Are the kids not alright? That’s the question posed by this recent r/Big4 post.
Two themes repeatedly emerge from the comments:
- The early-career busy work has been outsourced away and this is the inevitable result
- The pay is too low and workload too high, new hires are wise not to bust their asses for the firm given these two facts
And a third factor: Young people have always been kind of dumb and OP probably forgot how dumb they were when they were an associate.
Regardless of your view, the comments are worth a read.
A few days after the above post, this one appeared:
Shockingly, being overworked and not paid enough to care makes another appearance. Almost as if this is a pervasive problem at Big 4 firms or something. This comment describes the situation well:
It’s likely that the firm does not incentivize Seniors and Managers to invest in their staff. They are also overworked and coaching + really helping someone understand something generally takes more time than just telling you what to fix. You also have to consider if the Senior actually knows what is going on themselves, as many don’t – especially if the experience you’re describing is similar to what they had at your level.
Anyway, discuss.
