BIG 4 INTERVIEW for CA ARTICLESHIP | Pros & Cons - YouTube

Hello hello everyone! My name is Mehar Sindhu Batra and I'm back with another video.

Being a CA student one has to undergo a three-year articleship training at a CA firm.

I pursued mine at KPMG in India.

And that's what today's video is all about. I'm going to take you through my entire

articleship experience at a Big 4 consultancy firm, how did I apply,

what was the interview process and looking back now whether all the years of

hard work at a Big 4 consultancy firm were worth it or not.

For those of you here for the first time a warm welcome. I am a Chartered Accountant from India and an

MBA from Imperial College London and I make videos to create awareness on the

various career opportunities in the world today as well as share some tips

and tricks on productivity and positivity in order for you to

accelerate your career and make a meaningful impact both professionally as

well as personally.

So now without wasting any more time, let's dive into what this video is all about.

To make this video very precise and to the point I've broken it down into a few parts.

The first is a little bit of a background of me as a CA student and

why I chose KPMG. The second is how did I apply. The third is the entire interview process.

Then I'm going to talk to you about the advantages of working at a Big 4 consultancy firm.

And that's going to bring me on to whether the entire big 4

hype was worth it. And last but not least, a few tips and tricks to keep in

mind during your articleship training. So let's begin.

So to tell you something very very honestly and very frankly - when I decided

to pursue the Chartered Accountancy degree, for me working at any other firm

except a big four was not an option. When I visualised myself as a Chartered

Accountant or as a CA student, I always always always wanted to be a part

of the big consultancy firms. I'm not saying that everybody has to go down

that path, but that was my personal goal and I made sure that I achieved it.

When I was studying for the Intermediate course exams, I still remember I wrote

down on a post-it note saying KPMG and put it right in front of me on my desk.

I didn't know how I would actually end up working there but I just wanted to keep

that goal in front of me. I really believe in the power of visualising your goals.

When you tell your mind to think a certain way and you believe in the goal

from within and you see the goal in front of you every single day - your mind

and the Universe somehow rewards you for all the hard work and makes it happen

for you. Whether it was just a simple thing like writing KPMG on a post-it

note, when I was just 19 years old, I think it impacted my entire professional life.

So once I actually sat for my Intermediate course exams, I did not want

to waste any time waiting for the results. Things were a little different

back then but what I did was, I redid my entire CV, made sure it was all properly

formatted and printed it out - I think I made about 20 copies - and I put them in

this white envelope and my mom told me why don't you go meet people and give

them your CV and talk to them and tell them that you're interested in working

in their firm? My parents did not know anybody working at these big firms, I did

not have any Chartered Accountants in my family, I was the first one. So it was all

very very new for me but that's what started it all - I just took some

printouts and sat out and went to all these big firms in Gurgaon. I went to the

reception of KPMG, of PwC, of Ernst and Young and that brings me to the second

point which is how did I actually apply to KPMG?

I know my story is very unique and it always wouldn't work this way but I

still want to be really really honest and transparent on how I actually got

the KPMG articleship. So me and my sister we reached KPMG and the security guard

would not let us through to go into the reception. But I talked to the security

guard and I told him that I'm a CA student looking to join KPMG I really

really want to and he took my CV and he gave me the visiting car of the HR

manager who was in charge of recruiting CA students. You know looking back now, I

think everything is such a journey and and when you actually look back and

think about your story, you don't understand how these people who were

actually I think were angels along your journey and I really think that security

guard who took my CV and gave me the HR manager's phone number was my angel.

And God bless him.

So he gave me the number and he told me to call him on a

particular day at a particular time and that's what I did. I called the HR manager.

And that brings me to the third part of this video -

which is the entire interview process.

Whenever you apply for a job, the interview process would more or less

typically consist of the following stages:

the first will be a telephonic interview

to check whether you're even fit to be called in personally to give

an interview. The next would be the first round which would be the HR round.

The next would be a sort of a technical round which would be by someone who's

senior the department that you are applying to work at.

