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KPMG India

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  • #3 in Accounting & Advisory
  • 1,000 - 50,000 employees

Vatsal Agrawal

Having goals is very important, know what you want to do, set the goal you want to achieve and strive for doing your best.

Vatsal Agrawal completed his graduation in 2021 from H.R. College of Commerce and Economics. Currently, he is pursuing CA and is in his second year of articleship at KPMG, Mumbai.

What was the selection procedure? How did you get placed for this job?

I applied through the placement cell of H.R. College of Commerce and Economics and at first, I got selected for an articleship at Deloitte (Worked for 9 months). The first round includes an assessment test (2 to 3hrs test) about General Knowledge, Accounts questions, Audit/Tax questions, English grammar and others. In the second round, an interview is conducted by an Assistant Manager or Manager from the Statutory Audit department or Tax department, depending on the area selected by us. The interview lasts for about 10-15 mins, sometimes longer. The same type of procedure is for KPMG as well. Subsequently, I received an offer from Deloitte in a few days. However incase of KPMG, another round of a group discussion and a partner interview is also conducted in a few cases. 

What is your title and responsibility at the job? What are your day-to-day tasks?

I have worked at Deloitte (Associate-9 months) and KPMG (Staff Accountant-As of today) as an article. I am in the Statutory Audit department in which our role is to audit the financial statements of a listed company or private entity or any other form of entity. We receive the Financial Statements from our clients and analyze whether the financials are accurate or not and fit to release to the general public. As article assistants, we are given different areas such as Assets, Liabilities, Expenses or Income. The basic purpose is to check whether the numbers shown for each head are accurate and fair. It involves visits to clients' offices within India and also sometimes outside India. Depending upon our experience we also get to be in charge of a specific subsidiary (if any) of the holding company.

What are some of the challenges that you faced? How did you overcome them?

Initially, it was difficult to understand how to apply auditing practically and whom to reach out to in case of doubts and what exactly I need to work on or how to go forward with it because I didn’t have any experience. Eventually, after working in teams and with the guidance of my seniors, over time I understood the procedure and workflows which helped to smoothen on how to prepare the work papers and what should be our approach in different scenarios.

During the work from home period, the major hurdle was communication gap i.e. network issues, reaching out to clients and connecting with them was challenging since everything had to be done online. Lastly, completing the work before the deadline i.e. closing the audit well in advance so that the management could have enough time and comply with the time limits set by different Acts like Companies and SEBI Act. Meeting the deadlines with workload was the most challenging but with the help of the team and seniors, it can all be achieved.

What are some of the skills needed for this role?

We need to clear the Level I-CA Foundation exam and Level II- CA intermediate exam (Group I and Group II) to be eligible for Articleship. We can start our articleship even if we have cleared any 1 of the groups but before the Final exam, we need to clear both the groups of CA intermediate. We also need to complete the Information Technology Course and Orientation Course compulsorily conducted by ICAI, before starting an articleship (we basically learn about various Microsoft applications like word, excel, PowerPoint, etc).

Excel is especially widely used in our job, so we need to be good at it. Some other skills required are good communication skills in order to interact with clients, colleagues and other people from the management as everyone is from different background. Also, having good convincing power and having a questioning mind until we get comfort in the reasoning provided by the client. Making sure that the work you need is being done correctly is also mandatory.

What do you think would be a decent salary for graduates?

If you’re working with a big firm, the starting range is approximately 1.8 - 2.4 - 3 lakh as an article (3years) and then after qualification is around 10 to 12 lakhs depending on the job profile which keeps on increasing with promotion as per our rating. However in the case of a mid-scale entity the range is comparatively lower than the big4 and depends on the designation and job profile.

What advice would you give freshers who want to take up internships?

Having good communication skills is really important and adds more value than you might think it would. Learning how to use excel is also a plus point as most companies work, create models, charts etc with the help of Microsoft Excel. Having a good personality is also very important along with having confidence. Being focused and completing your work within the given timeline. Even if you have a lot of workloads, whatever work you complete do it with perfection and full concentration.

Having goals is very important, know what you want to do, set the goal you want to achieve and strive for doing your best. When a person approaches you regarding your work and points out some mistakes if you’re 100% sure that you’ve done it right you should have the confidence and not give it a second thought. Eventually, you will learn all the other skills needed with experience and time.