The culture and the people

Public accounting at Big 4 can have higher demands that in industry or smaller firms.

I think the key is to decide your long term goal first - if you want to be in financial/tax senior leadership (whether in public accounting or in industry), then you should target Big 4 accounting and stay there as long as possible. In decided which of the Big 4, I believe the culture and people are critical because you need to like who you are working with. I chose Deloitte because of the people. Another key point is that Deloitte offers something unique that the other Big 4 do not offer, and that is the ability to work at a Big 4 firm that has a Consulting function. This opens up new doors, opportunities, and learning experiences that the other firms do not have because they don't have a Consulting function.