First WSO post, currently an undergraduate at a mid-target school with a high gpa. Looking to eventually gain entry to an top 15 business school. Considering going audit at a big 4 (preferably Deloitte) as my school has an extremely high placement rate, but curious about the S&T/M&A option. Are S&T/M&A able to gain the same amount of experience with execs as someone in big 4 audit ? What are the hours/pay for big 4 S&T/M&A? Would big 4 S&T/M&A have a better change at getting into a T15 BSchool as opposed to big 4 audit?
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What exactly is 'big 4 S&T'? But anyway, you will most definitely have a better shot at top 15 schools coming from either an S&T or M&A background as opposed to audit.
Big 4 TS groups are typically considered a minor step up (prestige/comp wise) from Big 4 Audit. I didn't go to a target school so TS options weren't even available to me. I know the preferred route from my school is 2-3 years in audit then try to transfer to TS.
I think TS requires more analytical/forward thinking than audit does; which is far more useful in many consulting/finance gigs that you'd target post MBA. I can't speak to the amount of facetime TS groups have with execs, but I imagine it's more than the audit groups.
That being said, yes, I think TS looks better on a B-school app than Audit.
(full disclosure: I'm in audit at a Big 4)
TS has virtually no face-time with execs in my experience. The M&A guys basically come in once a deal has been done and you're generally doing audit work on the financial without all the documentation. No need to interact with a targets mgmt. That being said, low level auditors and even mid/high level auditors don't get facetime with execs.
I was in audit for about a year and now work in corp. finance and everyone views auditors as a complete annoyance. They might get facetime with financial reporting or a controller, but not substantial as far as 'execs'.
TS will give you a better chance at T15 than audit. I know a kid who worked at E&Y in the DVC group who's now at SOM.
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