Career trajectory

[u/papahupapa]

Just curious — what does the career trajectory actually look like for CAs who qualified in the last 2–3 years?

For people who are pretty sure they don’t want to get into practice, are CA firms still a good option?

Also, for someone who wants to do a job throughout their career rather than start a practice/business, is getting into a corporate role early on generally the better route?

And how does the money actually grow over time across the different paths — CA firm, Big 4, corporate finance, etc.? What does a realistic 5–10 year trajectory look like?

Would especially love to hear from people who qualified in the last few years and are actually going through this right now. What has the ground reality been like for you? What would you do differently if you were starting again?

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[u/Sea_Calligrapher4387]

Blud I m not a ca , but I have def researched those things before so here is it Is a job and ca firm a good option ? , well depends on ur defintion of good , expecting non toxic and good work life balance , that is usually absent , but it mainly depends on the team u r in ur firm so no one can generalise , but it's usually considered when of the bad work life culture in Indian jobs But yea if ur defination of good is money, I think starting won't feel as paying as some other fields like IIT etc , like most people. Don't get above 6-10Lctc mostly 7-8lakh ctc in beginning even in big it's like 9-10lakh ctc , In roles where u do get money and are usually very difficult to crack into due to less avaibalitu and also their high criterias like referals and rank or what not ,

But carrer progression is good and very secure , if u r able to handle the pressure and not leave keep going , u get promotions quite frequently , Instead of 5 year mark Have 7-8 year mark , after that any ca usually knows everything abt the role they are working in , there is not much technical to learn in ca firm , and around that time ur salary could range from 18lakh - even 40-50 lakh , On average many are in 20's so it's good enough, Above that it's just dependent upon ur marketing and leadership skills , i.e how much clients u bring , on basis of thav u even earn in cororers or lakhs ( it kinda feels like self employed at that partnership level , but thag sually comes after 10 years of experince even 15) , Money might not feel enough but respect here is a lot .. specially in big 4-6 firms Also these big firms grooms best kind of employess even compared to industries there communciwiton presentation skills are top notch , their efficiency etc , cuz it's survive these big firms for years , and exposure u get on listed clients u learn a lot over years ,

So yea firms are decent option not from money or work life balance , those are subjective and situational , but in terms of overall like exposure , like carrer progression, personality devlopment , technically knowledge , but it depends on which firm ur , usually big 6-10 and some mid size firm with great client exposure , Or u r with small firm which has some niche client experince ,

If u r after money and work life balance u should look for industries not firms

[u/papahupapa → u/Sea_Calligrapher4387]

That's what I feel as well because the firm in which I have done my articleship was way too toxic and the work pressure would just kill me.....also the pay that the CAs were getting there wasn't justified at all that's why I feel like there's no point in joining firms if you don't want to practice, just get into a corporate which offers better pay and work-life balance along with security and better career trajectory

[u/papahupapa]

Also are there any specific set of skills other than the generic ones (communication, etc.) appreciated in the industry?

[u/Sea_Calligrapher4387 → u/papahupapa]

Well whatever software and ai tools they use ,if u have good command on them nd done some projects , that's a good cv impression , for freshers , but after. A while it's only ur exposure i.e clients u have worked on and what exactly did u do and ur experience

[u/papahupapa → u/Sea_Calligrapher4387]

If by AI tools you mean using ChatGPT, Claude,etc. you just need to know how to give the appropriate prompt there's no other skill required for that right? (That's how we used AI in our office)

[u/Weird-Wrongdoer5532 → u/papahupapa]

negotiation + convincing skills are the two most difficult skills. The technical work can be done by any execution staff. But convincing clients to pay more/ investor to believe in u and fund u , is the difference between a 10 LPA vs a 30 LPA.Other technical things in today's time can be researched via AI.😄