BY ZARYAB AHMED
Are you confused about which career to choose? Do not burden yourself. At the end of the day, everybody is perplexed on which field to choose for a bright and prosperous future. People who have just graduated from their school often wonder Chartered Accountancy or Engineering? Which field pays better? Which career will be more fruitful for me in the near future?
All of the questions will be answered but remember that there are no right or wrong answers. Everything depends on your interests and value for the profession you want to opt for considering everything.
What Is Chartered Accountancy?
A chartered accountant is a professional status of an International designation that is granted to many professionals in accounting around the world. Chartered Accountants usually focus on fields such as audit, financial accounting, assurance, management accounting and applied finance or taxation.
What Is Software Engineering?
Software engineering is a field of engineering which deals with the development, design, implementation and maintenance of software. This field is beneficial for those who want to create something new and have a creative mind.
In the world of today, software engineering is used practically all over the country and across the world.
Level Of Difficulty:
Before choosing any field or career, it should be noted that whatever you chose should not contradict with your choices and interests. Opt for only that thing that satisfies you internally and keep you at peace within yourself.
If you choose something according to your preferences and interest, things automatically tend to get pretty easy. So, the “level of difficulty” depends on that wholly.
Secondly, when we are comparing Chartered accountancy and Engineering, both are different as in with Engineering, you can get into a good university with high merit because otherwise, getting into high-ranked universities can be very tough. But once, you have managed to step into the field, no matter what happens, you come out with your completed degree.
Relate: Chartered Accountant Vs Medical Doctor
Whereas with Chartered Accountancy, you can easily get into that field but the exit remains difficult. You need to put a lot of hard work if you want to get out of it, with a good score. It highly depends on your merit and intelligence and mostly, determination and dedication. You need to pass all the exams with pure hard work and focus. Only then you will survive the duration of the degree.
Course Duration:
In Pakistan, a Bachelors’s degree is of 4 years. The same is the case with the bachelor’s in Software Engineering. Whereas, Chartered Accountants have a course duration of 5 years. The candidate should qualify all 3 levels of the program, only then he/she will be designated as a Chartered Accountant.
Job Prospects:
Now, this wholly depends on your experience and qualification. As well as where you did your degree from, as always, the institute matters a lot when you’re looking for a job.
The other thing that matters while seeking a job is the number of vacancies open in that particular field. In Pakistan, there are a lot of software engineers from all around the country who pass out at the same time looking for a presentable job. Since software engineering is so common in the country, there are more software engineers than the vacancies or open slots for them to be recruited into good firms.
This could serve as a disadvantage sometimes because the demands tend to get less as more people seem available for the already limited job opportunities. Nonetheless, software engineers always get good jobs with their experience and excellent skills.
The case with Chartered Accountants is that just a few people make it till the very end. Passing every exam is a job of its own so by the time, people finish their CA, there are a number of jobs available for them.
Another reason for more job opportunities for Chartered Accountants is that as few people succeed in accomplishing their goals, so the demand for Chartered Accountants increase. Great firms are looking for something new and unique in their recruitment criteria. Hence, chartered accountants find more jobs right after graduating than most of the software engineers in Pakistan.
Pay Scale Of Chartered Accountant Vs Software Engineers:
The truth about living in Pakistan is that one can not get everything right after their graduation. Expectations if higher, can lead to disappointments. So, for a greater salary package (whatever field it may be), you need to have the right professional skills along with some experience as your background.
Average Salary of a CA in Pakistan
The other thing that matters the most is the software house/company you are working for as a software engineer or a chartered accountant respectively. If the company is well established and popular in the market, your designation will allow you to have a better salary package than the ones who have just started from scratch and is currently in the under-developing criteria.
Average Salary of a Software Engineer in Pakistan
It is to be noted that the pay scale of a chartered accountant is better than a software engineer. The reason remains the same that every year, only a few chartered accountants come out successfully from their fields. Whereas, software engineers tend to graduate more openly. So, few CA get jobs right on the spot where they are recruited at better salary packages than that of software engineers.
Which Field Has More Opportunities?
Opportunities wholly depend on yourself, that is just one point of view but it is a fact. How?
If you have skills and you know how to use them in the right places, there is nothing that can stop you whilst accomplishing your goal. It all comes back to one thing; INTEREST. Choose whatever field that may interest you, only then you can work really hard with determination and courage and be better at what you do.
Software engineers have a lot of opportunities laid out after them once they are sure of what they want to pursue in their future. With the evolving world, new and unique things are coming into the market and anybody can have their “fresh start”.
So, whether it may be a Chartered Accountant or a Software Engineer, all you need to do is to use your brain and skills and do everything in your power to achieve something you want in your life. Once you do that, opportunities of every kind will surely follow.