Career Paths after CA – Large Corporates

CA students often feel that the most testing time for them is before the Final exams. Although, in reality, it is after they clear Final exams and think about career opportunities ahead. There is generally a fair bit of confusion among many graduating students regarding some of the popular and more conventional career paths followed by most graduates. They often want to understand what the actual work entails or what the potential growth paths would be.  We attempt to share our two cents on some of the more aspired career options available to CA graduates and also explore some of the lesser known opportunities.

Roles with Large Corporates

Popular Companies

• FMCGs majors like ITC, Marico, HUL, Nestle, P&G, Johnson & Johnson,
• IT majors like Wipro and Infosys
• E-Commerce giants like Amazon, Flipkart and Ola
• Energy and metal companies like Vedanta, BPCL, Tata Steel, IOCL, Reliance Industries
• Large conglomerates like Aditya Birla Group and Tata Group
• Other companies like Airtel and Bajaj Auto

Roles Offered

Mid-management roles in various departments relating to Accounts, Finance, Taxation, Internal Audit and Business Reporting and Performance Monitoring. These divisions are generally headed by CAs as it entails application of advanced accounting, taxation and compliance knowledge which is considered core to the CA curriculum and therefore placing recent graduates in these fields remain an obvious choice for companies. Some corporates, however, also place candidates directly in areas like Treasury, Forex, Strategy, Planning and Business Management roles. The roles offered to fresh graduates are generally not set in stone. Most companies follow a rotation policy and aim to shuffle candidates across different teams.

Mobility and Growth

Most corporates plan to provide budding managers with holistic experience across different departments and divisions of the company to groom future leadership. Folks who end up spending significant part of their careers in these roles with strong performance history get placed on track for senior executive roles eventually move on to C-suite roles.

Recruiting

These companies generally follow a structured recruiting process through campus placements conducted by ICAI. Some corporates also conduct off-campus placement drives after CA Final results are announced to meet any immediate requirements before campus placements start.

Other Accounting Roles

Large global banks like Citi, Goldman, Morgan Stanley etc. also hire Indian CAs for various roles relating to accounting, compliance, internal audit and taxation given the strong academic grounding of CAs in these fields. The exact role differs for each bank and sometimes depends on the geography a candidate is expected to support. Large banks generally have global operation and support roles that they cover from India for multiple divisions like Trading, Credit, Forex and Investments