I believe the opportunities can be divided in majorly 4 below career categories in that Charted Accountant (CA) take up. If interests meet any of the below, CA would be best option to choose as career after your graduation
1- Core Finance
(Asset Management, Investment Banking, Corporate Planning & Budgeting)
These profiles require a lot of work on technical skills like business mapping, understanding finances and industry trends, thorough review of financials, market intelligence and other hard-bound skills.
Investment banking requires a skill set which is NOT developed as part of the CA course as it is a distance course and doesn’t involve practical training or analysis in areas of investment banking.
Articleship is mostly conducted in areas of auditing, taxation and accounts. CAs that join investment banking firms are mostly involved in the ground level/processing jobs of this field and not what actually investment bankers do. Also, there can be certain exceptions, if you wish to get into management consulting or investment banking, then CA with MBA would be more fruitful.
Management consulting jobs are mostly offered only to high ranker (not all ranker also). Management consulting is more a cup of tea for top 4-5 B-school MBAs, not CAs.
CAs are very well fit for the profiles which require a greater understanding of the underlying business, accounts and financial statements. There might be though competition with MBAs but enough firms would prefer CAs.
2- Banking & Insurance
(Actuary, Commercial or Retail Banking, Insurance Underwriting & Claims departments, etc.)
Here you’ll need to be well versed with regulations, compliance and filings and a basic level of customer service since most of them are client facing roles.
Apart from Commercial Banking, the other profiles usually require some expertise in the field with various specialized courses.
3- General & Financial Management
(Auditing, Law, Tax, Strategy & Consulting, Financial Planning, financial controllers, accounts managers, credit managers, internal audit department etc.)
This is most commonly available job for CAs. This requires being an expert in the domain and relies the most on ability to think out of the box and solve business problems.
Here a professional degree becomes the most important and accordingly gives way to problem solving. It can be statutory auditors, internal auditors, tax auditors, IT, any types of auditors! Big4s are the biggest employers in the field.
There are specific courses for each of the profiles like Financial Planning has CFP, Consulting places more importance on an MBA and others. Auditing and Tax is something where CAs are most preferred.
Here it’s more of a tax/accounting consultant. Also, mergers and acquisitions consulting roles are good options. Big4s are the major employers and the work for CAs is due diligence which is again a type of audit.
In companies, etc. They usually grow up to being CFOs at a later stage. This includes jobs in banks, financial institutions, mutual funds, etc.
4- Non-finance Roles
(Sales, Marketing, Content Management, Human Resources, etc.)
Now here education becomes less important and your personality/soft-skills/attitude play the biggest role. Ofcourse, a degree is required to stand out and be capable enough, but your success is not guaranteed by your qualification.
READ ALSO: Course Options Available With CA or CS
Finance is the life line for every industry,whether it’s manufacturing or providing services. In this era, admist specialisation & diversification, we have seen innovative roles emerging. Thus, CA is becoming an intermittent mix of knowledge & innovation!.
CAs are no longer only considered as book keepers, accountants & auditors! Down the line, 3 years from now, risk advisory, valuations , strategy building, venturing new startups, comprehensive legal aid as major areas of growth! With the emerging pressure of adopting IFRS , and the very recent Companies Act 2013, there is going to a huge transitional phase! So yeah way to go! Cheers!
Exhaustive details….