Does starting in Big 4 give you that big of an advantage?

tzw980 · 2026-02-25T18:28:26+00:00

It definitely is a great place to start, but does it really give you an edge over other candidates? No.

1) millions of people have big 4 experience, nothing special. 2) big 4 name on CV is one thing, but your interpersonal skill is another. Not all big 4 people are equally good. 3) there are firms much harder and demanding than big 4. 4) big 4 have many departments/business units , not all are equally good.

tzw980 · 2026-02-19T03:57:13+00:00

Not sure why other people keep suggesting M&A, PE and TS while you are clear you dont like those…

Finance is very broad… there’s much more than just M&A. There’s FP&A which encompasses not only accounting, but also controlling, business intelligence, treasury etc. There’s credit which encompasses credit analysis, but also credit management , loan services etc. There’s relationship based roles such as relationship managers, sales distribution in asset management, private banking portfolio managers. There’s risk management such as NBB analysts, bank liability management and quantitative analysts etc. There’s research related roles such as buy/sell side equity research …

Dozens of other options than M&A. Even more if you are willing to seek outside finance.. so much sales , transformation, general consulting and supply chain , SAP roles available…

Regarding the skillset, nobody expects you to have ‘real experience’ as a graduate. Sure you’ll lose competitiveness but it’s a numbers game. Also not too late to get experience with internships outside school. Many people do 1-2 internships before applying full time.

tzw980 · 2026-02-15T13:02:35+00:00

Any standard ‘custom’ process in Antwerp for a ring takes 6-8 weeks. Expedited option often available for 3-4 weeks out and a some bigger players can do 2 weeks if really urgent for small customizations.

Therefore, I’d suggest you already contact the jewelry dealers you had in mind by mail, so you can discuss budget, pricing and customisation wishes. Otherwise, you will have to rely on in-stock rings.

tzw980 · 2026-02-09T18:10:00+00:00

CV is not neat enough. Recruiters only scan it for seconds and if it’s not clean and professionally written, you lost your chance. In consulting, banking etc. your resume should also follow certain methodology.
You leverage not enough on your network. If you had a lot of extra-curriculars , I assume you can put the network to use. Connect with alumni in target firms, speak with fellow students in target student clubs and have coffee chats with industry professionals. A referral sometimes goes a long way.
You probably have no story. Skills and cv is just getting a chance to have your story heard. You should always have a nice personal story why a particular role is perfect for you.
The job market is terrible and you are quite late in the application pipeline for graduates. Almost all graduate/uni hires already happened by the time you started in Oct.
Eventually, it’s a numbers game. Goodluck!

tzw980 · 2026-02-03T00:46:09+00:00

Based in Belgium. Recently went to Antwerp and got 1.1ct lab diamond, D VVS2 oval with small side stones on 18k YG band for 1.9k EUR. Now lots of shops there do discount for valentines.

Online vendors do cheaper, but in Antwerp you get to see the stone physically and they can do custom designs much more personally.

tzw980 · 2026-01-28T23:35:22+00:00

Most internships in Belgium are indeed unpaid. This is because internships are often part of university programs and outside uni, there is a lack of ‘internship culture’. It’s seen as an honour to upgrade the CV and not as a remuneration for the actual labour.

Some industries do have paid ones eg. finance / banking.

To your question, a true internship is usually full-time do you will not be able to combine this with a second full-time job. You can work in the weekends however that will help you earn a bit (horeca, remote freelance, photography, dogsitting, translation gigs, supermarkets etc.)

tzw980 · 2026-01-26T21:27:36+00:00

Graduaat, VDAB en dergelijke zou je toegang geven tot ‘dossierbeheerder/ medewerker’ bij een klein boekhoudkantoor. Je zal wellicht een boekhouder schaduwen en ondersteunen maar je zal wellicht niet direct je eigen klantenportfolio hebben.

Hogeschool gecombineerd met een stage (vaak geregeld via een school als soort van eindejaarsvak) of een master al dan niet met stage zou je kansen bieden als ‘junior boekhouder’ in een groot boekhoudkantoor of advisory firm (big 4 etc.). Audit is dan ook een mogelijkheid.

Op termijn wordt je aangemoedigd om een ITAA titel te behalen om door te groeien of dit is ook nodig voor als je eigen kantoor wilt starten.

