Industrial Training for CA students – Why and How of It

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Authored by Nimish Goel (www.nimishgoel.com), a qualified chartered accountant who’s passion is to coach young chartered accountants and aspiring students achieve the best in their life.  Nimish used to work with EY and PwC in India and has also worked with KPMG in Europe.  He now runs his own consulting company and runs a blog www.nimishgoel.com.  He can be reached for any queries and issues on his blog. 

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I keep getting emails on providing guidance on the importance and relevance of ‘Industrial Training’ forming part of the 3-year articleship.  Initially I wasn’t very clear on what should I write because if you Google, there are many articles on it.  And there’s absolutely no sense for me to repeat the same things.  So, I thought why don’t I share my own personal experience with you that might help you take a well-informed decision. 

It’s difficult to comment whether going for industrial training is worthwhile or is it beneficial than articleship training.  Both of them have its pros and cons.  However, in this article I have not delved on the issue of which is better, rather I have tried to explain how you should go about it.  You can read my subsequent article on the topic “Which is better – Articleship or Industrial Training”.

I always share with students the “3 Step Success Formula” that I have learnt – “With better awareness you make better choices and with better choices you get better results”

This article is an attempt to make everyone aware of the nuances of industrial training; how you should approach the companies and finally, how do you select the right organization.

When did I start?

I did my articleship from a firm called RSM & Co, which later merged with PwC in 2006.  It was a great firm having big multinational clients and a super cool environment to work.  My articleship was in audit because at that time (year 1999), there were hardly any firms providing articleship opportunity in taxation. You can read my blog on “What should I opt in Articleship – Audit or Tax” to get more clarity on the pros and cons of each vertical.

After 2 years of learning, I came to know about ‘industrial training’ and that sounded to me super exciting.  Working in a company would mean being on the other side of the table – i.e., I would then not audit the company rather, I would now help get the audit done from another auditor.  Sounds exciting!! 

I started exploring more about it but unfortunately did not get much information.  Those times there was no Google or any website guiding CA students.  So, I believed in my-self and decided to take that plunge.  What I was very clear was that the Company I would join should be good and they should offer me good exposure.  After all, it was a matter relating to my career.   

How did I apply for industrial training?

In those times there used to be limited usage of emails and reliance was placed mainly on postal services/ courier.  Since I had no one to guide, I asked my father - “how should I go about it Dad?”  Being an experienced and seasoned professional he suggested I should do the following:

1.         Get a list of companies registered with ICAI offering industrial training. 

I went to the Institute and got a hard copy of the list of companies registered with the ICAI.  However, now a days you can find the list on ICAI’s website with all the details.  The same can be found on http://www.icai.org/post.html?post_id=823.

2.         Don’t pick and choose your options now

I think the biggest mistake at this point of time when you are looking for industrial training opportunity is to pick and choose a company you like since you don’t know which organization would call you and which would not.  Therefore, to improve your chances, I suggest you send your CV to all the firms in the city where you are located or where you want to do industrial training.  Send it to as many companies as you can so your chances of getting an interview call are bright and promising.

3.         How do you send your CV

The next question you might face is the way to send your CV.  Should you send it via email or via courier?  The importance of this question is more relevant now than it was at my time because we didn’t have too much of email system.  Majority of the correspondence used to happen via hard copies, i.e. courier. 

I was checking the details of some of the companies and realized that the ICAI’s list does not necessarily provide email addresses to which CV can be sent.  In such a case, you would only have the option to either visit personally the Company’s office or send your CV by courier.  I did it the second way, i.e., sending it through courier.  I don’t remember correctly, but I think I would have sent some 50-70 couriers.

I suggest that wherever you don’t have the email ID, just send your CVs to the postal address of the Company and address it to the HR manager. 

4.         Expect a low turnaround

There is a high likelihood of majority of the companies not responding to your emails/ couriers because either the address would be incorrect or the HR manager would be sitting in some other office or your letter may not even reach the right place.  Consequently, the chances of you receiving any call or email are low.

However, don’t panic or get demoralized.  As I mentioned earlier, the more companies you send your CVs to, the brighter are the chances to receive interview calls.  Ultimately you need only one company to work with and that one company you would surely find.

How do I select the right organization for industrial training?

This question would arise only if by God’s grace you receive calls from more than one organization.  And therefore, the chances of you struggling to identify the right organization.  Selecting the right organization is very critical as a wrong decision can ruin your last 9-12 months of articleship.  I am saying 9-12 months because that’s the period for which you are allowed to undergo industrial training during the last year of articleship.   

Try and have clarity on the following aspects by getting answers to these questions, whenever you meet the company’s HR or the technical manager:

(i)         What kind of work are they offering? 

Since you would be moving away from your current employer (i.e. CA Firm) and going to a new company, you should be very clear of the kind of work they offer to industrial trainees.  A lot of companies hire industrial trainees for their finance departments only to engage them for bank or other reconciliations.  This kind of job might turn out to be really frustrating and you should therefore be careful before picking.  Please weigh the pros and cons between your current articleship experience and the one offered by the Company.

In my experience, leaving audit or tax exposure for industrial training would make sense only when you get good quality work or in a situation where you are not satisfied with your current employer.

(i)         Be upfront to ask about the work profile

Be very clear asking for your work profile with the interviewer.  In my personal experience of more than 10 years of interviewing candidates, I have liked candidates who are clear in their thoughts and like to know why would they join the organization.  Asking for the work profile is your right, which should be exercised every time.

(ii)        Is it a Company or a Bank and the division in it

Lot of banks also hire industrial trainees for a lot of their departments like corporate finance, private banking, wealth banking etc.  You should therefore, be clear which division would you work for and what kind of work would they offer you.

(iii)       Other miscellaneous things like leave policy, office working hours etc

There is no harm in candidly asking the above questions from the interviewer.  Since you would be needing leaves for your study preparation, asking about their leave policy, working hours etc would be helpful in determining your decision to join that organization. 

The CA firm might give 2-3 months of study leave whereas the company may offer you less and therefore, you would have to take a call what suits you.  There is no set mechanism to take a decision and it would purely depend upon your circumstances in that moment.

Don’t join with an expectation to be absorbed

There is a misconception in the minds of students that once you complete your industrial training, the chances of you getting hired by the same company are very high.  This may not be completely true. Majority of the good companies hire chartered accountants at the central level.  I know of companies like Kotak Bank, ITC (where I did my industrial training), HUL, Citibank etc that hire industrial trainees, but to get absorbed on their payroll you have to follow a completely different process.  Yes, if your credentials are strong and you satisfy the requirements of their hiring process, you would definitely be preferred.  But don’t take absorption in that organization for granted.

This is also true because regional managers generally hire the trainees, whereas to hire qualified chartered accountants, the HR head and the CFO are involved.  Consequently, there is a very high likelihood of you having to clear interviews the way anyone else from outside that organization would do.  However, for smaller companies, you may not face similar problems and they might hire you if your performance is good .

Use your gut feeling to take the final call

I hope my experience would be useful to you in taking a well-informed decision.  However, I have been a very strong believer of one’s own gut feeling, because that feeling comes from within and always guides you to the right direction.  You should be completely aware of what’s store in for you before you join any organization but your ultimate decision to join or not should purely be based on your sixth sense/ gut feel.

Wishing you all green lights in life…