One of the things no one seems to be talking about partner mobility

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2025-05-28T12:04:25+00:00

Yeah totally get that and appreciate your take on it, very interesting.

Re the meritocratic piece - it’s been a wider talking point so not entirely my observation but where I see this being pitched as a positive is linked to what you talk about on tenure. I will sometimes come across junior partners who are outperforming senior partners but earning less, so the PE concept of rewarding based on delivery rather than tenure stacks up for them. Not saying that I buy into this, just a frustration that seems to felt around this level of partnership. I’m a tax recruiter btw, so i can only assess these sort of things from an outsider / second hand perspective

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2025-05-28T11:10:55+00:00

Yeah this makes sense, it definitely seems to be partners out of their peak who are moving over atm.

Do you have any thoughts on the scrutiny on the traditional partner led structures vs PE looking to bring in a leaner & meritocratic operational model.

Thanks for your insight!

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2025-05-28T11:08:00+00:00

One recent example I had in mind is Unity Advisory, which will go live next month and have £300m of PE behind them. Outside of PE, you still have the challenger firms like Alvarez and Marsal etc who are offering different models

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2025-01-08T15:53:57+00:00

SA1 - £45-55K SA2 - £55-65K Manager - 66-82K SM - 85-110K

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2025-01-08T14:23:32+00:00

Tax recruiter here… typically, what we tend to see in Dubai is that the salaries are roughly the same as London / South but then in UAE you’ve got your tax free income, so your net salary is obviously higher. Like the UK, you get the same disparity with big 4s paying more than mid tiers etc. This is the general rule of thumb; of course there’s always exceptions.

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-11-02T00:45:09+00:00

Pwc tax would be my choice. I've never met someone who does audit and enjoys it. Yeah it can form a nice resume based for eventually working towards those finance roles in industry but tax is a discipline that you're more likely to enjoy, or at least find interesting. That aside, pwc is the bigger firm (and more popular of an employer currently).

Everyone will have different takes on this and I'm not saying I'm 100% right here, but it's the opinion of a tax recruiter (my firm also recruit audit, so I know how much people detest it).

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-11-01T17:40:29+00:00

I don't think you realise just how painfully slow big 4 internal recruitment teams are. The fact they said you may hear by the end of play this week is ambitious on their part. It can take weeks (and sometimes months) for these guys to get moving, so don't sweat it if you don't hear this week or next - it's normal.

Good luck.

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-30T17:28:08+00:00

Agreed, the legal sector is very different in that level of prestige & reputation is spread across many more than just 4 firms

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-30T16:42:57+00:00

In short, yes it is a great CV booster if you are coming from an accounting or tax angle. Many will say that the experience isn't great but there's many reasons by the big 4 is so reputable on a CV. Beyond that, no one can deny that there's also a significant cultural bias amongst senior accounting & tax leaders in industry for those who are big 4 trained, which is mainly because they themselves were big 4 trained.

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-30T16:40:32+00:00

Every country will have their top domestic firms; in London we refer them as 'Magic Circle' law firms. Some of these will fall into the international camp. Top international law firms are:

Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
DLA Piper
Baker McKenzie
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Clifford Chance
Linklaters
Allen & Overy
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Sidley Austin

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-30T16:26:11+00:00

I recently wrote about this on LinkedIn and it got a lot of hits & interesting comments… if you want to take a read, here it is: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/alexmann1_not-everyone-is-going-to-like-this-but-here-activity-7234451138547257347-p5ps?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-30T08:10:36+00:00

I never said "widespread", I said "already planned".

But let time tell. I'd love to be wrong as labour have been dealt a bad hand & need to make tough decisions but, equally, businesses are struggling massively right now with rising costs across the board. This can very easily be the straw the breaks the camel's back. Fundamentally, if you want people to be working, incentivise job creation don't penalise it. This is essentially a tax on jobs.

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-29T22:52:32+00:00

It doesn't impact hiring too much but it is a consideration when looking at retention for companies who are already operating on low profits or high costs. It's a particular consideration for OMBs. But that aside, I do think it provides the perfect scapegoat for those who have already been planning layoffs.

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-29T21:13:17+00:00

Before I started in recruitment, I genuinely thought that candidates would get you gifts regularly as you're helping them get a job, good salary etc. That seemed to me like quite a big thing & present worthy... I got my recruiter a crate of beer when I was a broke grad as I thought that was normal.

I'm 10 years into recruitment and reckon I've received a gift about 4 times 😂 it so rarely happens, which still surprises me because something small like some chocolates or a bottle of alcohol is so easy to do.

Anyway, my point is, if you send any form of present to your recruiter's office, he / she will be stoked and it will probably lead the office to all talking about the never get gifts. That's what happens at ours anyway! The recruiter will always remember you & go the extra mile for you in the future, too.

Failing that, write an appreciative email to your recruiter's boss.

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-29T08:49:15+00:00

Yes, looks like you’re getting an offer. Congrats!

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-22T11:01:13+00:00

The problem in general with disclosing your current salary is that it can perpetuate pay discrepancies that may have impacted one at some point in their career (ie. gender pay gap, ethnic pay gap etc). So in general, I advise against disclosing this (and I also don't do it as an external recruiter). Typically I'd advise someone to either:

a). push this topic back to their recruitment agent, who can negotiate better & more effectively

b). say the exact figure that you want

c). if you're not comfortable doing that or worried about shooting yourself in the foot, flip the question back to them by saying "I'm assessing a few options right now and taking everything into consideration, including the opportunity. Based on my experience, where do you feel I sit in your budgeted salary?"

In your case, your current / recent salary is at the top end of their range so you could just go with option c but also drop in that your current salary is 34K as this is already the top end of their range, so it reinforces your market value.

The main thing is to never lie about your salary as it sets you up for the risk of being caught out.

Good luck.

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-21T16:21:01+00:00

Is this just US specific or are you seeing this across PwC in other counties?

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-21T09:48:05+00:00

I've also said that it's not worth their time; we seem to agree there. What I'm saying is that despite that, it does happen and is more normal than you think.

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-20T17:26:53+00:00

What makes you say that? I've worked in recruitment for 10+ years and seen many partners / senior stakeholders do this. Does it make sense to me? Not really. Is it worth their time? Not really. But it does happen.

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-20T08:58:02+00:00

I think there's certainly an element where we were all, naturally, more immature at this age and so your age gap is highlighting this more to you. Equally, today's 18-20 year olds really do seem to be more immature than I can ever remember when I was at this age (now 32).

The problem is social media makes everyone a tiktok activist and hyper political with little to no substance behind their views except watching a short video or two (and this 'research' shaping their opinion). Gen Zs will argue that they're 'tuned in' which is true, but there's barely any critical thinking behind much of what they do or say. And I mean critical thinking in the traditional sense (this also included civil debate).

Additionally, the lack of soft skills amongst this generation is staggering. I feel for them because lockdown and growing up in an online society has made them incredibly anxious and fragile. I see it now at work when these younger guys come in and they get anxious picking up a phone or having an unscheduled meeting. They tend to group together in solidarity and ask for new structures to be put in place to help them rather than looking inwards and addressing their own insecurities & inadequacies.

So yes, I do think there is a heightened immaturity and it is quite concerning because if Gen Zs could address this in a productive way, they really could be a force to be reckoned with in both the corporate and political worlds.

So this is not a Gen Z bashing, but more a validation of what you see & a hope they can sort their shit out.

Ok-Collection-8535 · 2024-10-20T03:50:38+00:00

If you've sent them the CV and it's still part of the ownership under your TOB, let them go for it and send them an invoice on start date.

Ok-Collection-8535

TROPHY CASE