And the last and final round if you make it would be a partner or a director level round which

is taken by the senior-most and top member of the organisation.

So my first round - I called that HR manager and he asked me a bunch of questions

for about 10 minutes. I think he was testing my basic

communication skills and whether I would be able to clearly communicate my

journey and my story. He asked me about my schooling, he asked me about my

college, he asked me about the CPT, which was the foundation level exam and at the

end of the conversation he took my email address and he told me that he would be

in touch with me to call me on to the next round.

So, after a few days I was called on for my first round which was with the HR, the

same person who had taken my telephonic interview. This round was a little bit

more general, again to test my communication skills, the way I was

presenting myself, the way I was able to articulate my story, the way I was able

to communicate my passions, my learnings and how I was eager to join KPMG. So a

few things that he asked me were very general questions about why KPMG,

why chartered accountancy, what department I want to work in. After the first round we

were all told to wait for a little while and then a few of us was selected to go

on for the technical round. The technical round for me was conducted by a manager

from the auditing department, so I made sure before I actually went for the

interview I revised everything that I had studied for the Intermediate course

exams group one, because that's the group I had just taken the exams of. So in the

technical round, the manager asked me questions about accounting standards,

a little bit about audit and a few topics on taxation. When I did not know

something very well, I was very honest and I told him I'm not very sure about this.

And after that, we were sent home. I did not know whether I will make it to

the next round but I got an email that I was called for

the partner round.

I can't even tell you how nervous I was when I went to take

the partner round. I was just 20 years old and I was sitting in the reception of

this big corporate. The whole experience was very very overwhelming, intimidating

and nerve-racking. Of course, I always made sure that I was well dressed and

well put together - because I think that's one of the main things that they

observing. They want to see how you present yourself, your body language, the

way you communicate, the way you shake somebody's hand and those were all the

things that the partner was observing and I still remember this. The partner

asked me some very generic questions like - Why did I choose KPMG? Will I be

okay working long hours? What are my long-term plans? Where do I

see myself in five years? What do my parents do? He really really wanted to

know whether I'm going to study further after pursuing Chartered Accountancy and

whether I'll be able to work those long hours. And I think all these CA firms have

this thought that girls will not be able to work late but I made sure to

communicate that I knew that this is going to be a lot of hard work and I was

willing to put in those long hours at work just to be able to get an

opportunity to work at KPMG. I think the partner round is more of a stress test -

they try and test you whether you'll be able to be a fit or an asset to their

organisation and that's where you have to prove that you're extremely motivated

and you will be a loyal employee. And after that very stressful day, I left and

did not know what to expect. But after a few days I got a call from the same HR

manager saying that I had gotten selected and I can't tell you how

excited and emotional I was that day. I made it to KPMG on my own, I did not take

help from any friends, family friends. So on 12th July 2010,

I started my articleship at KPMG India as a trainee. So for these two weeks we were

all trainees and after the result was declared, the ones who cleared the exams

would become a permanent employee and their contract would be changed from

trainee to an audit assistant. I did not have the option of choosing which

department I wanted to be a part of audit was selected for me by the KPMG team

themselves. And at that time I did not even know what audit was exactly but

it's all about learning on the job. After the intermediate course results were

declared I did end up passing the exams and I was one of the few people who

actually went on to become audit assistants and that was again a moment

of pride for me and for many of us. So now I'm going to talk to you about my

entire articleship experience and the things that I learned on the job.

Not knowing what audit really is, I was given my first client I did a very nice senior

executive. I think it's a lot of luck the kind of people who work with because

every job has a mixture of nice people and unpleasant people but I was

fortunate enough to mostly work with very very nice people who are willing to

help me and teach me how to be an auditor. And that brings me to the next

part of this video and that is the Big 4 advantages.

