Article by CA Kaushal Raiyarela, Cleared exams in Mumbai now doing
Job in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. We heartily thank him for his time in writing his
experience and benefiting students and all the professionals who are reading
this.
Chartered Accountancy – “CA” is a very renowned
and valued degree in India as well as in many other countries other than India.
And hence it is also a fact that same is believed to be one of the toughest
exams in India especially in Commerce stream. However, this should never
de-motivate any student from joining it. There are many aspects of “CA”
Curriculum which actually makes it interesting at the same time very important
for professional life. As a qualified Chartered Accountant, I am feeling
privileged in sharing my experiences and thoughts of this course pre joining,
post joining and post qualification. I hope that this would be helpful to many
other students who are aspiring to become a Chartered Accountant.
I have segregated this
article in various phases to have better understanding for each and every
student at various stages of his / her studies.
1 Joining:
After completing 10th
standard, people were forcing me to go for Science stream considering my
results. I had been relatively bright student during my school days and had
scored relatively good marks in all important exams till 10th.
However, personally, I was never interested in any of Science subjects and I
was not even confident of getting good results. Hence, I end up joining
commerce stream post which I developed my likings for Accountancy and Finance
subjects.
Choose a stream to which you can connect yourself:
This is my advice to each
and every student to pursue career in a stream to which you can connect. Apart
from those who have joined Commerce stream already, they should go for this
course again if they think they find suitable career in that and not only for
the sake of others who are forcing them to join or just because they don’t find
any other option. At the same time, I have seen students who do not go for this
course just because they feel it is very tough and he/she is not capable of
clearing this exam, although they have likings for CA subjects. One will always
be able to clear CA if they like the subjects, its not rocket science we cannot
comprehend.
Requirement of studying 14-16 hours is a myth:
Moreover, although it is
one of the toughest exams, it doesn’t mean that one has to read 16-18 hours
daily. Many students do not join only because they heard people saying that one
has to put in that many hours in study daily. This is not true. To clear CA
examination only important thing is development of good understanding of all
concepts. So if anyone who feels he/she has good understanding / liking for
Finance, Accounts, Taxation, Law etc., can join the course and clear it with
reasonably sufficient efforts.
2.
Pursuing CA (Post Joining):
Advisable to Join along with Graduation:
Ideally it is advisable to
join CA before or along with your Graduation. However, for those who have
already started their graduation, it is never too late. Benefits of early joining
are first of all, possibility of completing course at reasonable age i.e
between 22-24 years which I should consider ideal. Post Graduation, it will get
delayed; however, it doesn’t mean its value diminish. Moreover, most of the
time, curriculum of CA course around 30% is similar to Graduation subjects and
hence it always helps.
Importance of Coaching Classes:
Nowadays, there are many CA
coaching classes. There is no harm in joining any of the CA coaching classes.
Coaching classes always help students in completion of courses in time. Another
benefit of Coaching classes as that they are very much objective and exam
oriented and hence student get good insight of past exam trends and patterns
and also it enables them to identify important topics and questions. Also from
other students, many important information and updates are available.
Inability to Join Coaching Classes cannot stop you from becoming
CA:
However, those who do not
want to join or because of some or the other reason cannot join Coaching
classes should not get demoralised. Self-Study also has its own benefits such
as understanding of each and every basic concepts and principles which are
normally not taught in Coaching classes. However, it is always recommended that
those who do not join coaching classes, should keep themselves updated by
meeting other students in colleges and libraries.
Regular
Studies are important and not 14-16 hours a day, conceptual clarity is must:
As mentioned above, it is
not necessary that one has to read 14-16 hours every day to succeed. However,
CA curriculum is lengthy except CPT, hence, it is difficult to study whole
syllabus at last moment. Hence, regular study is advised and same should be
revised also. However, one should never mug up. Conceptual understanding is
must.
Articleship: This is
one of the most important and critical phase of CA course which actually
distinguish it from many other courses. As per CA course, student is required
to undergo practical training for 3-3.5 years. Lets discuss why articleship is
important:
a. Insight
to Practical world: Many other courses have
strong curriculum however, it does not either have any practical training as a
part of it or it is for very short period. CA student has to do 3 years
practical training wherein he gets experience of a CA firm and also industry.
b. CA
Professional with Qualification and 3 years’ experience: 3 years duration
is long enough to gain really good experience in any field. Hence, when a
student completes 3-3.5 years of articleship and also completes CA examination,
he/she has 3 years of experience with him that gives him/her an edge over many
other competitive courses like MBA, CS and ICWA.
c. Useful in
Exam Preparation: Because of practical
experience of articleship, a student develops practical approach while learning
solution of any problem. Majority of subjects in CA have case studies and
practical questions such as Audit, Taxation, Accounts, Finance, Law etc. In
examination, student is expected to give practical answers and not a bookish
answer.
d. A
supportive source of earning: An article gets minimum
stipend during this 3 to 3.5 years of articleship. In metro cities, where there
is high volume of work, stipend amount is also reasonably high and provides
good monetary back up to students to meet its study expenses. This way it makes
it possible to each and every student to try his/her best in exams by getting
good study material and coaching.
e. Unreasonable demands of
Classes Schedule: However, in some cities and it has been observed that Coaching
classes are encouraging students to attend more and more classes and avoid
articleship or in some cases Coaching classes have lengthy hours so that
students do not get time to go for articleship. This is not at all encouraged.
