Dear Hummingbird #2: Is articleship in Big 4 worth it?

“If we treated careers more like dating, nobody would settle down so quickly.” ― David Epstein

Question:

Dear Hummingbird,

I have basically sacrificed my entire college life in an elite north campus college partly because of lockdown and partly because of keeping CA over anyother thing & leaving societies half way considering it hindered my time. Now I'm basically devoid of a social life at all & I consider myself to be a fairly stable man in terms that I can control my mental state in the worst of the things. But, it has started to take its toll on me, I'll be starting with final year in July, will be appearing for Inter in Nov both groups for the first time. Coming to the question, I am seriously considering that articleship will be a great place for me to become social again & start living life again obviously keeping in mind the extraordinary work hours accompanied by it. I'm putting in my best efforts but obviously there are a lot of days in this course when you feel down & for the next 6 months my motivation is that articleship in Big4 could seriously ascend my social circle & would give me a personality shift in the sense of the great corporate culture that it has to offer. So, finally ending I just want to know whether articleship in Big4 is definitely worth it? I know it can't be a substitute of college but will these years that I have sacrificed will they come full circle if I manage to get into it for articleship?

TL;DR: Is articleship at big4 a great way to build a good social circle & is it worth it?

— Overthinking in Hansraj

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Answer : It depends

Dear Overthinking in Hansraj,

I got half of the answers in life when my economics professor in college uttered the phrase ‘It depends’. Every time someone asks me a question which involves a lot of variables, rather than saying Ceteris Paribus (Latin term for ‘everything else equal’), I make scenarios. It’s almost the same as when you start dating, you think about whether that person would be a good fit as your partner in various situations, through thick and thin. I wish we treated careers like dating.

Allow me to make scenarios for you today!

Is articleship in Big 4 worth it? Maybe. Maybe not.

MAYBE NOT

Let’s begin with the worse parts first so it is out of my system and then you can appreciate the brighter side more.

Joining Big 4 as a fresher gave me jitters. I was young, dumb and broke (as Khalid would say it). You join, you get training, you are assigned to a team, everything happens fast.

For the batch I joined with, there weren’t any trainings, all we had to do was complete some mandatory online ones. We were made to sit in a separate block and people were assigned one by one like people getting summoned. And then the misery began.

Within my first week, my manager expected me to cover an area which usually needs decent amount of experience. He tried to explain things to me but I was too nervous to understand, let alone feel comfortable to sit in formals all day. I used to travel for more than an hour to the client’s place. I would sit there all day scrolling past year working papers after a senior associate spent 3 days explaining me everything and handing over the work to be done. I was clueless. I felt dumb.

I spent days waking up at 4 and sleeping late to spend more time studying past year working papers to make sense of things and one day I broke down. I cried in the washroom, called up my friend to tell him that I will walk away from this. This is torture and a lot of expectation and I can’t do this. Somehow he asked me to calm down and take things easy.

After that day, I started being more inquisitive, I accepted stupidity is the only way to move forward. Asking stupid questions.

Be stupid, just once, really often. Because when you embrace the stupidity in your life, you really live. ~ Vir Das

The thing with Big 4 is there is a lot of work. A LOT and barely any time to do it. You end up slogging, comprising on studies, trying to make sense of adulting, learn about politics in office, learn team dynamics, somehow manage time for other things etc.

The problem also with starting in a CA firm that too in a specialized environment is that there is not a lot of personnel diversity. So you are stuck with one single stream of job everyday and it kind of gets boring to just be around CAs all the time.

It is unfair in a lot of ways, you will get clerical work, it’s not all fancy. I was made to stand near a copy machine all day and write page numbers on files. This may be a controversial but the pay is not enough to survive in a metropolitan city. So, you are broke almost all the time.

After a while I felt my work does not make any impact, there’s a lot of hierarchy involved. You only have so much power as an article to bring things to notice but you can’t change the system. It left me feeling powerless.

So it is not all rosy. The only advice I can give you is to give it time. Give it at least 6 months to understand everything.

MAYBE

I also credit a lot to my articleship in Big 4 because it was a steep learning curve. I had no idea on about shortcuts in excel and now I make fun of people who can’t operate excel just from a keyboard.

The exposure to multiple industries, learning about how they function, how processes flow, in essence how businesses work. It is all true. It makes you an expert in whichever field of area of choose.

You learn how to interact with clients, how to document stuff, partner reviews, townhall sessions, interactions with seniors, teem meetings, dealing with an expert and so much more. The learning is immense.

The corporate culture it offers solves a lot of problems because there are set procedures to apply for leaves, to apply for reimbursement of expenses etc.

Not to deny, the brand name holds great value on your resume and gives you a lot of leverage later in life. I think it all boils down to whether you can handle it well.

It boils down to whether you are mentally strong enough to work at multiple things at the same time, whether you can manage your studies with it and whether you can enjoy the whole process?

The point that you mentioned Overthinking in Hansraj about having a good social circle, I think you will definitely find your clan. I was fortunate enough to join the firm with my friends but I know for a fact that even if I haven’t I would have ended up making friends. I had a supportive team, we interacted regularly, we went out, we chilled at outstation audits and everything else.

Your job will require you to interact with everyone at client’s place and it will be uncomfortable in the beginning but you will get used to it. I am sorry you had a difficult time in college but I hope you find friends who match your vibe.

Now that I think about the grind I went through, I can’t answer whether it’s worth it or not because like I said there were a lot of variables. Did I learn enough?

A big loud YES.

With a job comes a lot of responsibility, take baby steps, be stupid!

Think about your decisions, think again and then decide. Take counselling if you have to but too many brains and it’ll leave you confused. Do what you feel is reasonably good enough considering your situation. At all times, don’t let anyone take your mental peace, that’s the only way to ace this marathon!

Warmly,
Hummingbird

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Dear Hummingbird is a syndicated advice column by CA aspirants for CA aspirants.

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