New Venture Lab: Equipping Christian Entrepreneurs

Question

I have just received an accounting degree and would like to gain work experiences that would ideally position me for deal making and entrepreneurship.  Some have suggested that I should go to work for one of the big four accounting firms to gain that “pedigree” prior to moving into entrepreneurship.  What would you suggest?

Answer

Most newly-minted accountants that do go to work for one of the big four accounting firms usually do so to gain experience and to build their relationship network.  The experience they gain is working primarily at a fairly low level on very granular tasks with large publicly-held Fortune 500 companies, while the network they build is primarily with other employees that are trying to climb the ladder in the big firm or land a job at one of their client companies.  Neither of those reasons fit well with your end objective because the context is not a good fit (large Fortune 500 vs. small entrepreneurial company) and it is questionable whether or not the network with corporate wannabes will be that valuable.  It would seem to me to be a better strategy to go to work for a highly-experienced like-minded entrepreneur as an accountant or assistant controller in one of his portfolio companies so you can learn within the right context that you eventually want to work within.  That “context” is not just the size of the company; it is also the issues that are dealt with and the character and faith of your co-workers.  Small entrepreneurial companies deal with a completely different set of issues than large publicly-held corporations.  You will hopefully also have more chances to be mentored by the entrepreneur on “deal making” and entrepreneurship and hopefully the network you build will end up being just as valuable -- or more so -- than you would have built at a big four firm.