The third rank holder of the CA final examination May’17 is Mumbai-based Krishna Pawan Gupta, as per the result declared by the ICAI on July 18. Krishna comes from a family where his father is a CA himself. Sharing the same interests with his father, he took hold of the wave of the field, unlike his sister, who chose medicine over it and bacame a doctor.
In an interview with the Indian Express, AIR3 spoke out on how his life had been, how he focused of his academics, his inspirations and a lot more.
The Mumbai-boy had been a topper all throughout his schooling, and excelled in college too with always the grade ‘O’. In IPCC, he even scored AIR19 in 2014. While preparing for the final, the young lad completed his three years of articleship.
When asked about what inspired him to choose CA as a career option, Krishna replied, “I followed by father Pawan Gupta’s footsteps who is a CA for past 30 years. Like a typical Marwari, there was a natural interest in stock exchange and finance. Moreover, for commerce students, CA is one of the most prestigious professions.”
Gupta confessed that he won’t immediately join his father’s firm. He, instead, plans to groom himself professionally which will not happen unless he works in top firms like Big 4 or some consulting companies. Definitely the rank gave him a boost but he says he needs the right platform to showcase his skills.
To the question on how he managed time between articleship and college, he said, “That was challenging as you are overworked and then your social life goes for a toss. But I had already made up my mind that I have to devote certain years of my life to achieve my goals. I did not lose hope and during stressful days met friends, played guitar to relax.
“I kept social networking sites at bay. I used Whatsapp to connect with teachers. Moreover, a lot of my friends were pursuing the same course, so I felt motivated and there was a healthy competition.”
He admitted that for his preparations, he left his job during the last months and would study for 12-14 hours a day with no breaks except sleep and meals.
He says, “People say that hard work and luck are the main ingredients for success but according to me, it is dedication. If you are devoted towards your studies and have prepared to remain focused, then rest everything will fall into its place.”
Appreciating ICAI’s move to make articleship mandatory, he said, “It’s good as, we get practical knowledge of many things that aren’t part of theory. When we clear IPCC, we are hardly 20-year-old and have no skills. During our training, we get right exposure on dealing with clients. I learnt a lot on taxation and audit that helped me in getting a grip over my subjects. Learning on the job is definitely an eye-opener.”
He added that sometimes, for some subjects, one might need to take coaching but self-study is more important. Stressing on being consistent with studies, he says that though a lot many students take weekend as the time to relax, it is the perfect time to study. This helps in keeping in tough with the course.
Talking over pressure during his exam, Gupta inspires, “I was stressed during the exams but I did not lose faith. I kept telling to myself that rest all students appearing for the CA exam are of your age and you are as good as they are. There is nothing much that you can do during the last few hours before the exam. Also sleeping well is important. If a student has given sufficient time to its subjects, then they can’t go wrong. All what is needed is presence of mind and to stay alert.”