I am getting an oppurtunity to move out of public accounting (which I think is a general field, with potential for transferability of skills to different jobs) and into the firms Valuation group (which I feel is too specialized and restricitive).
What are your views on the Valuation group in terms of,:
Future career growth (prestige as well as money)
Career transitioning (transferablility of the position to other careers)
General demand of the position
You mean like you would audit the valuations of other companies?
I think he means transaction services - business valuation
Well, valuation services as well as work provided by the audit teams to make sure the valuations are correct.
So yea…transaction services. If you want to do that for the rest of your life go for it. I will tell you we were looking to hire on our team and we threw away any resume that had previous experiences in a transaction services role (I work in PE). We look for i-bankers or consultants if not from a PE background already. You might be able to work your way to an accounting role at a PE firm…but not to an investment role.
After getting PE’s fund accounting role you can work your way up to controller then hopfeully CFO. probably a good idea to get a CPA. controllers actually make good money. good as in above 200k all in.
So would moving to the valuations department at a public accounting firm, moving to a PE fund as an assistant controller and moving up be something feasible?
Yes feasible…if your work at a public accounting firm includes PE fund audits. Of course, your moving up will always be in an accounting role…if your plan is to be in an investment role then this wont work.
not sure about valuation department. Maybe tax or audit for couple years with CPA then to a HF or PE as fund accountant for few years
At a Big 4 in the Northeast US:
Sr. Manager (7-10 yrs) should be $150-200k, Director (10+ yrs) or above is not uncommon to be $225k+. You can be a Partner, but much less common than for those in audit/tax. You will not get rich (speaking from personal exp), but can certainly have a very nice life.
Exit opps are the biggest drawback of BVal. For whatever reason, and Ramos basically verified this earlier, the profession is looked down upon by those higher up the food chain. I’ve never understood that as it requires many overlapping skillset, but that’s just the way it is. On a personal note, I’m in the Sr. Manager/Director level I mentioned in #1, and have had some preliminary discussions re: potential landing spots with PE’s, and they all like my background, etc., but they were all very clear that I would need accept a pay reduction (low 100’s) and would also be considered a non-traditional hire, which I viewed as a bigger negative than the pay cut.
You will work like a dog (60-80 hours) January thru April. You will have significantly less work the other 8 months of the year, to the point of almost boredom in late summer.
@BValGuy, thanks for the response. Just a question the points that you mentioned are for the Valuation role right? Is there a particular reason why Jan - April are busy as opposed to the rest of the year? Supporting audit engagements? I always thought that it would be more hectic at other times of the year when M&A deals are more prevelant?
Yes, at a Big 4 firm, the valuation group largely supports the audit teams. That is to say that the large majority of your time will be spent reviewing and commenting on the valuations prepared by other firms for your firm’s audit clients. So audit season will coincide with your busy season. You will also have “regular” valuation projects, but this will be a much smaller portion of your role. I’d estimate that the split btw audit review/3rd party valuation work is 80/20.
Banks do the valuation work for M&A deals. Transaction services does more audit work.
That’s been my experience.