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Journalism of Courage
Popular OTT channel, TVF’s (The Viral Fever) new show — Half CA Accounts, Ambition aur Attempts, focuses on the lives of Chartered Accountant aspirants and the challenges they face. The show revolves around two central characters — one a CA aspirant who is yet to clear the final exam after failing multiple attempts and the other a young student who has cleared her CPT and fails in CA intermediate.
The show highlights CA aspirants’ journey to clear “one of the toughest examinations in the country” and how it is a competition with yourself, not others. There is no age limit for a student to appear for a CA exam, the only condition is the registration should be valid. The candidates have to re-register themselves once their registration period is over.
Indianexpress.com spoke to some CAs, ‘half CAs’ and industry experts to know what the course entails.
Debleen Mazumdar — Pursuing Masters of Finance from Thompson Rivers University, Canada. Yet to clear CA Final group 1
I have been pursuing CA for the last nine years and these are the most exhausting years of my life. However, with this course, you are hopeful that once you clear it you will get a good job. This journey has been difficult, and there has been immense mental pressure but now with only one group to go, I am hopeful about the future.
I chose to pursue CA as it is considered the best course for Commerce stream students. Plus, my father has a background in accounting. Over the years, I completed my graduation and am currently pursuing Master’s of Finance at Thompson Rivers University, Canada and also working as a night auditor with a hotel chain.
I cleared CPT on my first attempt. It took five attempts to pass the CA intermediate and another 2.5 years to clear the whole IPCC and five more attempts to clear CA final group 2. Over the course of these years, some experiences were very harsh, one of them was being called a half CA or semi-qualified CA. It really takes a toll on your mental health when you can’t clear a paper by falling short of 5 or 6 marks and you see your peers moving ahead in life while you are stuck.
Mohika Mitra— CA, working in the corporate sector in Bengaluru
I took up this course as a challenge as my acquaintances who cleared the CA exams say it is a tough course. I wanted to see for myself how difficult it could be. It took me seven years to clear CA. My CA experience has been alienating, and difficult but something that is doable if you allow yourself to. It’s more of a mental game. There were times when I failed not because I didn’t study enough, but because I was not confident. People make it so big in their heads that overcoming it becomes difficult. With this course, you don’t have a college life and you also have to disassociate yourself from the world.
Though it has been excruciating and gruelling but at the same time, the course makes you strong. I have personally become more patient, level-headed, forgiving and accepting towards myself.
Tanmay Singh— CA, has his own practice
My experience was a mixed bag of good and bad. I chose to pursue CA after school along with my graduation. One thing I learned from the course was to accept failures. Till school, not many students see failure, I was one of them and here you are with CA where the rate of success is very low.
I cleared the exam in six years. Over those years, I didn’t feel like quitting but definitely had a doubt about myself whether I was good enough or not. I couldn’t clear my CA final group 1 by five marks. We are exempted from giving a paper again if we score 60 marks in that paper and I secured 59 marks. Incidents like these shook my confidence but I did not quit because that wasn’t an option for me, I had given so much time to it and planned on building a career on the basis of the same.
One more important thing that CA teaches you is being responsible. You understand how important your work is during the articleship period. People trust you with all they have earned and saved and you have to be very careful with it. One thing that I feel might affect people is the stipend you are paid during articleship. Since, I was a local, money was not a big issue but for people who come from other cities might feel it is too less to sustain themselves. However, it is definitely a rewarding experience.
Arushi Srivastava— Left CA after IPCC, currently working as a staff auditor for a private company
My father is an income tax officer and my grandfather was the Commissioner of the revenue department, so I had some familiarity with the field and decided to pursue it. It wasn’t that I was bad at it, but after clearing IPCC and completing my articleship, I lost interest in it. I felt there was too much work and you don’t get paid enough.
And, the cherry on the cake is to manage studies along with it. CA students do not have a college life or a social life, there is just work or studies. Plus, it goes on for a very long time and you have to be consistent through all those years otherwise the whole effort goes to waste.
CA prepares you for a diverse field from tax to audit to law. In today’s time and age, people want specialists. Also, I don’t feel it is that rewarding a course, you don’t make half as much as MBA graduates get.
Off late, the ICAI has also noticed that the course needs to be reworked and has changed the curriculum. I believe if you want to quit, do so after having a degree and if possible a job.
I am a BCom graduate and when anyone hires me they take into account that I am a semi-qualified CA with articleship experience.
Vishal Shah, COO, JK Shah Classes, Mumbai
Over the years, the number of registered students for CA has remained stagnant. There are 30 to 40 per cent students who come from different cities. As per our experience, tier-1 cities are hubs for CA aspirants — Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Chennai. Many of these students come to the cities after clearing CPT.
Unlike other courses, the fees for becoming a CA is somewhere around Rs 3 lakh for all five exams, which is way below compared to other courses like engineering or MBA. As many students would argue that MBA pays more, but for that, you have to complete your graduation. For CA, you need to qualify the exams.
It is definitely a demanding course but also very rewarding. It is one of the most powerful qualifications in the field of Commerce. Also, nothing worth having comes easy, one has to make efforts to obtain it.
For CA students, the most aspirational positions are management consultant in the Big 4, investment banking. Other than that all companies require internal auditors. The packages with big firms are attractive. Over the years, the inclination towards having your practice is going down as it is not as viable now.
