Big News for Big 4 Transparency

I thought I would try something different today, so this is a solo episode where I'll be covering a business update about Big 4 Transparency that I've been very excited to share with you all. If we like this format, I would love to mix in an occasional solo episode with actionable career advice or a deep dive on a given topic that's top of mind. So to start things off before the update, I want to explain briefly what Big 4 Transparency does beyond this podcast, and the reason to do so is there's been a lot of new audience here who are maybe not involved with the main offerings on the Big 4 Transparency website. So overall, our mission is to bring salary transparency to the accounting industry. The podcast contributes to the mission indirectly by being a source of information on what's out there and by helping folks learn alongside me about the ins and outs of the industry and the stories of folks who've made accounting work for them. A lot of the guests that I have on here are in very aspirational positions within the accounting industry, and I think it's really valuable to hear from them, hear about their stories to either maybe emulate some of the things that brought them success or maybe just find people who have had similar struggles to us in the industry and be able to kind of see that they were able to find a way to make things work for them. My hope out of all of this is that these conversations can help show you different paths that may lead to happier careers, maybe give you people to follow who could one day become mentors, and all in all, just to help you not lose faith in the industry as a whole if you've had one role or maybe two roles that weren't a fit for you. So that was my experience personally. I had worked in tax. I really liked certain aspects of it, but I found the rigidity of the large firm structure not for me, and it took me a couple of iterations before finding a job that I was actually happy in. So for the last three years, I was working in FP&A, and I actually found that to be a much better fit for me and found that to be really interesting. So it's something where I hope that it'll embolden people to take some chances and try some different things in the industry, because I think the industry overall is in transition, and it's a wonderful time to be an accounting professional. So back on topic here, for most people who know Big Four Transparency, they actually don't listen to the podcast at all. And for these people, Big Four Transparency revolves entirely around the salary database that we run. So that is a crowdsourced database with nearly 16,000 submissions that's been used by roughly a quarter million accountants to know how much they should be making, what salaries look like in the industry, in the levels above them, and in the different exit opportunities that they may have. There's also additional information there about hours worked, job satisfaction, bonuses, et cetera. So the idea behind the website is to help individuals advocate for themselves in terms of getting what they're worth in the industry, and also just to help people have a clear expectation going forward of what do the opportunities look like for them, what does the future look like on the track that they're currently on. So this is a completely free offering on the website. Users are free to browse all of these submissions. And a lot of people have found a lot of value in it in terms of planning their careers or again having honest discussions with employers, prospective employers about salary. Over the last year or so, we've also started to offer in-depth analytics on this data to accounting firms so that we can serve as a resource for them to know how much they should be compensating employees to be able to remain consistent with their own comp philosophies. Especially lately where the talent market has been extremely competitive, a lot of employers are having trouble attracting or retaining employees. So this is a really useful tool for them to understand if they might just be off base with their compensation offering or if there's something a little bit deeper they should be looking at. I think the reason this has gained a lot of traction is a lot of firms have been using kind of legacy providers who maybe only give one update annually. And by the time that update goes out, a lot of that data may be 18 months old, which is not great competitively in such a hot talent market. A lot of other firms are using non-accounting specific data providers, which is not good considering our industry is so unique, particularly in the progression of compensation. And then finally, some firms have been relying on recruiters where there's a little bit of an incentive mismatch there, as well as just the fact that recruiters, that's not their core offering. So you may be getting information based off of someone's personal experience or a very small sample size as well. So Big 4 Transparency has been a good fit for a lot of accounting firms who want to be more competitive in the market, who want to access better talent and who want happier employees who stay for longer. Now for the entirety of my time operating Big 4 Transparency, I've been working a full time job. And for parts of that, I also had a book of tax clients on the side. So it was all very overwhelming and I did not have much time to dedicate to this. So it was already evenings and weekend, but even the evenings and the weekends were being split between this and some other projects. So the major business update that I've been so excited to share with you is that I'm going to be making this my full time job as of September. I'm having conversations with my employer currently about transitioning out smoothly and I have handed off the tax business to be able to focus 100% of my time and energy on this. So what this means for you, the listener and possible user of the website or reader of the newsletter is that I will be directing a lot more of my time and attention to making Big 4 Transparency better. I want to create more and higher quality content, both on the podcast and on the newsletter. And I would love to hear from you about what you'd like to hear and see. I will also be focused on improving the user experience on the website, both for individuals and for firms who are subscribed to the salary data offering. And I just want to be able to put more of my time into this. Also dedicate more time to the talent pool initiative I've been working on. So if you're hiring or looking for a new role, check that out on the website because I'll be putting a lot more energy into that as well. And just in general, I'm looking forward to being able to experiment, try new things and get this in front of more individuals as well as more firms just to be able to have a larger impact on the industry. So I'm beyond excited to be sharing this with you all, as well as a little bit scared about what is to come. But above all, I really wanted to thank you all from listeners to people participating in the crowdsource data offering for making this all possible. In the spirit of transparency, I would love to be able to continue sharing occasional updates on the business as well. So where possible, I'll be doing that. There's going to be lots of news coming out more specifically about this transition to making this my full time job over the next couple of weeks or months. But yeah, thank you all for listening and thank you all for being a part of this. This is going to be a really good change for the business as well as for myself personally, I think. And none of this would have been possible without all of the people who've supported. So thank you all very much. I'm really excited to be going on this journey and I hope to be able to take you along with me. Thank you.