CAREER AFTER B.COM
Career after B.Com – Graduation is an important step in your career. But if you
have a little bit idea about what’s going on in the market, then only
graduation is not all. Yes, we’re talking about your B.Com. You chose B.Com
because you feel that you have inclination toward business and commerce and to
be precise, for accounting. But do you think completing your B.Com will give
you an edge in accounting or business? You know that right? Just completing
B.Com even with a great score will not ensure success in accounting career. You
need to think farther and you need to be on your edge.
In
this article, we will discuss the nitty-gritty of what you can do after B.Com.
We will discuss the right time to think about your higher education, the career
options you can choose and how you can take the first steps.
Hang
tight. Here you will get the overview of everything that you need to think
about after B.Com.
WHEN
IS THE RIGHT TIME TO THINK ABOUT CAREER SCOPE AFTER B.COM?
You
may wonder that what would be the right time to think about B.Com. The right
time is not after B.Com. Rather you need to ruminate about your higher
education during the last year of your B.Com.
Most
students make the mistakes of thinking about B.Com only when they are pursuing
it. You need to think further. The way market is shifting, every 5 years there
are thousand new jobs being invented. If you don’t know what to do after you
are done with your B.Com, then you will be behind. Moreover when you will make
decision in a haste, most of the time, you will make the wrong decisions.
So,
before you give your final exam, sit with yourself. Do some research! Think
about the possible career options you can choose and which go with your career
goals. If you need guidance, talk to your parents and take the help of your
teachers and professors. At this point, you don’t need to stick to one point.
But you should at least give some thought to your career after B.Com.
Choose
few of them and set them aside and then concentrate on your B.Com (final year)
studies. Rest you can think after you give your B.Com (final) exam.
Career After B.Com
In
this section, first we will discuss the common career choices students make after
B.Com pass. Then we will talk about something else as well which you may think
about.
COMMON
CAREER CHOICES AFTER B.COM PASS
These
are common career choices or you can say going with the crowd. We strongly
recommend that you give a due thought before enrolling into any of these
courses. No, it’s not about money; rather it’s about your career and you should
not squander the first few years of it by making poor choices.
Chartered Accountancy
This
is the most popular and common Opportunities after B.Com pass. Rather many
students pursue Chartered Accountancy along with their B.Com. But if you
enrol yourself after completing B.Com, you don’t need to sit for the entry
level exam i.e. CPT (Common Proficiency Test) subject to you have at least 55%
in the B.Com. You can also enrol for CA after
doing any graduation; but in that case you need to have 60% in the graduation.
Before enrolling in this course, think through few things –
- First of all, this
is not the course for faint hearted. Ask yourself- Am I ready to put in at
least 5-6 hours a day, every day till I clear CA? If the answer is no, don’t enrol. You have
other options as well. You know yourself better than anyone. Even if you
feel pumped up, receive so many suggestions about doing CA from your
professors and see that many of your friends are going for it, still ask
yourself honestly and then decide.
- Check the
statistics. It’s true that CA is the 2nd best course in the world. But
only 2-3% of students clear CA (Final) in one go. If you know that you are
committed and pull it through, go for it.
- You need to keep at
least 3-5 years in hands as you need to complete a full-time article ship
of 3 years, 100 hours of information technology course and clear total
four groups in IPCC (Integrated Professional Competence course) and CA
(final).
After
thinking through all these, then decide whether CA is suitable for you or not.
MBA (Finance)
Most
students make the mistake that they perceive finance as similar as accounting.
It’s not. Finance is vast and accounting is only one part of it. But still if
you want to do MBA in Finance, there are many options you can choose. The best
option is prepare for CAT, XAT and GMAT. These three will do. You should start
your preparation during the final year of your B.Com. A year of preparation can
do wonders for you. There are many B-Schools which are mushrooming everywhere.
Do you think doing an MBA in Finance from any B-School will add value to you?
Nope. You need to do it from top 10 B-School in India or top 30 B-Schools in
the world (if you are going for foreign universities). If you want to pursue
your MBA in India, CAT and XAT are your best bet. You need to score high, as
high as 99.99 percentile if you are a General student. Or else, if you want to
do something in foreign country like USA, you need to score at least 700 plus
in your GMAT.
