Life after CA

When we are young, we always dream of professional life; huge buildings made of glass, luxury cars, business travels, meetings, agreements, data, systems, graphs, etc. and amidst all these stuff you are in the center, everything that you visualize looks so rosy. I’m sure at one point or other in your life you’ve dreamt about all these things. The depiction of these things may come from the visual sources or it might be coming out of your inner-self. Hi, I’m Diwakar and I’ll enable a sneak peek for you to see how exactly the corporate world looks like. Read on to know about the life after CA.

Changes in Personal Life

Before moving to the professional one, I'll first tell you about the changes which occur in personal life after completing CA. The changes you feel are enormous and it starts right from your family itself. I can pen down the list as follows:

• Most of the times your parents are no longer known by their names, but yours.
• You enjoy meeting with people because they're doing nothing but praising you.
• Your younger siblings (including cousins) who weren't paying much heed to your words earlier, suddenly start taking you seriously.
• At your home, every minor decision is taken after consulting you, not to mention the major ones.
• You become a solution provider for almost every single problem going in your near and dear ones' lives.
• People come to you for advice very often.
• The firm from where you were pursuing your articleship, suddenly start treating you in a better way.
• You start getting marriage proposals in your early 20s (not in all cases, but if you do, don't fall prey to them).
• Last but not least - you become more confident and proud of yourself and your achievement, that feeling is unparalleled. Life seems to be so beautiful at that time, everything else goes dim in front of that. Live those moments thoroughly, because you've spent some good years of your life finding those.

The Corporate Life

If you plan to have a firm of your own, then you are aware of most the things already, thanks to the articleship. You have seen the culture and working pattern of the CA firm, so I won’t go deep into the practice prospects.

But, if you opt to go for service with some MNC, then you’re exposed to a whole new corporate world. Those large buildings, humongous number of people working there, the facilities around excite you a lot. Initially, everything appears so new but gradually it becomes a part of your life without you being even realizing it. You enter into a whole new chapter of the book of your life. In the next few paras, I will be throwing light on various components of the corporate world.

Colleagues

“You are the exact average of the 5 people you spend your most of the time with”

We’re humans and the first thing which we come across in this new chapter are the colleagues. From asking for help in the initial days of your onboarding to going for tea and lunch breaks together, these people are the source for you to know about everything you wish to know. But then, choosing whom you want to talk to becomes important, because there is a famous saying, “You are the exact average of the 5 people you spend your most of the time with”. These people have a role to play in guiding your career, be a little prudent regarding this.

The Boss

I may be lashed upon by many of the bosses for what I am going to say now. We don’t like our bosses and that’s a human tendency, even our bosses don’t like their bosses, so that’s okay, this collaboration is meant to be like this. He is bound to fill your bucket with never-ending tasks and when you will be about to leave for the day, he’ll pick out something which needs to be done at that very moment itself (I have encountered numerous instances like this while in articleship).

You can't ask for leaves, early day-ends, etc. You have to take call every-time your boss calls you, no matter what the day and time is. They do micro-manage you throughout the time. Well, there are exceptions but those are very few. Basically, they do this to make sure that their subordinates don’t get much comfort and finish the tasks on priority. But on the floor, he is the only person who takes the blame for your fault and tracks your progress throughout the year and nominate you for the appraisals, so work well by learning about the basic nature of your boss, it helps in the long-run.

Systems

You may wonder to see the sort of systems these organizations possess. So, it becomes crucial to learn about those systems and their functions. It’s impossible to learn about every system, but to know about those ones on which you have to work on is important. Like, I am working in the banking industry, so it’s humanly impossible to learn about every system in the bank because there are hundreds. But I have a fair bit of idea about those which I am working on and I keep on learning about others as well. The knowledge which you have acquired as a student also plays a role here.

Performance Reviews and Appraisals

You've worked through the whole year and now you're waiting for your annual performance review. Although there are periodic reviews going on, the impact and importance of annual PR is huge. Your annual increment and bonus are decided on the basis of this rating and at times promotions as well. You list down all the major tasks done by you in the whole year. You feel a bit nervous about that discussion with the seniors. At that moment, one should back himself and the work he has done so far. Never discuss your PR with your colleagues as it's against organizational policies. Make annual PR as a base for the activities you would be doing in the upcoming year. After all, it's good to have your tasks reviewed so that you can find your improvement areas and be rewarded for all the good things you've done.

Weekends

Have you ever heard the term “me-time”? Well, the weekends are synonyms to the “me-time” in the corporate world. After a hectic week, you get a break of 2 days to rejuvenate yourself. You can do the activities that please you e.g. going out for a movie, dinner or shopping. If you’re getting a couple of hours for yourself on the weekdays, then it’s wonderful. But if not then it is vital to use the weekends to your favor. The weekends will decide how your upcoming week is going to be. There are time blocks on a daily basis e.g. traveling time, which you can use for yourself. You should find those blocks and make the most out of those.

General Suggestion

At last, I would urge you to put all your energies and powers to crack the CA exams. If you pursue it successfully, it has enormous opportunities and rewards to offer. So, just don’t quit. Having said that if you’re struggling to get through the exams even after multiple attempts and your situation isn’t allowing you to go for further attempts, then take a move on. You may scold me for this, but trust me the world is not coming to the end if you don’t make it.

You’re programmed to compare yourself with others because that’s what our parents were doing all these years, but here is a request, don’t compare yourself with others. Everyone’s life has its own script and no two scripts can be exactly the same. Think what’s good for you and decide accordingly. After all, it’s your life and you have to deal with it.

Thanks for sparing your valuable time and going through this article. Comment below if you have any different notions or experiences of the corporate world. You can also comment on any query, suggestion or feedback.