Investment banking pays far more than big 4 but what classes as "busy season" in big 4 is your typical week in IB.

I don't know why anybody who had a choice would do tax/audit or why you make it sound like it's some great job that anybody would give an arm and a leg for. You'll make $140k after over a decade of the most boring work I can imagine.

The problem with accounting isn't just the hours, it's the complete lack of interesting or stimulating work whatsoever. Then once you add the lack of great pay or hours and the awful firm culture, it starts looking pretty bad. Investment banking may be similar, but at least the money, prestige, connections and skills you get out of it are better. Sales & Trading and Management Consulting seemmuchbetter than tax or audit.

i'd shoot myself because working 12 years at deloitte sounds miserable

i would work 12 hours a day 6 days a week for 180k a year. yall motherfukkers are going to be lucky to make 39k a year when youre 40

Let us be serious, the majority of them don't have a choice.

I considered Management Consulting but frankly living out of a suitcase half the time didn't seem very appealing. I'm in M&A and a lot of the more senior people also spend a fair chunk of the time on the road, it's one of the reasons I'll probably bail into PE or VC within a couple of years.

As a manager, any kind, corporate, project, engineering, etc

You need to be the first in, and last out the door. If graduates are doing 8-6, you need to be doing 7-7

If you need to come in on weekends, you do what needs to be done.

Your child will go to the best private school, eat the most nutritious meals, have his own bedroom and be driven to school in a 2017 Audi A5

let him go. if he comes back he's yours forever to groom into the most dedicated, loyal employee

work 20 hours a week for 200k

110k of that is largely passive, requires about 1 hour of admin a week.

I'm at my day job right now, 10am... I'm fn bored, sore from gym last night. I think I'll make an excuse to go home.

i'd shoot myself because working 12 years at deloitte sounds miserable

80hrs a week? How has your wife not left you yet? If I was your wife, I would cheat on you with Ahmed, become one of his 4 wives, obtain your house, half your salary, and kick you to the curb.

But seriously, do a paternity test.

You realise doctors, especially in their younger years, work atleast 60, and usually 80 hour weeks with locum and overtime, right?

He's a grad with 1 year experience. He's no better or no worse than any other grad with 1 year experience. You don't necessarily need him, but you need someone to do his role.

So it's either say no and keep him. Let him go and get someone in for a 9 month cover. Or chop him and get someone who will never ask for that much time off and do as many hours as you want with full commitment like a cog.

I would definitely tell him no

But keep him on?

What about the friction between you two? What about the fact that he will hate you and the job? What about the day he rage quits when he has some experience and you might need his help I.e. New client or tax year or M&A activity

What would you say?

Picture the following situation Misc:

- You're 35 years old
- Been with Deloitte for 12 years since you graduated @ 23
- You started managing your own team 5 years in and have 7 years experience
- You have a 3-bedroom house with 10 years left on mortgage, drive an Audi A5 and have a wife/child
- You have never travelled because you jumped from university to graduate job (60 hours) to management (80 hours)
- You make $140,000/year with an annual bonus of $40,000


A graduate in your team who went through the university experience from 18/19 to 22/23 doing a 3 year Bachelors and 1.5 year Masters in Economics now has 1 year experience in your team aged 24. One day he approaches you out of the blue in private and says he wants to travel the world. You knew that he spent his annual leave doing hikes around the state that you live in but he wants 6-9 months off to do Everest Base Camp, Machu Pichu, Kilimanjaro, Mount Blanc, Mount Fuji, Annapurna Circuit, 7K Volcano in Ecuador, sit at the edge of Grand Canyon, etc.

When you ask him why didn't he do it before starting the job, he replies that he wanted to get some experience on his CV. So when you follow up question why right now, he says he wants to do it before turning 26, and aged 25 when he's young, has energy, desire and before he commits to marriage/mortgage/it becomes too late in general. He says that he will be back after a maximum of 9 months and continue the job from where he left off. You pay him $50,000/year starting fresh out of college and he gets a $10,000+/year annual salary rise if he sticks to the job, just like you did.


Do you:


Option 1- Replace him in a day for one of the 5000 other cogs waiting at the door who will literally do what you say, when you say it, how you want it, however many hours you want, and not ask for any time out? This is, after all, the corporate world and you are in charge for the day to day running of the division and need committed members and this will play on the back of his mind and he will grow to despise you and hate working for you.


Option 2- Respect the honesty, respect the fact that he had the balls to approach you face to face, man to man, admire the fact that travelling and hiking is quite a big ambition in his life and allow him the time off, unpaid ofcourse, but restart him with the new graduate intakes and take him under your wing to train him up and nurture him into a future manager with the new found life experience.


Option 3- Say no, and if he leaves anyway, speak to your contacts at all of the other Big 4 firms like PwC, KPMG, EY, and other corporate firms who he may apply to when he gets back to get him black-listed for walking out to do what in your eyes is a "free spirited hippy thing" despite having an opportunity that most graduates would give an arm and a leg for.



Which options would you choose Misc? And why?