10 things which an MBA aspiring CA must know- Simran Somani — CA| IIM Ahmedabad Co22, Nestlé | PwC

Q1. How to get CA Articleship at Big 4? How to crack CA Final in first attempt? And later during CA placements and IIM interviews, does the brand help? What about those who aren’t either of rankers and or Big 4? Can they get selected?

Ans: In terms of getting into Big Four for Articleship, I would say you need to be very clear if you want exposure in just one vertical or do you want to learn all of it, because if you go to Big Four and you if are in statutory audit the way I was, I did not get to see anything in tax or transfer pricing. So that way it restricts you a little bit, but the amount of exposure you get in that particular vertical is unparallel. I think when I was 18 or 19 I was able to interact with really high ranking officials from big MNCs and that kind of exposure really helped me because I didn’t go to college, I directly joined PWC after clearing my IPCC. In terms of how difficult it is to get, I think in was lucky, because PWC was my first interview. I gave it even before the IPCC results were out and I was told that if I pass both the groups, I will get in. So, I am not very sure of how difficult or easy it is, I was very lucky in that aspect.

Does it hamper your preparation? I won’t lie, it is not manageable, it is little difficult, but when I ask my seniors, they just gave me one mantra which was: how many percentage of people pass CA final and at that point it used to be about 10% of people, and do you think that those 10% who pass are all non-Big Four articles? The answer to that is not at all. In fact, my batch had two CA final rank holders. I see more and more people from Big Four actually not even passing, they all go on to become one of the top 50 ranks as well. So, I don’t think there is much of a nexus between the Big Four articleship and not clearing final. I also studied during those 5 months. In fact, I didn’t even know what subject was in which group when I went on exam leave, but 5 months is enough, if you sit down and do it, it works.

Does it help you later on? Yes. I wanted to get into financial due diligence and that is something initially open to Big Four statutory audit articles, so I think, a Big Four on a CV in my opinion, does help. That is why I think, for me it was a trade-off. I didn’t want to be in practice so I didn’t want multi-exposure; statutory audit gave me what I wanted. None of the interviews talked about my articleship, so a non-Big Four article or a Big-Four article in a setting its still pretty much on par. I don’t think it hampers you that much as B-school process per se.

I am not a rank holder in any of the levels. I passed in the first attempt and I had good scores, I had 60% above in finals and 65% in IPCC, but I didn’t have a rank. I didn’t think that really hampered me in any case. But does it help to have a rank? Definitely. You get calls at lower percentiles for the process and some couple of the IIMs also top 10 rankers are called regardless of your percentile. So, if you have a single digit rank then it will definitely help you.

Q2. Do CAs have a percentile relaxation when it comes to getting shortlisted? What is the minimum percentile needed for a call? How did you get a call with a 97ish percentile because of your CA?

Ans: For sure it does. Specially in IIMA being a CA, because they have a different marking system for CAs, so for IIMA it matters. Percentile relaxation is there for all diversity, not just CAs. In IIMA there is a little more provision, if you are a CA you get calls at lower percentiles. Even my percentile was 97.41 and if you see the CA percentile, brackets are usually that much. I have seen couple of CAs with 99 percentile this year, but the 96–97 range is where we usually find ourselves and that is good for getting calls.

As far as I know, only IIM Bangalore call the top 10 CA applicants and that top 10 is also like an average of your IPCC and final percentage, so unless you are a ranker at both the levels with good ranks, it will be hard to fall into that bracket. Another thing is with Bangalore and Lucknow, what they do is they care a lot about the under graduation percentages as well. So, over there being a CA is a diversity, you don’t get an advantage for being a CA, they look at your under graduation percentages and that’s where I missed out as my under graduation was from IGNOU and that is basically my IPCC marks. So, that percentage kind of does matter.

Q3. What is the impact of Under-graduation from IGNOU through distance learning? How IGNOU gives you the average of CPT and Inter marks as your graduation score, if you are pursuing CA? How that impacts your CAT Application Score?

Ans: When I was in 12th, I knew I wanted to do an MBA, specifically from IIMA. So, I had written an email to IIMA office and I had asked them if I do an under-graduation from correspondence does that make me ineligible to apply for the CAT, and the answer to it is no, does that low scores hamper your selection? Definitely. I have seen people in under-graduation, they have good percentages with 80% from certain universities, so if you are doing an under-graduation from a distant education, I would really recommend you take up a course which is more lenient on the marking front; IGNOU just takes your CPT and IPCC marks and averages out with couple of assignments and tests, so the possibility of scoring high in IGNOU is very low.

Q4. You cleared your CA in mid-2018 so then subsequently what happened? You took CAT straightaway in 2018 in your first attempt or you joined a job? What was your thought process?

Ans: I wish someone would tell me to sit for CAT in 2018, because I was under the impression that to give CAT you need work-ex and that is when it will make more sense, and I never appeared for CAT in 2018. Increasingly I see CAs are more self-aware, they write the CAT even if they are not very prepared and I have seen so many people have actually cleared it with a percentile good enough to get a call and convert it, so I wish I had written it immediately after I cleared and that is what I tell any CA final student when they ask me when they should be writing the CAT, I say write it as soon as you clear final, don’t wait. I went on and joined a process improvement internal audit at Nestle and after that I gave the CAT in 2019. In fact, I started studying for the CAT only after I quit. So, my journey was not that linear.

Q5. What do you reckon on the jobs post MBA?

