Any CPAs in transaction advisory around here?

Ditto, my wife just left Big 4 forensics, makes more and is out of her office by 530 versus working 70 hours a week and being on "call" to deploy anywhere in the world at a moments notice.

I'll agree. Primarily because people in industry are still caught up on B4 experience. Spending the right of amount of time in B4 will pay dividends down the road. I see job descriptions every day for industry jobs requesting a requisite amount of of B4 experience.

Never rendered it fair or anything like that, just gave my observations.

OP here - I actually spent some time in industry before boomeranging back. People think I am crazy. I am a year off from making Manager. Current goal is to get up to Senior Manager and gauge potential for Partner or move to industry. So, trying to figure out if staying in audit for the next 5 years is worth it or if I should move over to TAS and possibly jump to industry quicker or just enjoy what I do a bit more.

It can work both ways though, my wife was early promote twice at a big 4, highest rating each year etc.... Could not even get an interview at Horne for a position near a place we wanted to move to.

Probably because she appeared over qualified. They may have assumed they couldn't afford her.

I'm in TAS, did audit for a few years then moved over. It's way better than audit. However in your situation, I don't foresee your firm allowing you to promote to manager on time if you rotate to TAS before you make manager. On the flip side it's really hard to rotate as a manager because you don't know how a transaction works and what to look for so how can they expect you to lead a team.

Just a couple of things to think about.

No, there are people from industry, tax, finance, private wealth etc. The norm is obviously audit background but not unheard of.

One caveat is that getting in to the group early in your career really requires audit experience, but there are plenty of people with non audit backgrounds they just have more experience and come in at a lower level.

Yeah, I have already thought about. I am in a bit of a weird spot. Have you seen anyone move from audit after making Manager?

Would you recommend just trying to transfer over after making Manager or try to move this Summer and possibly lose a year on my timeline? I feel like if I don't get into TAS now (pre-Manager), I may lose my shot.

Trying to figure out the lesser of two evils here. I do have some M&A experience (IPOs and acquisitions) albeit for the audit side.