big 4 tax

I'm currently a first year senior in the tax practice for a big 4 firm. The experience so far is nice but I've been thinking a lot about switching to audit. The reasons being, I feel like audit has so much more exit opportunities (Controller, CFO, Partner etc), you get to learn how company operate, and you can basically find a job anywhere in the world not just limited to US. As for tax, I feel like once you are a tax guy, you will always labeled as a tax guy so your exit opportunities will only be limited to jobs related to US tax. Is my understanding correct?

Also, do you think it is a good idea for me to switch given I've invested 3 years in the tax field already? And would I be starting over as a first year audit staff and would I need to take a pay cut? please advise! 


I see your point but almost every Company needs a tax expert, and you likely provide more value than accounting experts since it helps the Company implement tax strategies that result in less costs. You are labeled a tax guy but it's such a niche space that the opportunities pay higher and definitely do exist. As far as US tax, there are plenty of sub-groups within tax, so if you chose global tax, there are obviously more opportunities there.

If you'd like to go down the CFO/controller path, you should probably switch, but this isn't to say it's impossible going from tax to controller. I've seen it happen, albeit not common. Depending on the city, you may still be able to start as a senior, but it would depend on your performance reviews and the office's preference. 3 years is still early enough to change. Once we go into year 5, gets very difficult to do so.