In this feature of Jobaaj Stories, we bring to you the story of CA Gunjan Rathore, a chartered accountant who transformed the hardships of her journey into an idea to guide students across their careers. Read on to unfurl her story.
I am Gunjan Rathore, a Chartered Accountant by profession and the Co-founder of "Career Talks"
I was the first one in my family who pursued CA, a career line that is not common even in my extended family.
I am the first one who moved to another city for the studies ( as till now, not even boys in my family had ever moved to another city),
and finally, I am the first one in my family who's working with a global CA firm (one of the Big 4’s) and at the same time operating my own content-driven platform, "Career Talks".
This journey is of course not an easy one. I was not always a topper in my school times. But I worked hard and became a topper for 4 consecutive years including secondary & senior secondary boards.
I took commerce in class 11th but didn't know what career options to choose further. It was then that I heard from someone that CA is the topmost course in the commerce stream, hence without even knowing what is a CA & what is it that they do, I opted for CA after the 12th.
As I belong to Jhalawar, a small city in Rajasthan where there were no coachings available for CA, I moved to Indore.
I studied hard, used to sleep only for 4 hours during my CPT & cleared my CPT in the first shot, that too with distinction.
Then came IPCC. So during my IPCC days, I finally got to know what a CA actually does. (like auditing, taxation, etc. )
I prepared for both groups, but considering that there was no one to guide me (having no CA in my family or known ones), I was able to clear only the first group.
Due to a lack of guidance & not being able to analyze my mistakes in the paper, I failed 4 times in the second group of IPCC. This really shook my confidence & I was ready to give up but then I said to myself, 1 more time.
This is when with the guidance of one of my friends, I passed the second group. In the same year, I also completed my graduation from Indore.
But wait,
The journey ahead wasn't easy either. 1 month before my first attempt at CA finals, I fell sick and had to go on bed rest for a whole month.
For 1 month, the only time when I had to step out of my bed was for my visit to the hospital. Naturally in such conditions, I had to skip my CA finals attempt.
Due to not being able to give my exams in the May 19 attempt, my second group coaching was also pending. Thus I had to prepare for both the groups in the next 6 months without any coaching. the result was that I failed in the Nov'19 attempt too.
By now, I had learned from my mistakes. I decided to alter my strategy of preparation and give it my all. I decided to go without coaching this time too and I studied day and night to crack the exams. I knew that I could only succeed by learning from my previous mistakes and preparing my next preparation moves accordingly.
That's what I did.
And I finally cleared the exams, that too without coaching.
It was time to stress for the next step of the journey. To get a job and start my career.
I had heard stories of many people who became CAs yet struggled to find a good job even after months of hard work and often would have to end up at a below-expectation work opportunity. Hoping to avoid that outcome, I prepared aggressively for my interviews and within one month of becoming a chartered accountant, I had 3 offer letters in hand, all from MNCs, and in the next 15 days, I even joined one of them.
I believe that my journey to becoming a CA and finding a job afterward was full of hardships. And it was simply because of a lack of guidance.
Realizing that, I started a platform called 'Career Talks' where we are giving guidance to students regarding studies, job preparation, interviews, and more such helpful information without charging anything from them. We also shared helpful job opportunities with them whenever we could.
Although it has only been 2 months, 'Career Talks' has come a long way, with over 1000 students being added to our guidance groups.
I personally have guided hundreds of students through this platform along with handling a full-time job with extra-long hours due to the busy season and tremendous work pressure.
Managing both hasn't been an easy task, but as I said,
Where there's a will, there's a way!
Want to read more such inspiring CA stories? Check this out.
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