| Topic Name: |
Age Discrmination |
| Message Name: |
Appreciate Your Input |
| Date Posted: |
02/06/2004 |
| In Reply To: |
First, you note that the professor who provided the warning was a retired Big 4. That might be your first clue. It may be true that 20-30 years back they wouldn't do it, but the age-old public career track of slave/staff/senior staff/manager/senior manager/partner isn't what it used to be.
I joined a big 4 at the ripe old age of 33. While I had a few (just a few) years on many of my coworkers, it did not stand in my way at all.
You don't mention what you were up to before your MBA program, but you should look at its value, however far removed from accounting it may have been. Today there is much more emphasis on industry-specific knowledge, and you may find that rather than a detriment, you have an asset in your 'aged' entry.
As to the partner thing, yes, you may find that age gets in your way there, but consider what that means. Traditionally, one gets put up for partner in their 30's, then spends the next decade paying into the partnership. For a late entry, that path is a challenge. So you find that the Big 4 create non-equity positions as 'Director' to accommodate senior staff who aren't in the partner age bracket.
Frankly, I think the Director thing has many advantages that people didn't foersee a few years ago. Many an Andersen partner took it on the chin when their equity was reduced to zero. Partners of all the other Big 4 share the firm's liabilities to a much greater degree than non-equity partners or directors.
Being a partner may be ego food, but it's not what it used to be from a career perspective. |
| Message: |
Dear Taxdweeb,
Thank you for your viewpoint. I guess I should have clarified that I passed on the MBA thing to pursue strict accounting as a second undergrad, so to speak. My fiancee is in the MBA program at the school, though. Well, what did I do before going back to college?
I spent two years in grad school in Foreign Lits, teaching undergrads for a stipend while getting an M.A. (again, totally unrelated). Then I joined a company that, without mentioning names, is now under Chap. 11 after one of its planes was slammed into the WTC. About my duties over there, let me just say that it was on the lower end of the company food chain, dealing with customers. One reason why I chose accounting is that it seems to be more job specific than some other business disciplines.
I just find what the man said to be insensitive. We all deserve a chance to prove ourselves and find our niche. Is it my fault that at 19 I never would have thought of accounting? I grew up in Europe, although I am an American, and I look up to this country precisely because I believe that it is above that kind of discrmination. In Italy or Germany, for example, I would have been "cooked" by now. Thank you for your words of encouragement.
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