, you know exactly what will be happening in your first 8-9 years and the nature of work. You will be getting promotion to SM if nothing wrong happens, and it is a matter of choice of clients. If you are unhappy with assurance, you can try to request to go to other functions (tax, advisory, others) which they are more flexible about it nowadays.

I have friends who are in audit asking me if I am bored in my new work the first 1-2 years after I left. I can't describe to them how happy I am to be outside.

ask yourself. have u ever seen anyone regret leaving big 4? 0.

everyone so much happier after leaving.

why everyone seem upset after awhile - easy to answer after observing some of my friends - once honeymoon over you want to be paid more $$$ for those crazy hours.

And for guys when go back reservist all the comparison and see property agent / bankers drive car in while you slave away, some even bring in laptop to work midnight + and conduct meetings

why do some people stay? idk but MOST people will leave within 2-3 years (proven, go ask HR)

I remember one big 4 had partners openly tell people to quit if they unhappy last year. End up mass exodus.

I know why people leave.

I’m more interested in hearing why people stay.

1. Stockholm syndrome

2. Lucky ones who kena good engagements with sufficient staff, budget, good managers

main reasons for me:

1) seems hard to get something with decent progression outside of b4 unless you constantly change jobs, a lot of my seniors left and well i stayed and my pay is higher than them. theres of course a couple that left and making big bucks elsewhere but they are rare.

2) i get a lot of autonomy in the way i work esp since im 90% WFH, don't know if i can find this kind of flexibility elsewhere. i generally wake up pretty late cause im a night owl, and nobody really cares as long as **** gets done

3) offpeak is really quite lepak (but this is also luck dependent, some people got full year peaks)

4) i personally enjoy about 50% of the job, the other 50% is what makes me want to quit though

This has nothing to do with audit or the company. You must thank Covid for WFH. Everyone had to slog in office from morning to night pre-covid.

WFH and flexibility is useless if you have 3 person workload with many deadlines

From point 2 and 3, it seems like you are not being whacked enough.

I rather not get that “flexibility” when you need to work on weekends to finish work.

Now my working hours are fixed from 830-6pm. And i do not need to work at night at all. I get to sleep all i can.

Want to make equity partner, so have to stay.