Switching Gears From CA To MBA In Finance - Niharika Zhanwar, SPJIMR Mumbai '25

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Fast forward to CAT 2022. A 96 in CAT and a 97 in XAT (definitely not the scores to boast of), but it did help me get calls from the top B-Schools - IIM Kozhikode, IIM Indore, SPJIMR (Marketing), XLRI Jamshedpur (BM). Finally, I chose SPJIMR largely because of the assured Finance specialization.

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Why MBA in Marketing after Chartered Accountancy?

The ABG Stint: During my ABG stint, I worked closely with the sales and marketing team to develop the business case of a new vertical.

The way the sales and marketing team was responsible for driving the p/l, the kind of business decisions taken, work around creating a brand, and simultaneously dealing with multiple stakeholders - did intrigue me and led me towards marketing. It was during this project that I started evaluating marketing as a subject that I would want to explore further.

Holistic profile: My ABG stint gave me the answer to “Why MBA.”

Further, looking at it from a holistic perspective, I felt I could handle finance and the next best thing to add on to my profile would be marketing (and yes, I didn’t want to study finance again :p).

CA – A complimentary skill: Marketing is NOT just devising strategies and running ads. It involves monitoring metrics such as numbers and competition, determining what is effective and what is not. Ultimately, it revolves around pushing numbers, and getting insights out of data; and number crunching is something the CA curriculum has taught me to some extent. (OFC there’s a lot more to learn in MBA).

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Moral of the Story –

1) Chase what you love to do: As long as your career decision is driven by a sense of purpose and genuine interest, nothing should stop you.

2) Apply to Bschools other than IIMs: While every CAT aspirant aims for IIM A, not getting into IIM A is not the end of the world. Also, think of MBA as a gateway to the role you would want post MBA and then decide the colleges to apply for. Needless to mention, SPJIMR was my best call given the fact that I was hell-bent on “learning and exploring” marketing as a subject.

3) Never give up and ACCEPT failures: The 80 in CAT 2021, the finance to marketing switch – it has been a roller coaster ride! One thing that has stayed constant is the “efforts”. So, just keep working and things will fall in place someday.