

In this article, we are
going to understand more about articleship, whether you should take it
seriously or not, and if you do, then how to make the best use of it and how to
choose the right firm for you.
The path for CA starts
with the foundation level exam. After clearing the same the student enters the
intermediate level. After taking coaching for about 10-12 months and passing at
least one group of Intermediate level exam, the student then becomes eligible
for articleship. On the other hand, students who are in their final year of a
degree or beyond, are exempted from foundation level examination and are
directly eligible for articleship. What about intermediate exams? They can
prepare and appear for those exams parallel to articleship.
Articleship is a 3 year training period for CA
students. CA students are called 'Articles' for that period:
• Ideally in
those 3 years, articles are made part of audit teams and they perform audit
activities reporting to the partner of the firm or the team manager. This enhances
their team working skills and also teaches the importance of being humble. As
they move up in experience, they are made managers of certain audit teams.
• As a part of
the audit process, they visit various client companies, so as to collect data
and perform audits. Generally, Client companies of a CA firm include companies
from various different industries. This enables articles to learn more about
the companies from different industries.
• The process of
auditing involves understanding the accounting of the company, tax requirements
of the company and related tax laws, corporate and other laws applicable to the
company and of course understanding the process of auditing itself depending on
the type of audit performed. Hence, every client company offers various
learning objectives.
• While they
report to their partner or manager, they also interact with company employees
at all levels - clerical staff, accounts employees, managers, CFO, and
sometimes even key personnel of the company. The purpose of such communications
would either be to obtain client information or to convince them to bring about
a change in their accounting and financial activities as there is an issue
observed. This improves communication skills and negotiation skills.
• They may also
perform tax filing and tax audits. So they gain practical experience in the
technical fields of auditing, accounting, direct taxation, and indirect
taxation. Not to forget the soft skills they gain in the process.
So, as the very purpose of
articleship suggests, it is indeed a period to gain practical experience,
improve confidence, and improve soft skills so as to create complete professionals.
But all this can be obtained only when the
student knows ways to make the best use of the articleship period:
• Students should go with
an open mind, let go of the 'ego' irrespective of the fact that they may have
passed one or both groups of Intermediate or they may have completed graduation/post-graduation
even including some work experience. Articleship then offers a platter of
skills and subjects to learn.
• Articleship period is
going to be tough, agreed. The reason for the same is obvious - the amount of
workload and the orders from partner/manager. The key here is, articles should
not get negatively affected by this as it is solely for their benefit and their
learning process. Be prepared to work your sweat out.
• As a continuation for
the above point, to prepare yourself to be able to give all your time towards
articleship, it is suggested to clear both groups of intermediate and then join
articleship. This allows you to concentrate fully on work and not get disturbed
by the need for exam leaves and results. (This is only a personal suggestion,
if you are confident to handle both parallel, nothing stops you)
• Look for every
opportunity to learn, it could be from your direct senior, audit manager,
partner, or sometimes even your client. Do mistakes and learn, it is all in the
process.
• Be humble to not just
learn but also teach, when in your 2nd and 3rd year you will have juniors to be
guided and waiting to learn from you. Next, to choose the 'right firm' for you,
you first need to answer the following questions:
I. Are you
already clear of the specific field you want to specialize in and take your
career in? (Fields namely - statutory audit, internal audit, direct tax and tax
audit, indirect tax)
II. Are you aiming to join the Big4 (soon Big6)
post qualification and build your career there? (E&Y, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC,
PKF, Grant Thornton)
III. Are you comfortable with tight working hours
in a corporate work culture?
IV. Do you
find it essential for you to build communication and negotiation skills by
being able to address the partner of the firm/key personnel of the client
company?
If the answer to I, II and III is a yes, then joining the Big4 is your
best bet. It allows you to take up an articleship in a specific department and
specialize in the field you want to build on, it paves the way to start your
career in the Big4 (or Big6) post articleship itself.
If the answer to I, II, and III is a no and the answer to IV is a yes,
then hunt for mid-size CA firms in cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, and
the like. Midsize CA firms provide exposure to articles joining in, in all
areas as they generally follow flexible departmentalization/No strict
departmentalization. This allows one to be a part of assignments of all
nature or at least more than 1 nature. In mid-size firms the hierarchy
levels limit to 2/3, allowing the 2nd year and 3rd year articles to communicate
and understand from the partner directly and if needed communicate with the key
personnel of the client company, with guidance from the partner of course.
After you have worked in a mid-size firm for 3 years, you can then
choose your field of expertise and move on to build your career there. Nothing
stops you from joining the Big4/6 post qualification.
Finally, to answer the question -
articleship is definitely useful and necessary but at its best under the above
circumstances.
After having said all this, there
is definitely no question of skipping articleship, if it were even a choice.
Instead find ways to obtain the full objective of articleship, because this
will make you a complete professional, not just the marks/results.
-Mrudula Ragunath
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Wouldn't it be a good idea to create a course?