I suspect that there's a lot of truth in that. Quite a lot of the people I worked with were not what I would call intellectually curious. (More Big 4 people than you might expect went to third-rate universities.)
I could never understand why anyone would work for a Big 4 firm in the City if you could work for investment banks, hedge funds, PE houses etc for a hell of a lot more money and not that many more hours. I imagine that's why in the City, the Big 4 don't get the best people.
Outside of London, it's different I think because you get people (me for instance) who just wouldn't want to live anywhere near London. It's gut feel rather than the result of an academic study, but I'd hazard a guess that 'provincial' offices of Big 4 firms are staffed by better brains than London.
Tragically of course, it's the plodders in London who get promoted quicker (through a combination of higher staff turnover and more exposure to high-value work) but to be fair they work much longer hours. That ultimately means provincial brains who end up in national or European roles (and here I am talking from personal experience) end up working for hard-working plodders from London. Hey ho.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2016-10-18 07:16 pm (UTC)I could never understand why anyone would work for a Big 4 firm in the City if you could work for investment banks, hedge funds, PE houses etc for a hell of a lot more money and not that many more hours. I imagine that's why in the City, the Big 4 don't get the best people.
Outside of London, it's different I think because you get people (me for instance) who just wouldn't want to live anywhere near London. It's gut feel rather than the result of an academic study, but I'd hazard a guess that 'provincial' offices of Big 4 firms are staffed by better brains than London.
Tragically of course, it's the plodders in London who get promoted quicker (through a combination of higher staff turnover and more exposure to high-value work) but to be fair they work much longer hours. That ultimately means provincial brains who end up in national or European roles (and here I am talking from personal experience) end up working for hard-working plodders from London. Hey ho.