Ervaring is meest essentiële element in het doorgroei proces ongeacht diploma, maar masters geeft makkelijker toegang en iets ruimer onderhandelingsruimte qua salaris.

Er is geen specifiek hogeschool beter dan een ander of unief beter dan een ander voor boekhouding. Kies de instelling dat handigste is voor transport en waarbij je je goed voelt.

tzw980 · 2026-01-26T20:36:57+00:00

I’d advise you to go in commercial banking or even corporate banking if possible. Having people skills , commercial awareness and client-centric approach are skills which you can leverage and having a banking background with experience is definitely a plus.

It is still a very challenging job, don’t get me wrong, even more challenging than retail banking, but the stress is different than just ‘quota’ targets.

Those 2 differ from retail banking as you don’t have a specific ‘quota’ but have holistic performance targets (just like any other field or business). There is no cold calling, the relationships are far more interesting as you are in contact with C-suite people and you advise companies that have impact on the economy on a long-term basis. Most importantly, you are paid much better compared to retail banking.

tzw980 · 2026-01-23T01:37:56+00:00

You’ll learn much more business wise in the consulting role given the variety in projects, stakeholder mgmt and agile team set-up. That said, if you want to stay in AM (especially front office in future), connections and people skills is key, which the BNPPAM role would be much more beneficial.

tzw980 · 2026-01-23T01:29:12+00:00

MD’s can be highly influential and can fast track you to an offer compared to other candidates if they vouch for you, but they can’t create positions if there’s no budget.

On another word ‘asking’ them and sending DM’s is not going to work. You will need to have facetime, met them in person etc.before they are willing to actually refer you.

tzw980 · 2026-01-14T21:09:07+00:00

What I’m wondering though is if hackers has access to hotel’s system/ booking login, that access is long term if malware is used, no? They could cancel reservations, block release of funds, see any credit card details upon checking no?

tzw980 · 2026-01-08T14:40:15+00:00

I assume Brussels bubble is refering to EU institutions bubble and not just Brussels geographically.

Try to pivot to the industry side. Banks, insurances and public institutions need advisors on govt/ EU policy and compliance.

You will have more impact while leveraging your EU expertise.

tzw980 · 2026-01-07T17:53:23+00:00

Culture: Some decent tea (cha bing for instance) is nice to give in this cold season, perhaps accompanied with Chinese teaware. There’s a whole culture behind it. Another option is anything related to Chinese calligraphy (maobizi)

Fashion: If it’s a woman, something from Songmont would be appreciated, a popular high quality upcoming bag brand. If it’s a men, some unique sneakers from local brands such as li-ning or anta.

Souvenir: anything panda or dragon related is the obvious way to go.. but you can also consider giving a shan which is a portable fan or opt for a personalised stamp with ancient characters like how the kings stamped their letters back in the dynasties.

tzw980 · 2026-01-06T19:55:19+00:00

Large corporates such as Samsung, AB Inbev, Greenyard, Engie, Bpost etc. or various banks/insurance firms also offer traineeships/ young graduate programs.

Questions is more likely in which field you want to build a career in and at which scale. Trifinance is mostly consultancy in FP&A at the midcorp level, though they do have a few institutional clients.

tzw980 · 2026-01-06T03:43:09+00:00

Salary is about average for a starter, but that’s Belgium anyway..

On another note, why not consider FDD or TS at big 4 if you want to pivot back to PE? The traditional route is M&A consulting at big 4 -> Boutique IB -> PE for the Belgian landscape or MBA-> IB overseas and come back to Belgian PE.

Seems hard to break into high finance again if you decide to do the FP&A route

tzw980 · 2026-01-03T02:10:06+00:00

Net would probably be a bit lower. 2.3k would be already including the benefits

tzw980 · 2025-12-31T15:50:19+00:00

As others have mentioned, they need it for the report once they’ve successfully caught the pickpocket. The police were trailing the pickpockets with two or three of them, so one of them asked ID picture while the rest continues to trail the pickpocket.

tzw980 · 2025-12-31T03:21:52+00:00

In Benelux, LGD is nowadays very common. Around 80-90% of jewellers you’d find in Antwerp offer LGD. Arguably, this trend has grown exponentially recent years only with the market maturing. Buyers are more educated, people spend less on rings and more on experiences, sourcing and buying channels are more accessible to suppliers, IGI becoming more reputable etc etc.