Ans: It’s really an individualistic decision. Since I come from a Marwari family, we have a lot of CAs in our family and some of them are really keen to continue in the Big Four. Personally for me, I knew that I wouldn’t join back statutory audit once I clear, so what I was looking for only comes with an MBA. There are some people getting into management consulting right after CA, it is happening increasingly these days, but broadly the kind of roles I was aspiring for would not really be possible, it is outside the purview of your traditional audit and taxation roles. So, for me an MBA was definitely a must.

Q6. Explain your mantra “CAT to Call to Convert”.

Ans: What the thought process was behind starting the website is the try to pass on the information that I gathered from so many sources and a lot of information that I wish I had in hindsight. So, CAT to Call to Convert is basically before you give the CAT, when to give the CAT, and what to expect if you do give the CAT. That is what the CAT part of the website is. Call part of the website is how to maximise the score in the CAT once you are giving it. The Convert part of it is going to come up soon; it is about how once you have the call, everything is done, your CAT scores whether it’s low or high doesn’t matter, now you have an interview call and all you need to do in those 30 minutes convert it. We are just trying to bring in a lot of people who are the definition of the unconventional MBAs including pass outs who can tell us what to expect in an MBA and people who have gotten great percentiles who can tell us how they did that. It’s basically a community, its not me passing on my experiences, its about getting together a lot of people who have more knowledge in that domain and passing that on.

Q7. How did you prepare for CAT? Some survivors downplay their own effort, so did you really work hard or it just happened?

Ans: I worked very hard, it was not breezy. I have met people who just walked in on the day of the CAT and scored a 99 percentile, I am not one of those people at all. I prepared for around 2–2.5 months solid, but on the day of the CAT, I realised I messed up. I did keep my cool in the verbals; verbals was always my strength and that was a very difficult paper for us in CAT 2019, but I knew that if it is hard for me it is hard for everybody and I was okay with that. LRDI was something I wasn’t expecting and I carried that through the section so when I exited the CAT I knew that this was gone and I got 97.41 percentile and I got a call from Ahmedabad, so that meant the redemption.

How I prepared for the CAT, is basically what they say in terms of mock test is very true, because unlike CA, CAT has no syllabus, they don’t prescribe a syllabus. It is only till what you have learnt till the 10th day, so how you realise what works for you as an individual is through mock courses and that is why I also gave about 30 mocks. For CAT, you should start attempting papers even when you are not fully prepared because that is how you will learn.

Q8. What is the role of coaching? Which study material to follow? Which Test Series? Importance of Mock Exams?

Ans: I didn’t take coaching, I just took up the books and started with mocks. I enrolled for this Handa ka Funda, its an online portal. On that, you basically get all the solved examples on video from 2003 onwards. Everything is solved; not very in-depth but little enough to know where to start off basically. I just referred to that and I started with mocks and I started solving sectional texts. I took up the SimCat test series, which I really liked. They are very close to the actual CAT I feel. TIME is very popular; many people took that but I didn’t because I was told that it is a little harder than the actual CAT so I went with SimCats and I don’t regret it.

Q9. How is the IIM Ahmedabad interview experience? Is it ok to feel stressed?

Ans: My interview was actually one of the first rounds of interview, so it happens in phases and mine was in February 15th, morning slot at 8 o’clock. I was the third in my panel; our AWT happened and after that we were just waiting. I saw a couple of other chartered accountants as well. My interview was 30 minutes flat, what I have really tried to do is when I prepared for my interview, I have read everything that is there to read on the internet when it comes to chartered accountant MBA interviews because I wanted to know what I am up against basically and every time I used to read the interview I used to get really scared looking at such smart people. In my experience, I don’t think that is how it goes down. You go there, and you will stammer, you will be nervous, it is very humane. Its not as rosy as it comes out. My interview had lots of ups and downs. Obviously everybody plans an introduction and I knew exactly what I had to say but when I went there in my mouth I just said “Kolkata Marwari” even though it was not the plan, it was all Chennai. One of the interviewers was Bengali and he started asking regarding Marwaris like where do Marwaris come from, are they from the Shikhawat region, etc. so it was a light-hearted interview, the interviewer also laughed. My interview did not have much of technical questions, it was mostly opinion based. Since I lived in Kolkata, Nagpur and Chennai, they asked me what do you think what unites India. At the end of the interview we just laughed and I tried to very honest which kind of reflects. I didn’t cook up something that I didn’t know.

Q10. What is your mantra for fun and fitness?

Ans: For fun, I am a very social person, I love all my friends, I love meeting them, talking to them. After I quite, I had some time so I started playing badminton. I had never played sports in my life sadly and I have a terrible hand-eye coordination but I am trying to learn badminton, and the guitar. For fitness, I think if I give anybody and lectures on fitness, my father would have a field day because I am bad at maintaining a proper fitness schedule, even though I have tried in the lockdown. I like doing yoga, that is something I actually enjoy and meditation is also something I enjoy but fitness is not something I would like to preach anybody about.

Q11. What is your advice to the youngsters?

Ans: One advice I would leave with everybody, specially to my CA is to network. We are so smart and so good with all of the books but we do not go out of our shell, we do not meet new people, we do not talk to them. These days I have seen so many people active on LinkedIn. Recently I got a LinkedIn request from somebody who is in their 12th and he was so clear, he wanted to know exactly why he should do CA and I love talking to people like that, but network because in the long run, the degrees and the college is not going to be the only factor that matters, its going to be the people you meet along the way. So, go out there and talk to as many people as you can.