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Career as a Chartered Accountant

Chartered Accountant

Chartered Accountant Career

Chartered Accountants, by the nature of their job description, are practically indispensible for the proper working of a company. This is because the job of a Chartered Accountant is one of number crunching and understanding the intricacies of financing, accounting and auditing. As a company needs to be financially stable and sound in order to survive and profit, jobs for chartered accountants are abound in both, public and private sector.

In order to discharge his duties properly, a chartered accountant should not only be extremely comfortable with numbers and be able to make sense of them, he should also be practically trained in the areas of business and corporate laws and taxation.

The fact that this profession is as lucrative as it is demanding has ensured that a number of colleges offering chartered accountant courses have sprouted up in recent times across the country.

How to become a Chartered Accountant

In India, only a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is allowed to put his skills as a chartered accountant in practice. In order to do that, one has to clear the final examination conducted by ICAI. However, that’s not enough to start off a career as a chartered accountant. One also has to register with the board of studies and serve as an audit clerk for a practicing chartered accountant

Given the nature of the job, most chartered accountants hold at least a graduate degree in commerce, although this is not an essential requirement. Even graduates in non-commerce subjects can become members of ICAI if they successfully clear the intermediate and final exams. This option is also open to students after 10+2 provided they complete a foundation course of one year duration.

Read more to know the difference about Chartered Accountant and Cost and Management Accounts

Chartered Accountant Careers

The highly specific set of skills that chartered accountants possess ensures that there are employment opportunities in all sectors. Once an aspiring chartered accountant successfully clears the intermediate exam, which needs to be done within a period of ten years from the start of practical training, and the final exam conducted by ICAI, the market lies open to him.

A few examples of Chartered accountants’ jobs include:

  • executors of wills and trusts jobs
  • auditing firms
  • public or private sector banks
  • investment management companies
  • legal houses or stock brokers.

A trained chartered accountant can also choose to establish his own firm offering auditing services to clients, a services that commands a healthy payment in the market.

Chartered Accountant Salary

The ICAI regularly conducts job placement fairs for newly qualified CAs. The placement sessions held from August to October, 2014 saw the highest salary among domestic placements going as high as Rs.17 lakh per annum and international placements touched Rs.24 lakhs per annum. (News update: 24 lakhs per annum – highest salary offered at job placement fair for CAs)

Other companies that come recruiting at the CA job fairs include Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., The Federal Bank Limited, ITC Limited, Barclays Shared Service Pvt. Ltd., ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. Ltd., Cairn India Ltd., Coca Cola India Inc., L&T, Marriot Hotel, Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. & Alghanim Ltd., Wipro Limited & many more reputed companies.

A chartered accountant also has the option to establish his own auditing firm.

Chartered Accountant Courses

Courses in chartered accountancy are conducted by the ICAI through five regional centers at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Kanpur and New Delhi. These regional offices encompass a total of 81 branches spread all over the country.

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