M.Com
There
are many people who go for M.Com after they do their B.Com. You can do the
same. But M.Com is a master degree course. And you can choose many
specializations Economics, Statistics, Finance, Business, Accounting etc. You
won’t get much value out of it if you don’t take it further, meaning we’re
talking about M.Phil. or PhD. You can take another approach as well. You can do
your M.Com along with CA or any other courses. Only M.Com has little or no
value. Of course, from the perspective of education, you will get a ton of
knowledge; but here we are evaluating everything from the perspective of making
a career and getting a decent placement.
ICWAI
Many
students also go for ICWAI. It is the cost accounting course
offered by Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India. This is a good course,
but it’s not as valuable as CA. But many students go for it as there are good
career opportunities after doing ICWAI. After doing ICWAI, you can go for
M.Phil. or PhD or you can join as Financial Controller, Cost Controller, Chief
Internal Auditor and Chief Accountant. The salary range would be around INR 4-6
lakhs per annum. You can join this course while doing your B.Com. There is
foundation, intermediate and final courses you need to clear to be able to get
the certification of ICWAI.
Company Secretary
Many
people go for CS after or during their B.Com. CS is
completely a different course than CA or ICWAI. It’s more about legal aspect of
business and qualitative analyses. You need to be prepared to suggest the paths
to the board of directors of the company and often will join as an Executive
Secretary to MD or CEO. In case of CS, you need to clear Foundation, Executive
and Final Courses. But the opportunities for Company Secretary course has
immense potential.
NOT
SO COMMON COURSES AFTER B.COM
In
the above section, we have discussed about the common choices students make to
get going in their careers after their B.Com. But here’s the list of courses
which a small percentage of students choose to do.
But
they are beneficial too, if you take things into your stride and do them with
utmost sincerity.
Let’s
have a look at them.
CMA
This
is one of most recognized international courses you can choose after you
complete your B.Com. Certified Management
Accountant (CMA) is
offered by Institute of Certified Management Accountant. It’s more popular in
US, but it has presence in over 100 countries in the world. Over the years ICMA
has produced a lot of high calibre students. The proof is if you complete your CMA after
B.Com, you will be able to earn at least 33.33% more than any non-certified
accountants. CMA is much more comprehensive than any other courses you can
pursue after B.Com (other than CA & CS). Curriculum of CS concentrates on
both management accounting and financial accounting. ICMA has made it very easy
for its students to pursue and clear CMA. There are over 100 examination
centres in the world. And to clear the exam, you only need to sit for two
exams. And each exam is of 4 hours duration. The exam will consist of 100
multiple choice questions and 2, 30 minute essay questions. But remember that
it’s not easy to clear as it sounds. In June, 2015, the exam percentages for
two exams are 14% (CMA Inter) and 17% (CMA Final) respectively.
ACCA
After
B.Com, you feel confused and don’t know exactly what will give your career a
lift! If you feel like this and want to become an accounting professional here
is ACCA for
you. ACCA is accredited by Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
It has been educating its students for a very long time. More than 436,000
students have already passed out of this certification. And it has a tremendous
global repute; it’s in more than 180 countries in the world. Like CMA, ACCA is
also very comprehensive course. Other than teaching you the technical part of
accounting, it also teaches technical and management aspect as well. But it’s
not as easy as it sounds. You need to put in a bit more effort than normal. Of
course, you want a great career and for that you need to clear four levels and
14 subjects in total. The fees for ACCA though are very reasonable. It’s around
INR 50,000. Even the passing rate is around 50% if you take the average all
levels and all papers together. If you want a global course under a small
budget and want to have a great career in audit, tax or practice.
CPA
This
is one of the best international courses you can do after your B.Com. This is
as good as a CA course. People who want to pursue a career in public
enterprises must go for CPA. CPA is organized by American Institute of CPA (AICPA). According to AICPA, there is
a difference in salary when you do CPA. You would get at least 15% more salary
than non-certified accountants. To be able to become CPA, you need to sit for a
mammoth exam of 14 hours. There are only four subjects to clear if you sit for
CPA – auditing & attestation (AUD), financial accounting & reporting
(FAR), regulation (REG) and business environment concept (BEC). The pass
percentage is around 47% on average by clubbing the pass percentages in all the
subjects.
The First
Steps
These are the
overview of courses you can do once you complete your B.Com. But having a lot
of options is like being paralyzed by choices. So, how would you choose which
one is right for you? For that you need to know your inclinations about certain
subjects. If you are more inclined toward accounting, you should go for CA, CPA
or ACCA. Or else, if you feel finance is your cup of tea, go for MBA in Finance
from a reputed institute. Do some soul-search. Have some time handy so that you
have enough time to think about all your options.
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