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CA profession is known for its reputation and standard in society, even a layman with non-commerce background is aware of the difficulty level of CA examinations.
Well, the answer to this question to a certain extent depends on the number of Chartered Accountants readily available in the market during that particular placement drive. Unlike a few years ago, when the passing percentage was as low as 2% – 3% and the demand for CAs was more than their availability, the number of attempts would hardly matter.
In spite of knowing the level of difficulty of CA exams and the single-digit passing percentage, what urges the students to choose this field as a career is the salary package/income of a Chartered Accountant.
However, a question that frequently comes to the mind of CA students is that – Whether the number of CA Exam attempts matters when it comes to campus placements conducted by ICAI?
However, in the past few years, due to a constant increase in the trend of the passing percentage, the number of attempts taken by the candidate to pass the examination has become one of the relevant criteria for selection during the placement process.
The number of attempts taken may matter at two stages – Firstly at the selection stage itself wherein the companies filter the candidates based on the number of attempts taken and if the candidate is selected the salary package that will be provided gets affected next.
However, in contrast to the above said, there are many students, who in spite of taking several attempts, manage to clear the interview and get selected even in the reputed companies. For a few companies, an attempt does not really matter, nor do they make any difference in the salary package that they offer, in comparison with the first attempt cleared candidate. There are even instances where the first attempt candidates are rejected over the students who took several attempts to clear. For such companies what matters the most is the practical skills, in-depth knowledge the candidate has over the topic, his/her performance in the interview, good communication skills, and a strong resume.
Thus, the selection criteria differ from organization to organization that is participating in the placement program, their hiring policies, and requirements.
Various experienced Chartered Accountants working in reputed companies are of the opinion that even if the attempt matters, it would only matter during the candidate's first job, and after that, it all depends on their hard work, smartness, and experience of the candidate.
Therefore, candidates are often suggested to not get disheartened and attend the campus interview conducted by ICAI.