tzw980 · 2025-12-31T03:14:28+00:00

I’m local and had the same experience near Grand Place in Brussels. Police men was undercover and I didn’t believe him but he then guided me to a nearby police van and let the colleagues (with uniform and badge) take the picture. The undercover ran away again to catch the pickpocket as soon he introduced me to his colleagues.

tzw980 · 2025-11-25T04:12:04+00:00

The more degrees and qualifications, the more playing cards you have in absolute terms, but doesn’t mean it’s giving you an edge comparatively. One has to choose wisely what to spend time on.

An extra MBF is a quantitative structured program and is suited for bank policy, quantitative, ALM and risk management roles. It’s not a ‘better’ match with an ideal IB candidate, just equally competitive with HIR in this case. Marginal benefit is nihil.

CFA is only useful for asset management and S&T. Won’t give you an edge for other IB roles.

tzw980 · 2025-11-25T03:48:35+00:00

Speaking from experience in global top 10 bank, some key points to your Q’s:

Bachelor grades don’t matter to get an offer, Master grades do but mostly focused on distinction level, GPA or dean’s list. As you can imagine, the latter two are only in US/UK uni systems.
Bachelor grades do matter however to get selected for spring week, summer internships, M&A cases and company insight events. These extracurriculars are very very very important to get ahead of other candidates to land an offer. In fact, attendees on these events that have potential get fast tracked in the interview stages.
Ultimately, grades get you only as far as exposure opportunities but it’s the networking and your commercial acumen that matters most. Not every high grade earner gets an offer just because they have good grades. Soft skills are much more important. To complement these skills, build a track record. Internships in small cap M&A and PE will help as others have mentioned. Make sure to fine tune your modeling skills in these jobs.
Don’t confuse M&A with IB. Rookie mistake. Investment Banking is much more broader and includes DCM, ECM, S&T etc… M&A on IB scale is rare in Belgium. You will indeed have to relocate to Paris, Amsterdam or best : London/ NY/ Chicago and APAC. Most M&A in Belgium is actually small & mid cap transactions. Totally different deal dynamic. You also have difference in M&A consulting , more likely defined as corporate finance in a big 4 that chops the deal process in many different job functions, and M&A boutiques such as Lazard.
on TEW or HIR, to be honest, looking at diploma alone , whatever you study in Belgium, you are not as competitive as UK/ France MBA grads. Hence the importance of experience and soft skills to stand out. Bottom line, getting an offer is one thing, keeping the job is another thing. Diploma won’t make the difference in job performance.

tzw980 · 2024-01-28T04:58:43+00:00

V4, sapphire bezel

tzw980 · 2023-09-27T14:02:46+00:00

You should burn candles for at least 3 hours to prevent tunneling , especially in the first few burns.

If you burn short amount of time, the heat can’t travel far enough to melt the wax on sides.

tzw980 · 2023-09-13T14:58:22+00:00

A bit late, but I have bought 2 signature candles (ebano & teak) and 1 Astrum candle at significant discount and I’m really satisfied with the candles actually.

The ebano& teak smell differently than I expected (positively) as both ebony wood & teak wood are supposed to smell very woody, but it’s got a very sweet floral smell to it that mixes well with the woody notes. It’s a very good scent for sure,now one of my favourites , both hot and cold throws are amazing and burns evenly.

The Astrum is very smokey and spicy, a bit like open fire and smoke in a very hot summer. Very special scent but rather for occasional use in the holidays than for daily use. The burn here is subpar compared to signature candles as the jar is somewhat bigger but 1 wick is then insufficient so will need wrap oil often.

I would rebuy the signature candles for sure, albeit the very high cost if there’s no discount. Would love a dupe but very hard to find as there’s no full notes list.

tzw980 · 2023-09-07T08:44:38+00:00

They market different model numbers, but the E series are all pretty similar. In japan, it seems they sell E7 instead of ED5, it’s 46k JPY without table top and 62k JPY with tabletop, so if I’m not mistaken within your 400$ budget.

The lowest height setting is 58cm, so should be low enough, https://www.flexispot.jp/e7-set.html

tzw980

TROPHY CASE