Zeal -- Out of the box Commerce career options

May 2016

(Source: Zeal conference in January 2014 at Hyderabad)

This is the transcript of the video @ Zeal held in January 2014 at Hyderabad, a workshop for students intending to pursue careers in Commerce. I was one of the panelists but I could not attend and hence had to prepare a video. I realized that giving a speech by being present at the venue ( Induction video  at Aurora Degree college in 2010) had an obvious advantage of gauging the audience's reaction; as well as answering their questions. However, I did want to give a shot at making this video and here it goes Zeal video. 

Hello Everybody... When I first heard about this great initiative, I was so surprised that so many of you all had already started thinking about your career path, your future goals, and I must say this is wonderful. I can't tell you how privileged I feel to be among such bright students and wonderful panelists. My apologies that I am not physically present at the venue. I have always preferred a question and answer format whenever I am interacting because I believe that provides the best platform to talk about things that are most relevant to you.

So to make the most of this opportunity, I have modeled this session on a Q&A basis, and I hope that I would've answered all the questions you would have asked had I been there. These are generally the questions that I hear when I interact with enthusiastic students like you all.  But before we get serious I am tempted to make a legal disclaimer - do you remember how some ads state that 'Everything mentioned here is subject to market risk!'

(Image source: Google)

My journey : CA and The World Bank

(Images source: Google)

So what is the visual image that comes to mind when someone mentions he/ she is pursuing CA? This visual representation that you have seen in the previous slide need not necessarily be the case. More often that not, this state of affairs is the student's own making. Let me quote an incident from my life. After completing 10+2 (MEC) from Little Flower Junior College; I joined Aurora's Degree College for pursuing B.Com and at the same time I joined CA as well. So many people advised me against it saying "CA is a very difficult course. You need to know what to focus on" et al. And I was like "Yes, I have seen too many movies and I do not want to lose focus of my college life!".

It is true that I did top the B.Com course and secured All India ranks in all three levels of CA examination. At the same time, I would also like to state that did not miss out on family time. In Aurora, there were a lot of extra curricular activities like debates, conferences, competitions, events et al and I loved participating. On the personal front, I have learnt Kuchipudi, I love dancing and I also like playing sports like badminton. So my sincere request to all of you present here is, don't make academics your sole aim - getting a first rank or something like that. You should definitely explore other interests - it can range from trekking or travelling to music or singing.

The reason I am mentioning this so many times is because I often get this question - 'What is the procedure to get a rank?'. And my only answer to them is this - 'Whenever you are pursuing a course and your sole focus is getting a first rank or a number, then I'm sorry to say this my friend, but that is a sure shot way of not achieving it'. Don't mistake me, rank is important; its a great achievement. But you must also realize that its an indicator of how you have performed in relation to your peers. Its a relative performance measure. So yes, ranks and achievements are important, but most important is subject knowledge. If you focus on understanding the concepts, I can guarantee that you will shine in the practical world by applying the knowledge you have.

Having said this, the mantras that I believe in are:

1. Smart work and

2. Presentation skills

Smart work is the ability to combine hard work and time management. There is absolutely no substitute for hard work. But it has to be combined with time management and prioritization. For instance, there are always so many things that you want to do, be it an examination or any activity but obviously you are constrained by the time availability. So it is absolutely essential that you focus on the important aspects. That is what I mean by smart work. For instance, if we take the example of tax examination in CA Final, there is absolutely no way you can read each and every page before the examination. Hence its highly important that you do your homework - research about the priority areas; then chalk out a plan of action and follow it diligently. You can also practice this in your daily life as well. Even at our workplace, there are so many things to do. So whenever I feel bogged down by work, I find the following technique very useful - I bucket activities under "Important", "Not Important"; "Urgent" and "Non urgent". And then you analyze where you are spending most of your time - probably they are neither important nor urgent. This helps you plan for the next day too. It might happen that you had perceived a task as important but not urgent today and so postponed it to the following day. Once you look at all the tasks for the the next day, you might notice that suddenly this task would've become urgently deliverable and you might or might not have the chance to spend the requisite time on it.

Another extremely important skill set to have is presentation skills. I am here right now presenting in front of you, and when you are answering in an examination, that's also presentation. When I am talking about presentation skills, I am not talking about making fancy PPTs. That is never the end goal. The skill set I have in mind is the ability to concisely present information in a manner such that it is understood by the recipient. For example, you are solving an answer in an examination, and you have done all the calculations in your head and you just put down the end answer on the sheet. This will obviously not fetch you any marks. What is more important is to take the examiner through the steps as to how you have arrived at the conclusion - the assumptions, the workings, in a sequential manner -all these are extremely important. Only then are you able to drive across the point that you have understood the concept, applied it properly and arrived at the solution. This is something that everyone has to work on, and it will be useful in every facet of life.

