Do Chartered Accountants have a work-life balance?

A Chartered Accountant (CA) by profession, Gurkirpal loves her work. She has completed her Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Apeejay College of Fine Arts. Besides being passionate about her work, she spends her leisure time pursuing her hobbies which includes mandala making, sketching, traveling, reading and walking. In this interview, the Apeejay alumna explains how a CA can maintain work-life balance. 

How did you decide to pursue Chartered Accountancy? Tell us a bit about your professional journey as well.

My performance in 12th was good. During the same time, a seminar for the CA course was held at our school and that’s when I decided that this is a course and profession that I would love to be part of and Well, my decision was right, I guess. 

About the journey so far, it has been quite a long one as a CA degree takes a lot of passion from a person and teaches you a lot of different lessons about life. Everyone says it has 3 levels, CPT (Common Proficiency Test), Inter, and Final, but no it’s not that easy. It’s a tough track as you are required to qualify a lot of levels, exams, training, articleships, failures, and then you receive the success. Don’t take me wrong that I am discouraging anyone of you, it’s the reality so that when you choose the path of CA you should know what exactly it is and how it’s going to be.

What are the existing professional opportunities for a chartered accountant? Do you think this field is flourishing?

The opportunities for a CA are unlimited. One can start his/her own practice or launch a business, one can find a white-collar job. You can also join the booming stock market or get into consulting taxation, can provide management consultancy services, can become an investment banker. There is scope in teaching CA aspirants. In fact, our institute has many MoU signed with different countries and so, it’s easy for CAs from India to engage in practice in any other country by getting their specific degree. And yes, institute is working quite hard in keeping in pace about upcoming opportunities and it is flourishing more and more.

What does a typical day as a Chartered accountant look like for you?

It’s full of responsibilities, either on the private front or career front. In fact, the field demands quite a lot of discipline. I wake up,  have breakfast and get to work. It’s important to complete each day’s work. And when I am back home, I hardly know how the day went by. Sometimes, it’s impossible to count and I am grateful for that.

How can CA maintain Work-life Balance?

It’s easy, but other than the seasonal period. As in months of July, September and October, or on important due dates, we are unable to maintain that balance. But yes, on other days, we don’t carry any work home. I work for a
9-hour shift everyday and avoid carrying any work back home. So, I have to complete it all so that I can spend time with my family as well as myself.

Is it important to be very good at mathematics to pursue a career in accounting? 

First of all, Accounts and Mathematics are not the same thing and are not even interlinked. To study Accounts, one needs to understand the basics of Mathematics, and so to pursue CA they must be good at Mathematics. There are several levels where many concepts of Math are  interlinked.