I’m currently in a specialty Tax/Audit support group (to keep it somewhat vague) at a B4 firm in one of the large markets for just about two years. I received an early promo to senior this year, but I’ve been really considering leaving and moving somewhere else, possibly a different service line or out of the B4 all together. First off, my hours have gotten terrible over the past year, most due to fact we are super understaffed from Manager and below, and our partners have been pulling in a shit load of new clients. Second, I pretty much do financial analysis for documentation and modeling/valuations all day, but here and there I do some M&A due diligence and supply chain planning. This is fine, but after getting ~5% raises each year despite having high ratings, and making less than half of what my friends in IB/Consulting are making while working similar hours, I’m closer than ever to leaving.
As of now, I think I have a few options. First, I can go to another firm, hopefully get a decent pay bump, and stay the course. With this, I can either stay in my field, or I could move into a different service line such as TS/M&A Advisory/Consulting, but I don’t really have audit experience for the TS groups. Within my firm, I feel there is no hope switching into anything else (if anyone has switched internally, let me know what you did). Second, I can try to lateral to an IB as a new analyst or some other industry. I have actually interviewed with a couple banks earlier in the year, but nothing ended up coming to fruition. Lastly, I can stick around another year or two and go for my MBA. I went to a T25 school and have already taken the GMAT, but if I can get myself on the right track now, I’d probably avoid this. Most likely a last resort.
Any thoughts GC?