Question regarding a career change:
I'm in my mid-thirties and considering a career change. I've spent the last decade in Financial Services at a combination of bulge bracket PWM and top 5 superregional PB/PWM. I moved from front office sales to risk analytics back to front office supervision and compliance. I'm mid-stream on a MBA (ranked, but not super impressive, still a target for Big 4 and the banks) with 30 hrs Acct classes. I'm considering my options after graduation.
As it stands, I've enjoyed working in a B/D regulatory role. I like working with internal controls, technology issues, regulatory change/policy response, etc. I like performing internal compliance audits. I'm not so much running away from something, as I am running towards something better (hopefully). I would like to work with these issues on a project by project basis, broaden my knowledge base, and develop new skillets while expanding my industry contacts. I was thinking public accounting at a Big 4 firm might be a worthy pursuit.
Since I have no prior public accounting background, I figured I would start by asking some questions:
1) Is Big 4 an option for someone with my prior experience, despite my current age?
2) Would I want to look at Senior Associate positions (as I would if applying to banking positions) when I graduate?
3) Would it be possible to join a firm's Financial Services practice right from the start? Would Advisory be a possibility with the right, targeted experience?
4) If it was an option to join a top 5 bank as a member of their audit team right from the jump, rather than going though public, would that be advisable, or short sighted?
Thanks in advance.
