Chartered Accountant career requires commitment

In late February 2023, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Namibia (ICAN) released the aAssessment of Professional Competence (APC) results, which means that the successful candidates have qualified as Chartered Accountants (CAs) or will do so pending the completion of the final year of their training contracts. I was once a successful candidate in February 2011. As a result, I would like to share some insights with the trainees’ using illustrations from my career thus far.

In my current role as Bank Windhoek’s chief financial officer (CFO), I have had many interactions with CAs, both in my team or with prospective employees through the interview process. The one question we all ask ourselves is what we must do to set ourselves up for growth and, ultimately, that desired job, either as an executive in the private or public sector or an audit partner.



Hunger to learn

Candidates should celebrate this achievement, which would have taken at least seven years to attain, with many sacrifices, but it is just the beginning.

The deliberate steps you take in the next three to five years after passing will be a key determinant of your professional career trajectory. The hunger to learn and grow should remain and be intensified. After qualifying as a CA, there will be little structured learning, and you will ultimately be responsible for your development and how much you can achieve.



Be deliberate about growth

Map your long-term career aspirations. Everything you choose to do from here should align with those aspirations. We have seen an exodus of recently qualified CAs to Europe and America in the last few years. Again, growth should be top of mind as individuals assimilate into these organisations. If not, you become more of a tourist than a professional who undertook the journey to gain knowledge.



Pick a boss in lieu of picking a job

A job is what you make it out to be. Every job has core deliverables, but there is always a component to what you make of it, and how you achieve these deliverables is also up to you. If you pick the right job, you will likely have the right learning opportunities. At Deloitte, my most extensive learning came when I worked on a local bank's audit. I learned from the clients who would later become my boss and job partner.



Grab every opportunity

Sometimes, you define tasks as mundane. However, there is always an opportunity to learn and grow in all tasks. For example, your role could be to approve invoices for payment; instead of looking at this as just an approval of invoices, see it as an opportunity to understand what is happening in your organisation. In addition, in this era of technology, most documents are stored on shared platforms.



Find yourself as a professional

As a CA, you need to understand yourself, what you stand for, and your working style. This self-understanding makes adjusting and getting the maximum benefit from engaging with your colleagues or clients easier. It helps to stay at the audit firm for a few years after completing your traineeship. The CA journey is exciting when you are passionate about it.