In retrospect the $8 million seems unnecessary, but I think you’re forgetting how uncertain everything was in the spring of 2020. I had spent most of 2019 working on an accounting project that was going to represent the majority of my billable hours in 2020 that was flat out cancelled. I was shitting bricks about being gainfully employed for the first time in my career.

Edit: spelling is hard

I found it to be a lousy place to start a career, at least for audit. After trying my hand at pretty much every industry as a staff auditor, when I was ready to advance there were no opportunities as a senior in the industries I was interested in. My options were committing to an industry I didn’t care for, or waiting. I ended up leaving with no regrets.

If you do work there, I highly recommend having a mentor/advocate at the company. That’s generally important anywhere, but it felt like a necessity at Berry Dunn. When I didn’t want to go into a specific industry, I was made to feel like I was being difficult and it felt like I had no one in my corner. As someone who’s now in a managerial role, I’d never want staff to feel that way, but different strokes.

Work life balance was tough - a lot of travel across NNE - but that’s to be expected for that line of work.