Full-time vs internship

[kaden1]

Hi,

While I was discharging my NS liability, I duely completed all ACCA examinations before my ORD next month. However, I am confused as to, given the fact that I would enter university in Aug/Sep 2013, should I search for a full-time position or intern in one of the Big 4s.

I understand that full-time position confers more training opportunities, will allow me to command a higher salary and provides me with more responsibilities, but the ethicality of professing that I would not resign from the job in 6 months is troubling me.

Therefore, I would like to enquire on the following issues:

1. Does interning provide me the same training opportunities as assuming a full-time appointment?
2. Is it unethical to resign after 6 months, and will it carry ramifications to my employability in the future? I plan to work as a lawyer then hop to management consultancy.

Regards
Kaden

for option 2, you want to take on perm job but quit in 6 months? i think the interviewer might ask you whether you plan to join university right? even if you said going to uni next year, means you are going to stay in the company max 1.5yrs, which wouldnt put you in a good light IMHO.

A 3-6mths full time contract might suit you better..

confusing... first say complete acca then say want to be lawyer then later want to be management consultant.

[wern]

Yeah.. I also confused about that. Seems like TS doesn't know what he wants.
If you finished your ACCA with good grades, you can try going straight into Big4. Some firms are willing to accept acca in lieu of a degree.

ACCA and accountancy side can later move on to consultancy roles but I don't get the lawyer part. BTW you can take up summer internships with the big4 which will coincide and end just before uni starts. Anyway if they offer you a FT position you should just take it.

[kaden1]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

confusing... first say complete acca then say want to be lawyer then later want to be management consultant.

Ohh my apologies for the confusion: My mid-term aim is to be a lawyer as the job scope is more interesting and is better paid as compared to an accountant.

In the long-term, however, I will use my lawyering and slight accounting experience to transit into management consultancy. My motivation in doing so lies solely in trying to break the pay cap faced by many lawyers and hopefully understand more about businesses to eventually hold multiple directorships.

Originally Posted by wern

Yeah.. I also confused about that. Seems like TS doesn't know what he wants.
If you finished your ACCA with good grades, you can try going straight into Big4. Some firms are willing to accept acca in lieu of a degree.

ACCA and accountancy side can later move on to consultancy roles but I don't get the lawyer part. BTW you can take up summer internships with the big4 which will coincide and end just before uni starts. Anyway if they offer you a FT position you should just take it.

Is it irresponsible or does it reflect unfavourably upon me in the future to leave after just 6 months of being permanent staff?

My aims of working for the coming 6 months are to bolster my CV and gain some practical knowledge to satisfy the ACCA's practical experience requirements.

Originally Posted by kaden1

Ohh my apologies for the confusion: My mid-term aim is to be a lawyer as the job scope is more interesting and is better paid as compared to an accountant.

In the long-term, however, I will use my lawyering and slight accounting experience to transit into management consultancy. My motivation in doing so lies solely in trying to break the pay cap faced by many lawyers and hopefully understand more about businesses to eventually hold multiple directorships.



Is it irresponsible or does it reflect unfavourably upon me in the future to leave after just 6 months of being permanent staff?

My aims of working for the coming 6 months are to bolster my CV and gain some practical knowledge to satisfy the ACCA's practical experience requirements.

You have a fundamental misconception on how careers work. You do not move up the ladder by picking up all sorts of unrelated entry level skill sets along the way. ACCA prepares you to be an accountant, a legal degree prepares you to be a lawyer or legal counsel. These skills have very little to do with your ultimate goal as a management consultant.

To be a management consultant in a big firm, you need an MBA from a top tier university like Insead, Harvard, Chicago, Wharton, Imperial etc. Having a law degree or ACCA has zero value. Also to be a management consultant the closest career experience you need is M&A Corporate Finance, Marketing & Business Planning Strategy or Human Resource.

You are going about totally the wrong way.

[kaden1]

Originally Posted by QXP

You have a fundamental misconception on how careers work. You do not move up the ladder by picking up all sorts of unrelated entry level skill sets along the way. ACCA prepares you to be an accountant, a legal degree prepares you to be a lawyer or legal counsel. These skills have very little to do with your ultimate goal as a management consultant.

To be a management consultant in a big firm, you need an MBA from a top tier university like Insead, Harvard, Chicago, Wharton, Imperial etc. Having a law degree or ACCA has zero value. Also to be a management consultant the closest career experience you need is M&A Corporate Finance, Marketing & Business Planning Strategy or Human Resource.

You are going about totally the wrong way.

Thank you very much for spending the time to address my concerns.

I have always understood ACCA to be sub-par to any business-related degrees but my research indicated that it is the most optimal choice of course to take when serving NS.

A cursory review of the the NUS Law syllabus also suggests that reading law, except for certain small modules, are hardly contributive to my goal of being a management consultant. While NUS provides us with the option of undertaking a Biz/Law DDP, I don't find the value in spending an extra year doing business, while crippling myself of the number of law electives I can take, when I can use that extra year to complete an MBA. This is also the reason why I refuse to spend 3 years to complete a BBA, even though it can be claimed that it is more relevant to my eventual goal.

My tentative plan is therefore as such: leverage on my ACCA accreditation to land a strategy or transactions (E&Y) role in one of the top 4 as an intern for 6 months before the school term commences, finish my law course and pupilage, take up an MBA at a reputable university then transit into management consultancy.

BCG and McKinsey's websites both revealed that they are seeking graduates with law degrees for their business consultancy work. This has led me to believe that completing ACCA, LLM and MBA will serve me well towards my goal of being a management consultant, while also giving me the financial security a law degree confers.

I have never heard of a lawyer going into accounts or an accountant practising law. Once you go into accounting/law, they are professionals in their own right, and any other side careers will dilute your skill set.

If you really like both accounts and law, the generic way here is to specialise in commercial or tax law, and they usually start their careers as lawyers. With these knowledge, you could fulfil your management consultant role of being a legal adviser.

[kaden1]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I have never heard of a lawyer going into accounts or an accountant practising law. Once you go into accounting/law, they are professionals in their own right, and any other side careers will dilute your skill set.

If you really like both accounts and law, the generic way here is to specialise in commercial or tax law, and they usually start their careers as lawyers. With these knowledge, you could fulfil your management consultant role of being a legal adviser.

True, if your intended path is to focus on just accounting and law, any careers unrelated to these 2 professions will dilute your skill-sets.

My personal perspective of these two professions, on the contrary, is that they are professional skill-sets or knowledge that will complement my MBA, which I would bank on to secure a job as a management consultant in firms like Bain, BCG, McKinsey. I have no plans to become a legal advisor in the long-term.

[kaden1]

It would be greatly appreciated if someone would be kind enough to spend some time to address these questions aforementioned:

1. Does interning provide me the same training opportunities as assuming a full-time appointment?
2. Is it unethical to resign after 6 months, and will it carry ramifications to my employability in the future? I plan to work as a lawyer then hop to management consultancy.