There was a light in the end of the tunnel. If not IIT, I had a go at ICAI. Registered for the first level of chartered accountancy exam. Okay, great. Still no IIM dreams yet. My image of commerce requiring lesser studies crashed. Now I had to work hard. The best thing was I was liking the course. Again secured all india rank in the first level. Started getting the letters from Big 4s inviting me to do the CA internship with them. Life was good again. 

BSE Sensex was marching towards all time high and so was my life. But the future of both were in the dark clouds (okay exaggerating what happened to markets was worse than the life)

CA Internship. The most dreaded word in the CA Course. 42 months is not a joke. ? But if u want the qualification, u have to undergo this compulsory 42 months torture. I didnt join any Big 4 as I didnt want to start working 10-12 hrs per day even before completing graduation. So started working in a small CA firm in auditing & taxation. Like every other work, it was good for some time. But then redundancy started creeping in. Anyway, In audit, the end result remains the same irrespective of you do it sincerely or dont. Taxation I liked but didnt want to take as a career. Also when you ask your client, how much tax do you want to pay and then calculate his income accordingly rather than the other way round, you feel frustrated.

Meanwhile, the 2nd level exam (CA Inter) was done with and again secured an all india merit rank. Was not as happy as the first one but still it was a huge confident booster. By this time, my obsession for all india rank in CA exams died. The articleship continued and the life became more boring. Recession had creeped in. So overall mood was down.

BSE Sensex was daily making yearly low and so was me. But again, the fundamentals of both were strong and just a few good news were needed for both to bounce back.

[Note: This is a post on the user’s CAT journey that has been captured in his own words. We have not edited it in any way when publishing it as an article. Cover image is from http://www.sitebuilderreport.com/stock-up]