6-7 Reasons to Invest In the Next Generation of Advisors

Griping about the shortcomings of the young whippersnappers is a time-honored breakroom conversation topic. Just like every generation of teenagers believes it discovered music, love, and emotional angst, each cohort of professionals believes its successors are hopelessly incapable of filling its (much more office-appropriate) shoes.

The omnipresent buzz and speculation about the rise of agentic and generative AI in the workplace has moved this well-worn topic from the watercooler to the Wall Street Journal, and there is evidence that companies’ philosophies about the role of entry-level hires is showing up in hiring and employment figures. 

The arguments in favor of continuing the circle of professional life through an enthusiastic investment in new workforce entrants often boils down to a  worry that failure to develop the next generation will leave society with a surfeit of incapable deadbeats. I take issue with this for two reasons.

First, as a student of the dismal science of economics, I believe that decisions are driven primarily by self-interest rather than altruistic concern about an abstract classification of a billion-strong age grouping.

Second, and more importantly, it is simply not the case: while we wring our hands about skills deficits and brain rot, youngsters will be busy innovating us into irrelevance.

So, what's in it for us? Eide Bailly sees a compelling (and numerically convenient) set of reasons to go all in on the upcoming crop of transfer pricing professionals: 

1. Access to fresh perspectives: young professionals have an natural incentive to say "there's a better way to do this," the antidote to the Same-As-Last-Year plague afflicting consultancies.
2. Leveraging technology skills: my toddler regularly reveals previously undiscovered features on the phone she's swiped while I'm trying to figure out how to change my videoconference settings. Enough said.
3. Networking and communication: many of today's fastest-growing and most promising companies are led by energetic 20-somethings. Be humble enough to know that many of them would rather be working with a transfer pricing advisor who listens to the same terrible music.
4. Specialized industry perspective: who is better equipped at explaining the value chain of an enterprise whose main function appears to be expanding humanity's capacity to visualize fictional battles between household pets and B-list celebrities?
5. Team morale and retention: these days, I often find myself tuning out of my own monologues about weekend lawn-mowing exploits. Face it - young people make the office more fun.
6. Cost-effectiveness: despite all the moaning about unrealistic compensation expectations, I'll place by NPV and ROI bets on the new hire. Besides, what makes us so sure it's not management roles that suffer the worst cost-benefit calculation result in the brave new world? Microsoft Copilot can almost certainly already demolish my "Transformational Leadership Assessment" scores.
7. Moving on from reason six to reason seven (OK, seriously, if I'm losing you here, just Gemini query it): human nature and social behavior doesn't evolve at the speed of LLMs and bots. We all strive for connection, mentorship, and a legacy that outlasts and outlives us. A job without those elements is not a job worth having.

Now, enough with the theory - go fire up that dial-up connection and start flipping through the white pages. The next next generation isn't waiting around for you.