Career Paths after CA – Big4 Roles

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.

Advisory Roles in Big4 firms

Firms

Deloitte, EY, KMPG and PwC

Service Line Description

Assurance/Statutory Audit – Statutory Audit provides a good understanding of financial reporting, disclosure compliance and application of accounting standards and GAAP in large companies and is a good starting point for people who want to build their technical knowledge around accounting and bookkeeping practices across different industries.

Risk Advisory/Internal Audit – All Big4s also a service line called Risk Advisory, which provides internal audit and related assurance services to clients. It is recommended for candidates who like process audits and understanding the operations of a company.

Direct/Indirect Taxation – Services to clients involve multiple facets related to Direct and Indirect Taxes including litigation, transfer pricing, international taxation, advisory on corporate tax matters, M&A taxation other related areas. It is recommended for candidates who are keen to pursue a career in tax advisory.

Financial Due Diligence (FDD) – FDD is a service line focusing on providing accounting and related business insights to counter parties during M&A or a private investment. FDD firms are typically hired by investment bankers on the sell side and PE firms/corporates on the buy side to conduct due diligence on the target’s financial statements and to ensure that financial statements are free from material misstatements. Strong preference is given to candidates who have a good articelship experience in Statutory Audit (preferably at a Big4).

Recruitment

Big4 firms hire from campus as well as off-campus through networking events and generally don’t have strict restrictions on marks and number of attempts. Preference is given to candidate with good articleship experience either at another Big4 or other larger firms like GT and BDO.

Growth and Mobility

Candidates are expected to grow within the firm and become partners in the future. Most firms are flexible on domestic mobility within different offices in the same service line. Changing country location or service line is also possible depending on role availability and performance of the candidate.