Happy MOANday, people. I received the following email last week and wanted to share my response with all of you. Please comment below if you are or have ever been in a similar situation, and detail how your respective firm responded.
I have a question that I can’t seem to have answered anywhere. I just finished my sophomore year a prestigious university in the northeast and am considered working at Big 4 for a few years for the resume stamp so I could transfer for better pay/work-life balance. One thing that interests me is how much traveling is required in the audit department if you work in a big city like NYC…are most of the client sites local or will a lot of flying be involved. The reason I ask is because I have an intense fear of flying and I am wondering if this will be a deal breaker. I would be more than happy to DRIVE anywhere or take Amtrak but I seriously do not want to fly. Would working for Big 4 in NYC, Boston, Chicago, etc give me the flexibility that I seek in terms of flying, or should I be considering another career? Thanks for your time!
The easy answer: Talk to the recruiters that visit campus. I don’t know how hard you’ve looked for an answer but the recruiters are campus know (or should know) their firm’s HR policies well enough to answer the question.
The must-give-Caleb-400-words-of-content answer: Generally speaking, intensive travel is generally affiliated with large corporations with resources in several states or countries; more times than not these businesses are headquartered in the larger cities you mentioned. For example: it is entirely possible to work on a large multinational corporation based in New York City that has factories in several states. Depending on the scope of the audit and the resources of firm, staff auditors occasionally have to travel to the remote sites and perform fieldwork. Most auditors welcome the travel as “part of the job” and enjoy a change in working environment (even if the environment is a chemical plant in Arizona). But because of your legitimate fear, this is obviously not something you’re interested in. I wouldn’t worry, and here’s why:
The advantage to working in a larger office is that the Scheduling team can better accommodate your request not to be assigned to engagements where air travel would be required. However, that’s not to say that should your office location be a smaller office (say, Pittsburgh), your request would be met with a “too bad for you” response. It is in the best interest of the firm to handle needs like yours in a professional manner.
My advice to you is to be discreet but upfront and honest with the firm you choose to worth with. Discuss the need to be on local clients, and remember – the vast majority clients in larger cities are accessible by mass transit or car. I have no doubt that you will have a successful career in public, even if you are there for the “résumé stamp.”
My response would be: “Now, go and get your shine box.”
If he works on the financial services sector of auditing in NYC chances are he won't have to leave the tri-state area much. The furthest most who work on financial services clients travel are to DC or Boston. Both of which are an easy train ride away.
If you work in a NYC office, I strongly advise that you don't advertise that you'd like to “travel” but do not want to fly.. I guarantee this will place you right on horrible clients in the middle of NJ… which means leaving your house around 7am so that you can carpool with others on your team to “travel” through horrible rush-hour traffic to No-where, NJ. As a first year associate, you will likely be ready to go home before many other members of the team, but since you are carpooling with them (and the B4 is attempting to cut costs and will not allow additional rental cars), you will be waiting around and performing useless tasks. So, instead of leaving at 10pm or 11pm when you reasonably could, you'll be stuck with the rest of the team until 12am or later.. then you get to “travel” back home 1+ hours late at night (bonus: less traffic at midnight, but it's always fun when you hit that late-night road work). And even if you did really want to experience Nowhere, NJ, you will be too busy working to see it, anyway, unless you count picking up dinner for the team (you'll probably rotate among about 3 available options). So, really, it is in your best interest to not make that request. It's likely you'll experience the NJ fun without the special request, anyway (NJ fun is more likely on retail or manufacturing clients, as many of them have headquarters away from NYC to save on costs).
To add to that, it's fine that you let them know about your fear of flying AFTER you have the job offer. I'd wait until you actually start work, meet with your Performance Manager and discuss that with them. Then, if you do get scheduled on a client that requires air travel, your PM can help you switch to a new engagement without offending anyone. I'm just saying that you should not tell anyone that you'd like to or even “don't mind” traveling by car or train. Because if you do say that, it could put you at the top of the list for a long, miserable commute.
Get a shrink, get some therapy, get some pills. There's nothing that you can't train your brain to get over if you give it enough effort.
This is also good advice for going into your compensation discussions this year.
You will be a pariah. The world needs ditch diggers too. Chump.
All of this is good advice (esp Billy Batts). Thanks for sharing, everyone.
We had a person like this at KPMG. They lasted 3 months.
Here is the problem that noone else has brought up. Your “job” doesn't consist of just working on client engagements, which I agree any firm can work with you to eliminate your travel. You need to be conscious of the other requirements of your job, specifically the training requirements. All Big 4 firms have large, national trainings that you have to go to on a yearly basis. Certain trainings have been consolidated, scaled back, etc. because of the economy, but they still happen, and all I can say is I've never seen a national training in NYC b/c the costs are so high. Not going to training is not an option. I know that KPMG would like to eventually move all trainings to a facility in Montvale NJ where the Company is headquartered in the US, but that hasn't happened and may not happen in the next two or three years when you go to come out of school. I think at least one other Big 4 firm has a “central” training location, but I don't know where it's at. If you decide not to discuss your “problem” until after being hired, then during interviews ask the question “How does your firm coordinate national trainings? Do they move year to year, are they always in one place, etc.” so that you get an answer to where you might have to go.
One more thought. It might not matter in an office as big as an NYC office, but most people you work with will have to travel at some point, and if you somehow end up on all “in city” engagements, there is the potential for your co-workers to associate some sort of stigma with you b/c you're not doing your fair share of traveling like everyone else. Is that narrow minded? Yes. It's a narrow minded world. I'd be annoyed with you because I'm narrow minded and look at it logically – flying is safer than driving a car, so what's the problem? That's just my perspective, buy I seriously doubt you're going to be able to find anything that is 100% no flying required. Go to work for a small CPA firm in the city, you'll still get a decent job after a few years, and you won't have to fly anywhere.
Go into tax accounting.
I hate flying. No, it’s not the frustrating obstacle course of shoe removal, sweeps and patdowns, oppressive crowds, interminable queues, perspiratory delays and airplane food (or lack of it) that makes every trip a challenge. (Though all of the above are worthy reasons to dread air travel.) No, for me, it’s the loss of control that accompanies my first footsteps into the claustrophobic cylinder that my fervid imagination assumes will be my coffin. For the next however-many hours, my life is out of my hands — and I can no longer find refuge in my delusion that my health and safety are 100 percent under my control.
Josefina – Taxco