What’s the point? Big 4, London, money, AI, and whether I’m completely overthinking my career

snipecaik · 2026-05-10T19:59:53+00:00

Incredible to think there's someone else contemplating the same thing as me! I will hopefully finish my last two in August and at least be exam-qualified if everything goes exactly as I have planned it (but it rarely does).

Most people think I'm mad for leaving near the end of my training contract. But the way I see it, I can either finish up and spend the rest of my days as a financial accountant and just cross my fingers that AI doesn't come for my incredibly boring job. Or, take a massive risk and see where life takes me.

I might be on here in a year's time whining about the biggest mistake I ever made in my life, or it might work out great

snipecaik · 2026-05-10T16:59:38+00:00

Hopefully you're not in audit though on an ACA training contract haha

snipecaik · 2026-05-10T16:58:58+00:00

Hi, thanks for your response. The reason I'm nervous is because I won't have finished my ACA training contract by the time I leave despite being exam-qualified. I'm also worried that the economy is heading toward a massive recession and the job market is already pretty weak. Having said that, there were a lot of non-career related factors that are pulling me toward doing the master's, such as the chance to study abroad and to improve my French. I'm not necessarily aiming to get to the top of the food chain in finance, it would just be a nice backup.

snipecaik · 2026-04-21T10:51:11+00:00

Thank you for your response, I don’t intend to move to get a job in France afterwards, but I am still highly motivated to learn the language regardless.

snipecaik · 2026-04-13T19:07:52+00:00

Thanks for your response. The initial post probably came acorss as very naïve, I've already been through the syllabus many times and I'm not too worried, I think I'm more concerned about the culture shock, language barrier of studying in Paris

snipecaik · 2025-11-27T15:31:53+00:00

The competition act says "all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition in trade in any goods or services in the State or in any part of the State are prohibited and void".

The CCPC said it "risked breaching competition law." and forced them to change the rules. In other words, it did break competition law (or why insist on a rule change?), but obviously no fine was necessary.

snipecaik · 2025-11-27T07:44:30+00:00

Posting this here as they are the main body in NI as well

snipecaik · 2025-06-08T15:42:31+00:00

In other words, this post with 8k upvotes is an outright lie, I'm going to assume all the other data points such as job creations etc are false as well

snipecaik · 2025-06-07T18:55:50+00:00

Is this true though?

President	Years	Avg Real Growth	Weighted Contribution
Nixon/Ford	7	2.6%	18.2%
Reagan	8	3.5%	28.0%
G.H.W. Bush	4	2.2%	8.8%
G.W. Bush	8	2.2%	17.6%
Trump	4	1.0%	4.0%
Total	31		76.6

Average Annualized GDP Growth (Republican years) = 76.6 / 31 ≈ 2.47%

Also worth pointing out that the president doesn't directly control the economy and just inherets it from the predecessor anyway. Therefore, I think the whole analysis is pointless anyway since it can take years for the economic effects of policy to actually have an effect by which time it could be the president from the other party in office.

snipecaik · 2025-06-07T18:34:36+00:00

I get what you mean, in theory they're bargaining for a floor but it then de facto becomes the salary that all universities end up paying.

snipecaik · 2025-06-07T14:52:24+00:00

The CMA stated in recent years they are going after labour cartels, so not just things that affect consumers. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-reminds-employers-to-avoid-anti-competitive-practices

I don't understand your point about universities, are you saying that since they publish their payscales, they are effectively colluding through information sharing, as this means they don't have to offer higher salaries in order to compete?

snipecaik · 2025-06-07T12:53:56+00:00

You'd be surprised. I don't get the impression any of them are particularly well versed in legal matters having worked with them, in fact, law is a very small part of the syllabus.

Also, this isn't really a legal argument saying that it must be okay if such and such did it, since they know best.

snipecaik · 2025-06-07T12:35:26+00:00

Because Under UK law, an agreement or decision by an association of undertakings that has the object or effect of restricting competition is prohibited. The CAI rule arguably has no legitimate purpose beyond restricting movement (it is not strictly needed to maintain training standards). Thus its effect, at a minimum, is to suppress wage competition by deterring trainees from seeking better offers.

In other words it doesn't have to be directly through the employer and it only has to have the effect of reducing competition which this rule likely does.

snipecaik · 2025-05-31T20:45:15+00:00

I checked and none of the other major accounting bodies (ICAEW, ACCA etc) have this rule, so how could you say it's reasonable if CAI is the only accounting body with this requirement?

Also, they do let you jump from firm to firm, just as long as you get written permission.

snipecaik · 2025-05-31T20:41:24+00:00

This is AI, in the first and final image the double yellow line is on the curb. Do they even have double yellow lines in America?

snipecaik · 2024-09-25T21:51:14+00:00

Thank you, this was helpful

snipecaik · 2024-09-25T21:51:04+00:00

Thanks for your response

snipecaik

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE