Harsh Maheshwari comes from a city which is known for its humility and rich culture – Bareilly situated in Uttar Pradesh.
In 2018, he took a decision of pursuing Chartered Accountant (CA) course. He grew up hearing that the best course for every commerce student is Chartered Accountancy. In November 2018, he successfully cleared his CA foundation examination in the first attempt.
Till then the story sounds like a perfect fairy tale with a start to one of the most coveted degree in the field of finance and accounting in India. He thought the remaining part of the journey would also be a cake walk, but that was not supposed to be.
Despite his diligent efforts, he could not clear his subsequent exams. Determined to forge ahead in his chosen field, Harsh started looking for alternative plans. Well, he was right because every commerce student may not be a Chartered Accountant and despite this every commerce student builds a successful career. This was exactly what Harsh wanted to do as well. He took a practical and bold decision – dropped CA and transitioned ACCA (Association of Chartered Accountants).
Currently, Harsh has not only successfully cleared 2/5 ACCA Applied Skills Level papers but he has also secured a job at Outbooks Global Co.
How difficult was it to accept failures right at the beginning of his career and still manage to find motivation to decide on an alternate career plan?
Pursuing Chartered Accountancy was a decision that he made because of 2 reasons
– It was a career option that he grew up listening to
– Lack of awareness about other good courses that could help him make a good career in finance and accounting
After the initial success in his CA foundation exam, he decided to work harder. But with multiple failures that he experienced, he realized that hard work was not the only key to success in CA. He needed a fair bit of luck to support him as well, which seemed he had ran out of right after CA Foundation. He was not sure about plans that life had for him. All he had was some amount of determination still left in him to look out for alternative courses and continue his journey of being a successful finance and accounting professional.
While searching about different courses on the Internet, he came across the “Integrated ACCA Program” offered by The Wallstreet School. He went through their videos to understand different aspects about ACCA (careers, curriculum, recognition, benefits etc.). He also called them to check if he could visit their center for a career coaching session. In his quest to pursue ACCA, it was not a very difficult decision for him to decide that The Wallstreet School would be the perfect place for everything (coaching, guidance, skill building, placements etc.) required to build a career in Finance and accounting with ACCA being an integral part of it.
Read on to know about his career decision, how he managed to find the right course for himself and his achievements so far.
Here is a transcript of his interview with us –
Why do you think that making the right career decision was so difficult for you?
With a deep-rooted desire to forge a career in finance and accounting, I embarked on my Chartered Accountancy (CA) journey in November 2018. CA foundation seemed a cake walk as I cleared it in the first attempt. I was more enthusiastic for the subsequent levels unaware of what lay ahead of me.
Despite putting in my diligent efforts in studying, I faced continuous setbacks in the CA Intermediate level up until November 2022. I felt that I was just being stubborn and emotional about doing CA. As a result, I was highly demotivated and somewhere started asking myself several questions – “Why am I continuing to do CA? Are there no other courses for me? I also said to myself that, not everyone in this world is a Chartered Accountant so it is not a big deal if I drop CA and do something else.
I knew that convincing my parents (especially my father) would be a super difficult task for me. I will also have to face societal questions of “Why did I leave CA? etc. etc. But I had also heard that people will talk no matter what, so if it is for my career, I will take decisions that are right for me.
Societal pressure, pressure of my own expectations to do well in life, guilty of the fact that I had already wasted a lot of time and not being able to find direction in pursuit of a good career where things that were continuously bothering me.
With these thoughts and several dilemmas in mind, I started searching for other good courses. I stumbled upon ACCA and “The Integrated ACCA Program” being offered by The Wallstreet School. To be honest, I saw a ray of hope.
This time it was just about me and for me.
How did you finally decide on the best course to pursue to build a career in Finance and Accounting? How did you feel about your decision?
I enrolled for a career coaching session with Mr. Amit Jugia and Akhil Iyer at The Wallstreet School to understand more about ACCA, career prospects and discuss my journey candidly with them. I desperately needed a coach / mentor. Amit and Akhil sir clarified all my doubts, made me do my research so that after I take a decision, I stand by it in every situation. They helped me understand 4 key elements required to build a career and how I could work on each of them along with academics.
They made me comfortable and were very open to sharing about the ups and downs about their career. Hearing their story, I realised that if it could happen with them, it can happen with anyone.
They helped me understand the significant role of ACCA professionals in the field of Finance and Accounting. They answered my all my queries including future career prospects. Thinking is also an art and they made me do enough of it (smiles). After the 2-hour conversation with them, I arrived at a final and decisive choice: to pursue the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) course.
I wanted a coach for myself but instead I found a coach (Mr. Amit Jugia) and a mentor (Mr. Akhil Iyer). Guess what, I also understood the difference between coaching and mentoring after knowing the role they both would play in my journey going forward.
I will always be grateful to Mr. Amit Jugia and Mr. Akhil Iyer for their valuable guidance.
In August 2022, I enrolled myself with The Wallstreet School and since then it has been a history in the making.
How has been your experience at The Wallstreet School?
I will confess that before enrolling with The Wallstreet School, I did visit other coaching institutes in New Delhi to make a final decision. Considering multiple factors such as faculty experience, quality of coaching, demo sessions, career guidance, study material, pass results, skill building and placement network and track record, I enrolled myself as a student with The Wallstreet School and started the “Integrated ACCA coaching+ skills program” with them.
My preference was to attend face-to-face classes for a more immersive learning experience. Fortunately, The Wallstreet School was offering offline classes at their Connaught Place centre.
My experience so far has been nothing short of being remarkable. The teachers at The Wallstreet School not only provided exceptional ACCA coaching, hold us accountable for assignments, solve doubts through separate sessions, undertake quizzes and work with us to solve past ACCA papers for different subjects.
Based on their guidance, I have also started becoming a little active on LinkedIn as well (if Akhil sir would read this, he would definitely say that consistency is key and I have a long way to go to do so. Faculties at The WallStreet School have a lot of rich and diverse corporate experience managing the length and breadth of finance and accounting teams / departments. This reflects in their sessions as well. I do not remember a time (at school or even CA coaching) when I used to eagerly wait to go to coaching classes and enjoy learning.
Veeru Sehestrabuddhi (famous character from the movie 3 Idiots) said that “Life is a race and if you don’t run fast, you will miss out”. However, my coach and mentor say (which I follow) that we will all have our own journey and it is important that while we stay committed to our goals, enjoying the journey is equally important.
To connect with Harsh, you may directly Contact The Wallstreet School.
