Not sure why..but too many kids who meet me (their parents ask them to talk to me, gutsy parents!) tell me ‘I do not want to do CA, sir’.

The reasons are:

– it is too tough, and the pass percentage is low

– compulsory articles for 3 years is too taxing

– attending college, office, classes for an exam is too taxing

-academically i am not good, weak in maths

– there is family pressure to earn money, because father is retired and sister is the only earning member

Frankly all these look like excuses. If you want to do CA, enroll after 12th and the basic CPT  exam..then the IPCC exam. By the time you are in your Third year you will be able to get into a decent firm. Let us say you do your articles in the big 4, the stipend (I guess, not sure) should be in the region of 10k?

Compare this to a 18k job in Hdfc bank or Icici bank which will take you nowhere.

Then you complete your CA..and start on a salary starting from 6-9 lakhs depending on the rank, marks, city, etc.

Now let us look at the other excuses:

yes it is tough and the pass percentage is low, but let that not fool you. If you are an average student and push yourself real hard you will clear it in the second attempt. Assuming a second attempt -even then the trouble is worth it.

Should you do your articles in a big 4 or a smaller company will also do? This is a 199 year old question, and the answer is ‘it does not matter’.

A big advantage of the CA degree (my personal views) is takes you through the whole business life of a company. If you do your articles in a big firm chances are you will do good quality work but pretty late into the night. If you do articles in a smaller firm it has its own advantages too 🙂 you learn IT, audit, company law…..there is really a toss up!

So if  you are academically inclined and are sure that you like the number crunching, go ahead and do your Ca…its a good degree to have.

  1. Good article Subra, I dreamed to becoming CA but ended up being an IT professional with Engineering degree. I am still planning to hop into Finance industry and planning for CFA. What is your view, will it be worth doing CFA or there is any other better way of doing it? (I have read which is better between CFA and MBA online and also I do not want to leave job and do MBA)

  2. Hi Subra,
    Like Jsan, i too dreamt of becoming CA (since i was quite good in mathematics and in the recent times since say 3-4 have gathered basic financial knowledge by regularly reading blogs like yours) but somehow ended up being an IT professional with Engineering degree. Like Jsan am also planning to hop to Financial Industry and would like to do CFA like you said from US of America. Can you please if possible provide me/us the links which you think appropriate to find info regarding the good universities to do CFA. I would also try to gather the info by using google-baba, but appreciate if you could help me/us in this regard so that I/we dont get trapped into wrong universities.

    Thanks
    Ramakant

  3. do not bother about university..etc. to the best of my knowledge it is a self help program. You need to study on your own…Google will take you to the course. Then there is an organisation/ group of CFAs in India join there..and it will help.

    Last time I had met some of them was about a year ago…and it was being managed by Sunil Singhania of Reliance.

    Google should help…and meet other students who have done it..try LinkedIn / FB also ….

  4. My son has taken the CA route
    Can he contact you for further advice
    can you tell me at which emailid you can be contacted for advice

    regards
    krishnan

  5. Yes Subra, I am planning to do from CFA Institute from US and for Ramakant, as mentioned by Subra, it is self study exam and there are 3 levels and also needs 3 year experience in Finance domain apart from clearing the exam.

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