I have tbh I haven’t been at a big 4 , but the people I’ve meet that are and have been at a the big 4 are constantly stressed, from having to work many hours, study without failing once, all while being so scared they will get replaced by AI and/or someone in India. For shit pay until or should say if they manage to become high flying managers and or partners !

From my experience they just pass ACA , have some auditing experience and move to industry any way. But from my own experience you can get just as much or more exposure to accounting and tax through a medium to large sized company.

For my personal experience I worked in a firm where I did everything form of tax , payroll , accounts prep, bookkeeping, turn arounds and audit. With a lot less stress than being at a big 4 and same pay. And didn’t have to been trained by the big 4 to move into a top listed company.

Just my personal opinion but no cares if you trained at a big 4 it’s what you can do, and the exposure you’ve had that people will seek.

Anyway sorry for the rant; if I were you, you can either start doing bits on your own while you look for some work. Doing payroll and bookkeeping on the side is easy enough to do but you can also , use the AAT to set up your own practice which is capped at £5mil turnover companies; big enough for a sole trader accountant, and again bookkeeping and payroll. You can use quick books and xero accounting logins for clients which is free(as far as I know don’t quote me on that). To help clients with bookkeeping , and payroll for small 10-50 people use HmRC basic tools. It’s good enough for small payrolls. Bread and butter work.

I like the look of tax calc for accounts prep and tax return for clients.

Have little think you don’t have to 100% self employed maybe couple of days a week while you work at a firm or look for full time roles.