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ISBeacon
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Joined: 03 Aug 2015
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Status:Your Beacon to ISB!
Schools: ISB (A)
Schools: ISB (A)
Posts: 1,167
Kudos: 391
Career pathways for Chartered Accountants, after ISB 03 May 2025, 00:51
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Each year, a significant number of Chartered Accountants apply to ISB. This article is relevant to those candidates.

Why this understanding is important

Chartered Accountants apply to ISB must have clarity on the post-ISB career options for two main reasons:

  1. Essays: Clarity of thought in order to effectively articulate the post-ISB goals in the essays as part of the application
  2. Interview: Defend those goals more confidently during the interviews

While well thought-out essays increase your chances of receiving an interview invite, well-articulated goals will enable you to perform confidently in your interview, thereby increasing your chances of admission.

Background

At the risk of generalizing, we have to admit that a significant number of Chartered Accountants whom we work with during the ISB Application process, have prior experience in the areas of audit and/or taxation. This is understandable since audit and taxation have traditionally been sweet-spots for Chartered Accountants

A post-ISB aspiration that is widely shared among such aspirants is to cross-over the fine line that separates Accounts and Finance. These candidates look at ISB as a platform to launch their career in the field of Finance. This is a very realistic goal.

Most prominent post-ISB career pathways for Chartered Accountants

  • Corporate finance: Typically, the field of Corporate Finance deals with topics such as budgeting, capital structure, sources of funding, working-capital management, and allocation of financial resources. For instance, if Reliance is looking at raising Rs. 1 lakh crore for an ambitious new project, what would be the most efficient way of raising this fund: should the company take debt, should it go the equity route, should it be through internal accruals, or should it be a mix of these various options. Arriving at an answer to this question requires knowledge that transcends knowledge of just the Balance sheet, Cash-Flow statement, and Income statement. It requires knowledge in areas such as Return on investment (RoI), Net Present Value (NPV), and Cost of capital, to name a few.

  • Investment analyst: An investment analyst researches and analyzes financial data to help guide investment decisions. While investment decisions are made across various asset classes (such as equities, fixed income, real estate, and commodities), let us take equities (stocks) as an example. An investment analyst recommending clients to buy stocks of Infosys, for example, needs to have knowledge of the functioning of the IT services industry, appreciation of challenges & opportunities of this sector, and an understanding of the competitive strategies of various players in the IT services sector.

  • Private Equity Analyst: This is actually a sub-category of Investment analyst. A private equity firm manages a fund that invests in private companies. Private Equity Analyst’s role is to evaluate and manage investment opportunities for the fund. Here again, a strategic outlook, an understanding of the sector, and skills of valuation come in handy for a successful career.

  • Consulting: Consulting entails offering expertise and advice to a client on a specific matter. With their background, Chartered Accountants are often uniquely positioned for a post MBA career in Consulting, in areas such as Financial Services or Strategy & Corporate Finance. The existing knowledge base of Chartered Accountants, coupled with knowledge in Strategy and Finance that they acquire during MBA, makes them strong candidates for these roles.

This is not all!

The pathways discussed above are some of the most prominent post-ISB career pathways for Chartered Accountants. This is ‘not’ an exhaustive list.

If you are a Chartered Accountant applying to ISB and if you are wondering what the best post-ISB career pathway would be for you, do not hesitate to get in touch with us to discuss further.

A word of caution

In many cases, Chartered Accountants have already acquired “Certified Financial Analyst” (CFA) professional certification at the time of their application to ISB. Such people should be wary of mentioning in their essays that their motivation to get into ISB is to “acquire knowledge in finance”.
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