One should join articleship and complete full 3-3.5 years articleship.
f. Flexibility in articleship
is also important: At the same time, it cannot be denied that clearing CA Final exam
is always first priority for students. Hence, in my opinion timely study is
more important as it is primary requirement to clear exams. This is
contradicting to my earlier statement. But, one should join articleship where
there is flexibility for studies also. Work while work and study while they are
important.
g. Hyped Craze for Big Four: In metro
cities, there is a craze of joining big firms like Big 4 and other large and
mid-large firms for articleship. Many students feel frustrated when they do not
get articleship in these firms. In my opinion, working in big firms has
benefits however at the same time some drawbacks. Due to very heavy workload,
students find it difficult to regularly study and do revision. They also get
less leaves for exams and ultimately has to appear for many attempts.
h. Advantages of Small firms: Those
working in small firms get good time for studies. Secondly, in small firms
there are work benefits such as experience of variety of work, experience of
leadership and decision making etc as in smaller firms there is lesser staff.
Hence, if someone wants to join bigger firms they should be ready for above
consequences and those who cannot join should not at all worry as their career
is still on right track.
Curriculum: CA
curriculum is split in 3 different exams.
Foundation/CPT: 1st is
mainly about fundamentals. It was earlier known as Foundation, than PE1 and now
CPT. Major portion of syllabus is same as 11thand 12th standard
which covers basic accounting, Communication and Management related topics,
Mathematics etc. Purpose behind this examination is to evaluate basic knowledge
that student has about these subjects before starting with core subjects.
IPCC/Intermediate and Final Level: Other 2
exams have contents that develop professional expertise in a student. (At IPCC
level, institute expects working knowledge from students). These 2 exams,
namely IPCC and Final as per current pattern, have subjects like Advanced
Accounting with Accounting standard, Auditing and Advance Auditing, Direct and
Indirect Taxation, IT and System audit related topics, Financial Management, Costing
and Cost Management, Companies Act and related corporate laws etc. At this
level, student develops conceptual and practical knowledge of these subjects.
Student understand many of these subjects practically during articleship and
then in Final exams, majority of these topics are covered in depth and at the
same time with broad contents where there is no limitations or boundaries. Once
a student completes Final examination, he/she is expected to have thorough
knowledge of all the above subjects and hence same is tested during Final
examination where students are expected to apply their practical learning
during articleship along with theoretical and conceptual knowledge.
CA Institution has been
very efficient in designing the whole syllabus which has covered almost each
and every aspect of professional life of a Chartered Accountant.
General Mangement and Communication Skills (GMCS):
This is also a very
interesting aspect of CA course. People used to say or rather it was widely
believed that CA students and professionals are best at knowledge and solution
providing however, when it comes to presentation and Communication and also PR,
students from other fields i.e MBAs etc have edge of Chartered Accountants. In
there is no doubt that these qualities are must in any field, business,
profession and in any part of the world. Institute started GMCS to impart
Communication and Management related training to students pursuing CA to
develop abovementioned skills also and to compete in the professional world.
This training is for 15 days which is also very helpful as explained above and
students should attend and participate in this programs. Institute has also
started Residential Program where above trainings are given for 3 months for
which Institute has a tie up with a reputed Management Institute.
Information
Technology Training: IT has
become backbone of almost all industry and Finance and Accountancy is also not
exception to this. Accounting is being done on high end softwares like ERP and
many other communications and presentations are done through IT based
instruments. Hence knowledge of these things is very important for each and
every individual. For CA, it has 2 dimensional important i.e 1. As a user 2. As
an auditor to check authenticity and reliability. CA institute understood this
fact and hence incorporated IT training where student gets basic Computer
related training which will enable them to efficiently execute and perform
their professional duties.
Post Qualification: Completion of
all the above results in a dynamic professional called Chartered accountant who
are expected to have solution for each and every business related problems.
A qualified Chartered
Accountant has ‘N’ number of career options due to wide array of subjects and
topics which are learnt practically and theoretically during above mentioned
process. I had been told by one Practicing Chartered Accountant that a
Chartered Accountant can pursure his career in as many as 130 different fields.
Obviously I did not list down them but this suggests that what is the scope for
a Chartered Accountant in Indian economy and at the same time it carries
responsibility and expectations.
Next small portion of this
article is the last but most important aspect in my opinion. Many students feel
that once they have completed their CA, everything is complete and same is the
case with parents of these students. However, as explained above, true test is
Post Qualification only. As I mentioned that there are multiple options for a
Chartered Accountant, this can work negatively also if a correct path is not chosen.
A qualified CA many a times gets attracted to good Salary packages etc during
campus interviews and accepts offer in a field in which he is not interested.
For example, someone who wants to joing banking sector end up in an Internal
audit of Manufacturing sector. Ultimately in long run, he will get frustrated
of his work and it becomes difficult to find job in field of his interest.
Hence, it is always advised that one should be patient and smart in chosing
jobs or career paths.
I had mentioned earlier
that, there is nothing wrong in working in small firms during articleship.
However, one can get good experience post qualification also. For that, many
CAs work in mid-size CA firms to get better experience which they could not get
during articleship. Initially he/she may feel that it is waste of time but in
future this experience always helps. Hence, it is my advise to each and every
person that on completion of CA, choosing right field and right career path is utmost
important and most critical of all.
I wish all the above
information is helpful to each and every person for whom it is meant to be. I
would like to emphasize on the fact that there is no one thing right or wrong
as long as one achieves success with other alternatives. However, above is my view
point and experience about Chartered Accountancy course.
Kindly keep reading for
other articles on Exam preparation, Reading Material etc.
Thank You.
CA Kaushal Raiyarela
