What is the most important advice needed to survive in Big 4s?

a) Always have your churlish attitude ON. The more comfortable you get with people, the more are the chances that you may get overworked or engulfed in office politics. Remain professional. Have congenial relation only with your peers, never your bosses. b) Always promise 10% less than you can generate (believe me you are gonna need it). c) Manage your year in phases. Max productivity in 3 months before appraisal cucyle. Rest you can take a bit easy. d) Never let someone put you down. If its not your faul then make the other party regret pushing you.

1. Prepare for meetings one day before. 2. Think like you are the CEO of the project. 3. Choose your battles

Men who are 25 or older, please give a piece of advice in the comments section to the men who are 18-25.

1. You’re not in Big 4 for the money early in your career. Your 20s should be spent laying the foundations of your career in your late 20s to early 40s. 2. Money will never be fantastic compared to industry. People aren’t paying Big 4s for expertise, they’re paying for temporary / agile resource allocation or because something requires external parties (e.g., external audit, independent reviews etc.). 3. You can absolutely succeed outside the Big 4, but YMMV. For every industry success story, there’s always someone who worked at a great company but got stuck playing musical chairs, screwed by a restructure, thrown under terrible leadership or just lacked that sweet serendipity that everyone needs to score that next promotion. The Big 4 by comparison provided structured training and career progression. The price you pay for this is money and work life balance. 4. Recruiters love ex big 4 hires just like why they love CAs. It’s a reliable stamp on someone’s CV to shows that someone’s gone through an appropriate level of professional training and professional experiences. For example when hiring an experienced senior / manager I’d be comfortable that they’d have experience coaching new staff, people managing, advising senior leaders or even navigating complex political environments. 5. Networking and its benefits are never felt immediately. The people who realise this too late are always the ones who get caught with their pants down in the middle of job interviews or complex matters at work. They often have no friends, peers or ex colleagues to turn to for advice or just as a general sounding board. You’ll realise just how many people you know in various companies/roles once you leave the Big 4.

What is that one piece of advice you’d give your younger self or someone who’s starting off now after working for a few years. Mine would be that despite the hunger to prove yourself always take the time off to enjoy your success both personally and with people close to you. Time is something you’ll never get back.

Background: I'm about to start my corporate journey and one of the advices I recieved was "Don't take things personally, and treat most feedback as a chance to improve and not resent!" What would you advice your younger self, about to step out in the corporate world? Drop some wisdom!

Old IIT, random branch, 8 years out of college, 45LPA fixed + 10 variable + 20L RSUs in a generalist project lead role with a consulting services firm. Confused. Had been wanting to startup at some point hence didn't go for a M7 MBA. Not sure about starting up now. ISB, Insead and maybe a long shot at an M7 also on the table. Can stay at this firm and be partner equivalent in 4-5 years but it ain't MBB so max I see myself is at 80L fixed in 5 years and it plateauing. How'd you go about thinking this through?