The move we coach most, and the one people get wrong most

Determine whether it’s the right time to make the move, understand how the market is evaluating your experience, identify the right opportunities, and develop a strategy for making the transition successfully.

Why this move goes wrong

Almost nobody leaves public accounting at the right moment. They go too early, before the title that carries weight in industry, and spend three years catching up. Or they go too late, as a senior manager who was passed over, and every hiring manager reads the years as a story about partnership rather than a choice.

The second problem is translation. Public accounting trains you to describe engagements, clients and process. An in-house tax department is hiring for ownership and judgment. They want to know whether you can run a provision without a team of twelve underneath you, and most candidates from public never answer that question because they do not realise it is being asked.

What we do in the hour

• Whether it is the right time. Based on your level, your practice area and what is actually available at the level you would land.
• How the market reads your years. Which is not how you read them. What title you would come in at, what the compensation reality is, and where the gap is.
• Which opportunities fit. Fortune 500, mid-market, PE-backed. They hire differently, they pay differently, and the wrong one for your profile is a slow mistake.
• The strategy. Timing, targeting, and how to run the search while still employed.

What to bring

Your current level and years, your practice area, and what is making you ask the question now. If you have been approached about a specific role, bring that too.

Common questions

Should I wait until senior manager?

Depends on the practice. In some it is leverage, in others it is a ceiling. There is a real answer for your situation, and it is not the general one.

Will I take a pay cut?

Sometimes at the transition, rarely over three years. The comparison people make is usually the wrong one.

Does my practice area matter?

Enormously. Someone in transfer pricing will have a different experience than those in Federal Tax, SALT, or International Tax. Especially given whether or not they specialize in compliance, provision, or planning; or all three.

Is it harder to go back?

Yes. Which is part of why getting the timing right matters.

Other coaching services

• College Graduate Career Counseling$175
• LinkedIn 101$225
• Resume Advice$250
• Interview Coaching$350
• Navigating Your Job Search$350
• Year-End Performance Review$350
• Executive Presentations$475
• Boardroom Presentations$550

See all services and pricing