well it depends. if u want to make 6 figures as soon as possible, public accounting/big 4 is the way to go bc u about reach 6 figures in about 5 years (manager level) bc u get promotions/raises every year and the real payout is when u go from public to private. when u jump to industry, it’s typically higher pay & way better hours. but as you know, public accounting is a lot of hours, especially during busy season.

if u want more of a work/life balance and never ever having to work more than 40 hours than government is the way to go (at least here in the US) but it might take u a very long time to reach 6 figures

if u want to go industry, it’s somewhat like government where you can’t advance your career as fast but you will be working normal 40 hour weeks. people don’t get promoted as often and only when positions open up and u will have to compete for the spot against people who have worked big 4 and wanting to switch to industry. i don’t recommend job hoping every 2-4 years bc then u won’t be an expert in anything.

so it really depends if u wanna suffer ~5 years working lots of hours during busy season but then payout is huge when u leave public for industry and you’ll be working normal hours or u want to work normal hours but it takes much longer to reach 6 figures.

with accounting there’s no such thing as working as little as possible while getting to 6 figures as fast as possible. those statements contradict each other.