A lot of CA students, specially those who are about to start their articleship, often reach out to me asking if articleship is worth is or whether they should do dummy articleship from somewhere and focus on their studies. This post is specifically for them.
Someone reached out to me some time ago via LinkedIn with an issue they were facing in their workplace. They wanted to change their articleship firm because of some argument they had with their principal. The argument they had wasn't that big of a deal for them. What was bothering them more was that everyone in their firm somehow got to know about this and senior articles would sometimes joke around him regarding this specific incident. It was a very renowned firm and so, upon hearing their decision, I tried to convince them to rethink their decision.
Why?
You either get a good boss during articleship which makes it a smooth sailing for you or, you get a difficult boss, which makes you stronger from inside. So strong that you are able to handle even the worst boss ever in later parts of your career with ease.
Most of us aren't even graduates when we start articleship and it is only human of us to make mistakes along the way. What's more important is to learn from them and move on to an even bigger mistake holding even bigger learnings. That's the only reason ICAI requires you to do articleship for 3 years, to transform you into a more matured and responsible person, in your professional as well as personal life.
Coming back to the story, They were very adamant at changing their articleship and so I tried to explain to them that It had been just a month to that incident and so it was in their fresh memory and that's why they were teasing you. The best way to deal with it is to learn from your own mistakes and laugh at them along with others, as a way of owning them.
And believe me, you are not alone in making mistakes, specially in first year of your articleship. Most of us do. I did. In my first year of articleship itself, my boss once scolded me for some reason. Inevitably, as a 20 year old college going girl with little to no experience in the corporate world, I broke down on my way home. The next day, he called me and other female articles and staff to his chamber and explained how important it is to not break down or get upset no matter who scolds you or with whom you have an argument in office. You have to stand your ground and be unbreakable to survive in the ruthless corporate world, specially as females.
Later on, whenever I faced an argument or difficult situation at work, I'd try to remember his words and think to myself, remember that one time you almost broke down in office just because your boss scolded you! This situation surely can't be worser than that. And I'd suddenly start seeing the bigger picture.
Most of the arguments against articleship are around the kind of pay they give and the kind of work they make you do. To that I'd say, It surely isn't fair and ICAI is thinking of raising the minimum stipend but that in no way undermines the kind of experience you can get while working in a corporate setting under a qualifies CA. It is, in fact, a big reason why you get fat packages after qualifying.
Hope this reaches to someone in need.
DISCLAIMER: I do not support the toxic work culture some companies have. If your boss is always pulling you down and continuously putting unnecessary pressure on you, I'm not telling you to continue working there. Just be mindful of how the decisions your make in your early years of corporate career can affect you in long term.