Should I work in Big 4 Valuations? – Work-life reality, exposure & exit opportunities

In this mini-series, we explore some of the most talked about Accounting & Audit exit opportunities to uncover what work-life reality is really like, what it can do for your career trajectory & the available exit opportunities. Articles in this mini-series include:

Should I work in Big 4 Financial Due Diligence (FDD)?
Should I work in Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A)?
Should I work in Equity Research?
[THIS ARTICLE] Should I work in Big 4 Valuations?
Should I work in Restructuring?
Should I work in Product Control?
Should I work in Internal Audit?

In this article, we’re covering Big 4 Valuations – a subset of the Big 4 Transactions Services (TS) division.

Have you ever wondered:

What Valuations is actually all about?
Is it just glorified Accounting & Audit?
How is it different to Investment Banking/M&A?
What clients, teams, senior partners etc. will I get exposure to?
What is the work-life reality like?

Let’s start from the top…

Why does the Valuations team exist?

Corporates and PE firms often don’t have the spare capacity (at the Analyst-level) to develop detailed financial models / valuations when engaging in M&A activity, yet valuations are crucial to having a good understanding of whether the price you’re offering when buying (or receiving when selling) a business/asset represents good value for money.

This is where the Big 4 Valuations team comes in.

Depending on the size of the client, the in-house Corporate Development / M&A team may “own” the valuation model and the Big 4 team will purely provide input & analysis into it, or sometimes this task & ownership will be outsourced completely (often when the client is of a fairly small size).

Note that very large corporates will even have their own Finance / Valuations team in-house, and thus Big 4 team involvement will likely be restricted to Financial Due Diligence.

Work life reality & client/senior exposure

Inputs provided by the Big 4 Valuations team will more likely than not be from a purely-financial perspective.

Operational and commercial analysis is best held by subject-matter / industry experts, which the client will either have in-house or will seek in-depth advice from industry-specific external consultants, rather than the insights the Big 4 teams would be able to provide.

The degree of “strategy” you will be exposed to very much depends on the client’s internal capacity and how much they are willing to outsource to the Big 4.

Despite your involvement in “M&A”, the Big 4 Valuations team is not an M&A team, and you will not get exposure to every step of the M&A process. Clients will bring you in when necessary and will keep the majority of information to themselves (including involvement in the negotiations with the third-party).

Your Partner/Director will hold the relationship with the client predominantly, although you’ll likely attend meetings and have a point of contact within the client’s own M&A/M&A Finance team (depending on size of the corporate).

You’ll develop very strong Financial Modelling skills, and the role is certainly a step away from the accounting & auditing realm, however as mentioned, your involvement will be limited to the financial aspects of the deal i.e. not the strategic/commercial/other aspects across the entire deal lifecycle.

Hours will be as long as pure Investment Banking and you’ll be expected to be on call to client needs (think: 9am to 1am), but without the pay perks.

This mini-series intended to give you a quick and dirty overview to some of the most talked about Accounting & Audit exit opportunities. This particular post covered Big 4 Valuations – a subset of the Big 4 Transaction Services (TS) division, with other roles coming soon!

Now if this is an area you’re considering, I strongly encourage you to check out our map of the landscape of Accounting & Audit Exit Opportunities, including Valuations to find out:

How does Valuations compare to other roles in the Finance realm?
What are my accounting & audit exit opportunities after spending time in Valuations?
How does the career trajectory in Valuations differ from others I’m considering
Are there other post-audit career paths suited to me?
And more…!

Exit Options | Mapping the post-accounting & audit landscape

A lot of the clients we coach ask about moving into more strategic & commercial roles after spending time in traditional accounting & audit, but don’t know where to start or even what opportunities exist …so-much-so that we’ve put together a map of the landscape of accounting exit opportunities, which I encourage you to check out!

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