What Losers Work For Big 4???

Every time when I was completing the independence checklist on my audit of non-public clients in the small firm I worked, or every time after I was forced to take the boring ethics CPE that nags me year after year about "Auditor's Independence", I couldn't help but wonder,  with such a wide net to restrict auditors and our family and possibly relatives from having "financial or other relationships" with the audited clients, how do the Big 4 manage to keep experienced  and top talents within the firms???  For my small firm and me, the independence compliance was extremely easy to follow.  But for people who work in the Big 4, the "Independence" compliance can be a huge pain in the bottom.

Most of the banks, mutual funds, publicly traded companies are all audited by one of the 4, and they are financially related to most of the Americans who ever held a job and had a 401K, or savings, or loans or credit cards of some sort.... I mean no wonder the Big 4 only seem to be interested in hiring 20 something year old children, who are fresh out of college, because they are broke and they have "zero" savings and no investment. They may still have a student loan they wasted on majoring in accounting though.  But that was easier for the firm to manage, compared to an experienced and talented CPA who had amassed a nice portfolio of stocks, credit cards, home loans, and other partnership interests everywhere.

One has to be really  a broke loser to work for the Big 4, or has to be really stupid about investing and money to have not much investments with the Big 4 clients in order to work for the Big 4. Neither of these is a desirable attribute for a competent accountant.  Either that, or they are so young and so fresh out of college that they have yet to establish any financial relationship with any entities.  Now this kind of projects the caliber of the people who are working in the Big 4 firms... Do you still think they are smarter than the rest of us like the firms claim they are???

If you are an experienced professional and you are looking for jobs with the big 4, be prepared to sell your investments and other financial interests in order to maintain your firm's independence and your independence  as an auditor or advisory professional, unless you are totally broke and you have nothing.