Another question I am often asked is "Why World Bank after CA"? When I was pursuing article-ship from M.Anandam & Co., my friends and I voluntarily did community service, albeit on a small scale. We would teach poor children how to read and write' educate girl children about sanitation. This was a wonderful experience as it taught me that not only can we give back to our society but at the same time, derive immense pleasure and satisfaction from a job well done. Given my background in finance and this experience in Not-for-profit organisations, I wanted to pursue a career in international development organisations. And that's how the whole search for opportunities in World Bank started. 

Joining World Bank in 2009 was a dream come true for me. As World Bank is committed to sustainable development and offers loans only to countries, it was an experience of a lifetime to work in a multi-cultural environment, with global teams from diverse countries, on a wide variety of projects. I worked with countries from MENA (Middle East & North Africa) to South Asia like Iraq, Zambia, Bhutan, Sri Lanka. I have conducted workshops for the external stakeholders from Bhutan; I have been to Zambia on a critical assignment for two months. Thus working in World Bank allowed me to match my skill sets with what I loved to do.

So this brings me to the topic on hand - commerce options in the field of education are plenty- Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant, Company Secretary and MBA in Finance. After this one choose to pursue careers in a wide variety of fields - Banking, Marketing, Advertising, Business Consulting. Apart from the above mentioned fields, one can definitely choose a career path based on your own interest. For instance, I am a CA with an interest in the field of development. And later I wanted to narrow down the choice and specifically pursue a career in healthcare. Currently I am working with Biological E, a vaccines and pharmaceutical company.

So this brings me to the next question that I am often asked is 'Why MBA after CA?'.

(Image source: Google)

First and foremost, CA has given me in-depth knowledge about Accounting, Tax, Auditing, Financial Management. Article-ship is also a unique practical learning experience. For me, academically, it was a self study model as I did not take any coaching for CA, apart from Law classes of Jayaraman sir and Financial Management classes of Shraddhesh sir. Firstly, MBA was not a job seeking / placement exercise. It was the opportunity for me to learn in a quality environment along with like minded people about a variety of topics and all things management. Secondly, in World Bank, I worked mostly on projects related to health, education and infrastructure. While pursuing MBA from ISB, though I majored in Finance & Strategy, I had the opportunity of choosing electives related to the above three sectors, as after completing MBA, I wanted to join the industry in one of these sectors. So here I am, working as EA to MD in Biological E, and am proud to say that BioE manufactures vaccines that save children's lives.

So whenever people ask me this question, is it possible to enjoy work, the answer is always a emphatic "yes". The answer to this question lies within you - do you have a clear goal of what you want to do, what you want to achieve, do you identify with the role and also what the organisation stands for. Like I mentioned earlier, my experiences have been enriching and have taught me that not only can I give back to society, but also derive immense happiness and satisfaction of a job well done.

So here I am, a CA and MBA, pursuing a career in development and healthcare. My advice regarding career choices is only one simple mantra - "Be true to your beliefs and goals. The key is identifying your place in the value chain". I will take the liberty of quoting a true story reported in Reader's digest. 'A tourist was walking out of a restaurant after finishing lunch. On his left, he sees a man washing a heap of dirty dishes. but astonishingly, this man was happily signing songs and obviously enjoying his work. The tourist was extremely surprised looking at this man, because to him washing dishes was akin to drudgery. So the tourist walks up to him and asks him if there is any special reason or occasion for being so happy. 'And the answer till date stays with me. 'The man says that he is doing the most important job in the restaurant. That is because he cleans all the dirty dishes, thereby ensuring all customers are healthy. And a healthy customer is a happy customer'. The reason I like this article is because it brings home two points - look at the big picture and understand your role in the value chain.

This brings me to the career choices that we as students have to make, these choices impact our lives, There will always be jobs that for whatever reason are more glorified and offer enormous pay packages, but at a cost. Everyone has the choice of finding success and contentment, albeit on a less traveled career path. And success need not only be defined in monetary terms. It is the satisfaction of the work that you do, the recognition that you get, the impact that you make.

So I would like to conclude the speech with this slide - the audience can be divided into three groups - those who understand the sermon, those who do not understand the sermon and those who realize that there is nothing to understand ;) 

(Source: Google)

Jokes apart, I would like to conclude by mentioning Mark Twain's quote "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed with the things you didn't do, than by the ones that you did do".

Focus on having a balanced successful life. And I use the word balanced before the word successful because its important that your family, your friends, you physical health, your mental health is in order; because what's the point of winning the rat race if you don't have family or friends to share it with. I believe the timing of this presentation is such that I am the only person standing between you and your lunch! So I am going to sign off by saying -- Take a chill pill. Have fun. Bunk a few classes (not always and don't quote me!). Understand your role in the value chain. Be true to your beliefs and ideals - be true to yourself. Wish you all the very best and have a great and wonderful career ahead. Thank you.