The day I became a Chartered Accountant, was undoubtedly the best day of my life. More than me though, I guess my parents and family members were thrilled. The most important dream at that stage of my career had been fulfilled. DREAMS DO COME TRUE. I felt numb after seeing the result, did not know what exactly had happened, whether to smile, be happy, laugh or cry. Gradually after a few “congratulatory” phone calls from friends and relatives, it started to sink in and I started to feel differently from within. From a CA Finalist, I had become a Chartered Accountant.
As I had mentioned in my previous article “Commerce = CA & Don’t Lose Hope” - doing CA needs lot of patience, dedication hard work and its share of luck. It did. Like many other people I too had to make many sacrifices. I had to sacrifice my first love – playing & watching cricket matches, had to postpone or skip many plans because I had to attend tuitions. You’ve got to make sacrifices to achieve what you desire. The day I cleared my exams, I thought “Life would be much easier now”. Little did I know then that life had actually just started. There was a tough question that needed to be answered now – Practice or Job? While studying for exams these questions would never crop up. All one thinks & prays of is that somehow we clear the exams. As I found out, it is one of the toughest decisions to make. It needed a lot of brain storming. Both had its pros and cons.
There has been a trend in recent years, viz., work for couple of years, gain some exposure, build relations, increase your bank balance and you’re ready to start something of your own – practice or business. On one side it’s absolutely justifiable to gather some experience and build capital before trying your own business, whereas, on the other hand, why waste two precious years when eventually you want to practice. It depends from individual to individual what they choose and deem fit for themselves, depending on the exposure they already have, their financial needs and their Public Relations. Irrespective of what you choose, people will always ask you the same question - Why Practice (if you choose practice) or Why Job (if you managed to find one)! Take some time out, think and then decide wisely - the choice is yours. IT IS YOUR LIFE eventually. I chose to PRACTICE.
Getting a decent job (by decent I mean as per our expectations i.e., profile and package that we desire) these days is like sitting in the Club House of Eden Gardens and seeing an India – Pakistan cricket match for just Rs. 100. In Eastern India especially, because new industries aren’t coming up (the reason is political or not is a debatable issue), there has been a huge imbalance between demand and supply of Chartered Accountants. Believe it or not but people don’t even get interview calls without a reference. Reference, today, is the lifeline to getting an interview call. You keep sending email’s to HR’s, keep uploading CV’s on company websites or go and personally drop your CV’s to companies, it just does not work. The only reply most people get (i.e., if they get at all) is an auto generated reply – courtesy the companies who’ve made these settings, else, we would have been deprived of this too!
We have often heard – Life is full of surprises. It is indeed. I knew it will not be easy, but I surely did not know that it would be this tough after becoming a CA. There are many practicing Chartered Accountant’s in Kolkata and trust me no one wants to change his Chartered Accountant. It is not wise too as well because inevitably he knows all your secrets. PATIENCE is one of the most preached words for success till date. It surely deserves its place at the top. My life has not become any easier after becoming a Chartered Accountant. I may not be writing any more papers to qualify as a CA but life takes sterner tests and every one of us has to be up for the challenge if we want to be successful. Life is never easy & it never promised that it would be. I have tried my best to be patient and wish that every person who reads this article deals with all his problems & challenges patiently and comes out a WINNER.
STAY HUNGRY STAY FOOLISH & NEVER GIVE UP.
Wish you all,
All the Best for your future.
CAclubindia