So some of the many advantages of working at a Big 4 consultancy firm

were, of course, it makes you feel proud and gives you a boost of self-confidence

that you are a part of this big multinational corporation and you feel

motivated to go to work every day. They have set standards and procedures on how

to do things. The kind of clients that you deal with, you know people from all

these big companies and you're dealing with these stakeholders. You're learning

the methodologies. It's very very professional and everything is very much

in order and they expect you to follow all those procedures and do things the

right way. The quality of output delivered to the client has to be the

best because it is one of the best firms in the world and that's the kind of

level of expertise, competence, communication skills and professionalism

that they expect from you. And I think KPMG was a great place for me to groom

myself - communicating, working hard and being a part of a big firm in my early

20s. And also, the advantage of working in the auditing department is that you get

to work at clients belonging to different industries, learn about their

business processes and the financial impact of those business processes and

that's what I did. During my time at KPMG, I worked at over 30 clients, in teams of

2 to 15 people. I started at the most junior-level but gradually became better

at what I was doing and towards the end started leading my own teams and my own

engagements. It was very exciting for me to be sent on a client and understand

how they operate, what they exactly do, and just learn about that business and their

industry. I literally worked on Microsoft Excel

all those years and made me very quick at formatting, using formulae and

shortcuts and present great-looking work papers to the senior team. There's a lot

of reports that we have to produce and those two were of high quality and that

made me very detail-oriented. I made sure that everything was very neat and clean

and very precise. Big 4 consultancy firms also have their own tools and

softwares and the more you use them, the more you're able to build

your IT skills. So that brings me on to the next part of my video - whether I

think working at a Big 4 consultancy firm was worth it or not.

I actually ended up working at KPMG India for a period of five years.

That was because I completed my articleship training but did not clear

my exams and I continued to work at KPMG while studying for the CA Final course.

I'm not gonna say it was easy - it was challenging, some clients were very far away.

They did expect a good quality output and for that we did need to

work long hours. There was always competition internally within teams.

I always had to constantly prove myself and try and balance studying

side-by-side. But looking back now, I think it was well worth it

those five years at KPMG on my CV is an asset. It adds a lot of brand value onto

my CV and I have no regrets. In fact, I feel really grateful that I did not quit

even on days I really really wanted to. Working at a Big 4 firm will always

be challenging but the pros outweigh the cons. It feels like an accomplishment.

I left the firm about four and a half years ago. I still feel very very

connected to it. In fact, my husband currently works at KPMG London. I think

life is a big circle and everything plays out well and comes back. All you

have to do is keep working hard. And that brings me to the last part of this video

and that is - some tips and tricks for you to remember when you think about your articleship.

My first point is don't do a dummy articleship. The Chartered Accountancy

course is not just an exam course. It is the training that you go through that

develops your expertise. The day to day challenges that you deal with that make

you a stronger person. Don't pursue a dummy articleship.

I'm in no way telling you to go pursue your articleship at a Big 4

consultancy firm. You can even join a small firm but make sure wherever you

work you put in your best. Be proactive. Raise your hand to take on additional

responsibility. Understand who are your important stakeholders, that could be

your manager, your client. And try and develop good relationships with them. Get

regular feedback from your manager and try and work on those development areas.

Have energy, be curious, have a growth mindset. Always try and understand about

the businesses. Show that eagerness and the zest in you and bring that out at

work every day. Sometimes I felt very under-confident at work and that's when

I did not raise my hand and that's the advice that I'd give to you. Don't be

under-confident and push yourself a little harder, wherever you pursue your

articleship. And of course not to forget, whatever

you're learning during the CA Course, ask your seniors how you could best

implement those learnings that you've studied at your daily job. I hope this

video was useful and helped you to understand the pros and cons of working

at a Big 4 consultancy firm. I will be making another video specifically

focusing on the things that you can learn during articleship.

If you have any more questions or want to know more about my articleship

experience, or the things that I'm doing now, do comment down below and don't

forget to subscribe to this channel. You can also get in touch with me via

LinkedIn or Instagram. But until then keep visualising your

goals and writing them down and keeping them right in front of you and working

hard towards them. There is no success without hard work - so keep that in mind.

I'll be back with another video. I hope to see you soon, bye.