Learnings from my first year of articleship
Today marks the completion of my one year of articleship and I wanted to celebrate it by sharing my experience with you all. I had tears in my eyes as I was leaving office after a long day of work, remembering all the ups and downs i faced throughout this year and how much it had taught me. And if you pictured this in a movie worthy photo montage then I hate to break it to you, I was just kidding. I’m writing this article days before I’m actually going to publish it. And the rest of the article is going to be just as anti-climactic as first para.
For some context, if you don’t know what articleship is, it’s a 3 years of paid internship that you have to compulsorily do under any Charted Accountant in order to be eligible to sit in final exams of CA.
Most of us do our articleship during our early twenties. And most of us don’t have any prior experience in the corporate world, and so, making mistakes is a given. But learning from your short comings is why are required to go through this experience. So that, once you become a professional, you are able to maintain high ethics and professionalism and do not behave like a newbie. When I started my articleship, I was just a naïve girl. I still am, though a slightly less naïve one. This last one year has been a steep learning curve for me. I learned how to work in corporate teams, communicating through hierarchy in organisations and the importance of having good skills and connections, to say a few. But these are just corporate experiences. Articleship teaches you much more than that. It teaches you a way of living. It instils discipline and patience in you the way nothing ever has or ever will. You learn the art of sacrificing. Sacrificing plans with friends on weekends to sacrificing those friends eventually to sacrificing your social life all together. Sacrificing everything and dissolving into the monotonous routine of class-office-repeat. Sounds depressing? Surprisingly enough, it is not. It only makes you stronger, both mentally and emotionally.
I started my articleship on 22th July, 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic and things have only worsen off from then on. Global economy is weakening and we are staring in the eyes of a third wave. Articleship in itself is an energy draining experience, but living by yourself and not getting to meet others with fear of the virus makes it all the way more difficult. But knowing that thousands of CAs have gone through the same thing and successfully mounted over this mountain only gives me courage and hope. It makes ME stronger, mentally and emotionally.
Lately, I’ve come across many allegations like articleship is a waste of time or that the stipend is so low that it’s free slavery or that it’s just a way to exploit innocent students. While I agree that we are paid in peanuts compared to all the time and efforts we give and that some principals do unnecessarily exploit their articles and ICAI should take strict actions against both, I strongly believe articleship is an important part of the whole experience which turns you from a student to a professional. Taking a dummy should never even be an option that you consider. And whenever the going gets hard, just remember that a lump of coal turns into a diamond only after it undergoes immense heat and pressure.