One of the big 4 is offering salary between 6-6.5 lpa in Mumbai, is it advisable to join or the salary is substandard considering it is offered by big4.
As someone who worked in a Big four ten years ago. The salaries they are stating how is something around the salary I got as a fresh graduate in PwC Mumbai. I’m sure they pay much more now! Also they mostly hire lawyers for Indirect tax / GST work and their litigation team in Delhi. And the work culture is not chill at all .. and the competition is super high, stressful and is a rat race . Also they pay really well to managers and above but they don’t have a one scale one pay concept . It will differ according to where you are from.. which firm you joined in from .. the clients you bought it etc . When I say differ .. it will differ greatly . Hope this helps .
It really depends. Big4s typically have 3-4 major verticals - audit, tax, advisory, risk etc. They also have a fairly small internal legal team into which lawyers are recruited. The internal legal team is akin to an in-house role and nothing much else. Predictably, audit will never hire lawyers. Tax, sometimes does, though very rarely. The other teams are mostly CAs, MBAs, engineers and the like. Almost no lawyers.
As far as pay goes, depends on which city you live in. There are minor differences. Plus, you will be a salaried employee, which means a large chunk of your salary gets deducted towards tax and PF. So, what you get in hand may not be fancy like law firm salaries. Fresher salaries may be Rs.9-10 lacs before tax.
If you are joining a Big4 to work alongside CAs say in tax, I would caution you against it. While we lawyers especially those from NLUs have a very high opinion about ourselves, even first rank-gold medal kids from the topmost law schools in the country are wayyyyy behind in terms of knowledge, understanding of the law or preparedness to work. After a 3 year articleship and the CA exams, even the most average CA fresher who worked with a decent small time chartered accountant, knows much more than you do! So, unless you are willing to be humiliated, be astounded by your severe lack of knowledge, and be humble to accept that you are not a gift of god because you graduated from a NLU, do not go to a Big4.
Having said that if you do manage to get a foothold and determined to go ahead, you can be assured that it's a much, much better learning experience because you are likely to get a stronger grip of the law, especially tax, company law, FEMA, GST etc. And, you will definitely develop excellent excel and accountancy skills, which most lawyers lack.
Alternatively, consider Big4 best friend law firms which i've heard have the typical law firm culture.
As far as work hours go, it really depends on the kind of team/partner you work with. Some days can be really as bad as law firm hours, especially if you are involved in say tax return filing, M&A etc.
I work at a Big 4 firm and the two weeks off is not in India or at least is very team specific. While this may be true of our foreign counterparts, I have seen Indian professionals respond all the time, take calls and send out substantive work products all while supposedly on leave.
If you want a decent salary, decent growth and work-life balance you should seriously consider Big4. They may not pay as much as a law firm but if you really do the maths, the number of hours you would have to put in a law firm job, the hourly rate would be lower at a law firm. Big4 actually have a concept of paid leaves (not just on paper), they close for 2 weeks in December (and close means close, no client reaching out to you during the middle of your leave) and much more.
Can someone also comment upon how to prepare for these firms? As in which team pays the most? And let’s if it’s the contracts management and compliance wing, how do I prepare to gain these skills since these are not taught in the law school
the least a big 4 would give to a law graduate (Del / Mum) would be around 7.2L p/a. This may be lower in other locations. However, the growth is sluggish and law graduates have to compete with other professionals - CAs, CS, cost accountants, ... - in big 4.
Big 4 work culture is competitive but not as cut-throat as in big league law firms - so if you consider yourself a star or want to have fast growth then big 4 is not your place.
Pays less than any tier one firm. Around 10-11 lakhs to a fresher. After that, it would depend on how fast you can climb the ladder inside with your work and networking. After about 5 years, you can hope to get around a 50% increase.
Can someone please give me a little idea about the packages that different teams offer in these firms? I am really clueless, if I start interning at these firms I won’t be coming back. Everyone says the packages vary a lot even a broad idea would work for me.
Any other insights as to getting internships, jobs, teams or work culture in these firms would also help
As far as pay goes, depends on which city you live in. There are minor differences. Plus, you will be a salaried employee, which means a large chunk of your salary gets deducted towards tax and PF. So, what you get in hand may not be fancy like law firm salaries. Fresher salaries may be Rs.9-10 lacs before tax.
If you are joining a Big4 to work alongside CAs say in tax, I would caution you against it. While we lawyers especially those from NLUs have a very high opinion about ourselves, even first rank-gold medal kids from the topmost law schools in the country are wayyyyy behind in terms of knowledge, understanding of the law or preparedness to work. After a 3 year articleship and the CA exams, even the most average CA fresher who worked with a decent small time chartered accountant, knows much more than you do! So, unless you are willing to be humiliated, be astounded by your severe lack of knowledge, and be humble to accept that you are not a gift of god because you graduated from a NLU, do not go to a Big4.
Having said that if you do manage to get a foothold and determined to go ahead, you can be assured that it's a much, much better learning experience because you are likely to get a stronger grip of the law, especially tax, company law, FEMA, GST etc. And, you will definitely develop excellent excel and accountancy skills, which most lawyers lack.
Alternatively, consider Big4 best friend law firms which i've heard have the typical law firm culture.
As far as work hours go, it really depends on the kind of team/partner you work with. Some days can be really as bad as law firm hours, especially if you are involved in say tax return filing, M&A etc.
Big 4 work culture is competitive but not as cut-throat as in big league law firms - so if you consider yourself a star or want to have fast growth then big 4 is not your place.
Can someone please give me a little idea about the packages that different teams offer in these firms? I am really clueless, if I start interning at these firms I won’t be coming back. Everyone says the packages vary a lot even a broad idea would work for me.
Any other insights as to getting internships, jobs, teams or work culture in these firms would also help