Many CA students dream of getting into one of the Big 4 accounting firms in India for their articleship. A lot of people would tell you that to get articleship in any of E&Y, PwC, Deloitte or KPMG, you need extremely high marks, rank in Foundation/Inter, a good reference (partner-level), etc. I had talked about the true picture in my last post. If you haven't yet read it, please pause here and read it from the link below (it will help to set the context for whatever follows next in this post)
In this post, I am grateful to have one of my students share his own interview experience (a successful one, of course!) in one of the above 4 firms. I'll now hand over the pen to him. So please read this post seriously, and try to learn ...
Hi Guys,
Every CA Student dreams of getting in Big 4: KPMG, EY, PWC, and Deloitte, for their articleship. There are many myths and rumours regarding articleship in Big 4, which even I faced before the entire articleship process started.
By way of this post, I will be sharing my interview experience and try to bust these myths as well (sorry guys, going Anonymous for this one)
About Myself
I am a regular college student from Delhi University-North Campus. I have cleared CA Inter Examination in Nov.'20. So, many of you may start to think that I am a ranker. Sorry guys, but that is not the reality. I have cleared my CA Inter G2 in my second attempt. So, I have seen failure in the CA examination and learned a lot from that failure.
Myth 1: Busted - So, the first myth that Big 4 need rankers or first attempt students only is wrong. Many students got into Big 4 even after seeing failures as well.
Application For Articleship
I gave my CA Inter Group 2 exams in November 2020, and immediately after the exams, I started to apply for the articleship. I used LinkedIn and started to connect with people already working in the Big 4 firms as an article. My hunch was - whenever there is a vacancy, these firms will begin to post them on LinkedIn. And I was correct. I applied through LinkedIn in Jan first week. And I was helped by the people in those firms I had connected with on LinkedIn, as they referred my CV to the respective HR teams.
Myth 2: Busted - You may have heard that you need to have an excellent reference to get your CV to be recommended. This is a half-truth statement.
The Reply
Last week of Jan, I got a mail from one of the Big 4 and a link for the online test. Many of you may think that you don't receive any reply from the organization even after applying. The reason can be many - transfer case, too many attempts or the CV is not up to the mark.
Myth 3: Busted - The Big 4 firms don't focus just on marks, but also on extracurricular activities and how you have shown your leadership and interpersonal skills.
ProTip: You can utilize your three months after the examination to develop your soft skills. Without doubt, the lockdown was also an excellent opportunity to enhance your skills.
You may also refer to Anurag Sir's post on developing soft skills:
The Process Begins - Online Test
The general process for the Big 4 firms involves 5 stages:
Online Test
GD
HR round
Technical round and
Partner round
The online test is nothing to be anxious about. And you don't need too much prep for it either. The test was about basic maths, logical reasoning, data interpretation and personality test. Some firms even test your knowledge of current affairs as well.
ProTip: You can use CAT books or some online websites for preparing for the test.
The Big Test - Personal Interview
After I appeared for the test, I got a call from HR after the CA Inter results were declared on the first week of Feb. I was informed that I had qualified for the next round. Due to COVID, the entire interview process was to be conducted online.
PI Questions - HR Round
In my case, the Assistant Partner himself took both the HR and technical rounds. Some of the questions asked in this round were:
Tell me something about yourself
Why Audit
Why us
Some questions from my CV.
Talking about how to tackle these questions, you need to have a definitive answer backed by your personal stories.
PI Questions - Technical Round
The technical round is one of the most important rounds to get into any CA firm. The reason is simple - it is a platform where a CA Student can show his/her hard skills and prove his/her worth. Be rest assured, the interviewer won't ask any questions beyond our CA Inter syllabus.
I appeared for a statutory audit interview, so the questions the Assistant Partner asked me were mostly from SAs and AS, and some questions from law and tax-related to the audit.
During my own interview, I realized that for the interview, you don't need to mug up everything because they want the candidate to have conceptual clarity and explain the practical part very well. But please keep one thing in mind - please don't try to fool the interviewer, because they have been working in that field for years, and nothing can beat experience.
How to prepare for the technical questions?
Here again, Anurag Sir's post on interview prep is useful. You can read it here:
From my own interview experience, I would want to highlight some points below:
Try to revise Audit for 30-40 min daily using your exam notes. This is very critical.
SA 200 series, 500 series and 700 series are the most critical SAs.
For AS, make sure you don't miss revising AS- 9, 10, 11, 18, 20, 22, 26 and 29.
For Law, the provisions regarding Meetings, Loans and Registers and Company Audit are most important
In short, Chapter 9 (Audit of FS) and Other Audits, combined with other topics like SAs, AS, Law and Assertions, will definitely be asked in any articleship interview.
Even if you don't know the answers to a few questions, it is absolutely fine to admit it. Admitting that you don't the answer to a particular question, or that you need time to think is much better instead of giving a wrong answer. Your answer may not be 100% correct, but try to ensure that the concept should never be wrong.
ProTip: During the interview communicating in English is mandatory. Please don't speak a single Hindi/vernacular word during your interview; otherwise, you will be rejected irrespective of how good you are. Sadly, it's a brutal reality.
Conclusion
The Big 4 accounting firms want a confident candidate with strong interpersonal skills. Your hard skills may be a bit low but not your interpersonal skills because that's what matters in the long term. The Big 4 articleship dream is not just for the rank-holders only, there are ample opportunities provided to everyone, provided you can grab that opportunity with both hands and convert it successfully.
Last, but not the least...
A big thank you to Anurag Sir for his amazing posts and personal mentorship. His suggestions and guidance have really helped me a lot in my journey to crack one of the Big 4 articleship interviews. To all those CA students who are struggling to understand how to study the vast CA syllabus, or wondering how to prep for the articleship interviews/GDs, I would highly recommend getting in touch with Anurag Sir or his blog posts.
Also, thank you so much Sir for giving me the opportunity to share my articleship experience through your Blog. I hope it serves as an eye-opener and good motivation for all the CA aspirants dreaming of getting into one of the Big 4 firms for articleship.
Thanks for reading... Please share this post with your friends if you feel it would be helpful to them.
All the best!
~ Mr. Anonymous