Reflections: Impact of CA on my Professional Journey"

Today I complete 9 years of qualifying as a Chartered Accountant and it does bring a sense of nostalgia. Maybe it is hindsight bias that the CA journey doesn’t seem as hard it was or it just feels part of a vivid dream. A dream where I started working at 18 years and used to start my day at 5 30 am and end post midnight for 3+ years everyday.

Today I do much less “CA” work than my batchmates and that question does come into mind - Did my journey as a Chartered Accountant truly contribute to my current path as an entrepreneur? Did it mould me in ways that continue to benefit my professional journey or should I have spent time differently?

Upon reflection, here is how I think it has helped me -

Strong work ethic - The practical training in CA is demanding and clients still expect their work to be error-free & timely. Despite working with a Big 4 firm, I would have done all forms of work from scanning thousands of pages, making binders to work on CXO advisory matters. It makes you realize that no work is too small or big and you do whatever is needed to get things done.

As an entrepreneur, you need to understand the dignity of labour and execute work at the high level on a regular basis

Attention to detail - In a course where each mark counts dearly & the clients require a high degree of accuracy, getting into details and always aiming for a high quality output becomes second nature.

At a startup, with a flat hierarchy, limited resources, a lot of work does not pass through multiple levels of checks. Hence being able to find & address gaps, still deliver a high quality output is a triat that comes handy.

Attitude towards Stress - There is a lot of stress from all aspects - work pressure, exams-related stress, expectations from self & society to name a few. And if you happen to fail even once (been there :) ) in your exams, it increases exponentially. This constant pressure forces you to frame stress more positively. Being in an uncomfortable, challenging situation becomes second nature.

There will be highs and lows as an entrepreneur, being able to persevere and tide through it is what makes a difference.

Passion for learning - The courseload is vast & complex. Unless you don’t enjoy the learning process it can become quite onerous. I didn’t realize it then, but spending long hours studying complex subjects from taxes to accounting fostered a love for learning that has continued on for other subjects even after CA.

As an entrepreneur, the problems you’ll be solving can be very diverse and keep evolving. The only way through it is to maintain a learning attitude. Having a fondness for learning & a belief system that nothing is too complex to give up on

Great Mentors - Working at a impressionable age as a fresher, the people you work with have a huge role in shaping you. Hence the popular analogy of being mouldable like clay. I was lucky to have bosses who were also great mentors. A lot of traits like empathy, professionalism, leading by example, fostering trust are traits I would have seen in action while working with Gaurav Sharma , Nitin Agrawal , Himanshu Bhatia & Manoj Jain .

While the traits you imbibe from each person you work with can be different, these traits to building a happy & productive workplace are the bedrock to being a successful entrepreneur.

Supportive Peer Group - Despite the journey being tough, it becomes a lot more bearable when you have friends and peers who are or have been on a similar journey with you. Your social group shares updates with you, motivates you, challenges you & most importantly helps ensure you take enough coffee breaks ;) I was lucky to have friends like Akshay Goswami , Agrim Jindal, CPA , Sahil Babbar , Komal Agarwal , Ankita Saraf , Sameer Kapoor , CA Asmeet Bhatia , Srinivasan Srikant and countless others in my journey.

Likewise as an entrepreneur, the journey can be lonely at times. Having a peer group for advice, being candid and being available help you is a very helpful support system that can make the journey a lot more worthwhile.

At the same time, I do wish that the course had a more formal learning program like a college, more focus on technology, strategy & communication skills in imbibed in the curriculum.

Learnings from Chartered Accountancy that go way beyond just the technical knowledge the course imparts. It’s just that, you may not see the dots connecting when looking forward, you would only notice how it connects when you look back.

In the journey of entrepreneurship inspite of my prior experiences, I feel like the optimistic fresher at the start of a journey. How was your experience with Chartered Accountancy? How do you think it has helped shape you?

PS: One could reason that many of these learnings could have been acquired from other sources or courses as well and that is very true. This is just a personal expression of my journey