Sharan Shekhar

Published on:
December 13, 2020

Senior Associate – Taxation, Adroit Accounting and Tax Consultancy 

Inspiration: I wanted a qualification of substance, identity and elegance. Furthermore I wanted to join ACCA because I didn’t want to just know facts and definitions and calculations written in a book. I wanted to interpret them and most importantly have my own opinion about them.

Journey: I am presently preparing for my last paper in AFM. I have completed 12 out of 13 papers

Highs and Lows: I wasn’t from an accounting or finance background prior to getting myself registered for ACCA. I was a part-time call centre executive caught up with multiple predicaments when it came to career, education and future. I wanted to enrol myself for a programme in Electronics & Communications Engineering along with my peers when I got out of school but that did not work out. After a couple of years of struggle, tons of part-time jobs and the urge to become something bigger and better, I was advised to give ACCA a shot. 

In the beginning, I backed myself to clear it well and beyond, but it wasn’t as smooth as I wanted it to be. At present, I have no shame in saying I have failed a lot of attempts I have given. But as they say, when you push yourself to get back up on your feet, you become twice as stronger as you were when you took the fall. I worked hard on practice, read all the examiners articles available on the ACCA website before all my attempts and even made time to watch the Webinars available for ACCA Students. 

I luckily got an internship opportunity after clearing my Financial Reporting Examination ( FR) from an accounting and tax firm where I’ve been working for the last 3 years .

ACCA Community: This community has never judged any candidate based on their pass rates and failed attempts. They have only emphasised on whether you have the right skill or not, whether you are capable of handling sensitive tasks, whether you get the job done or not and that’s the way it should be. This community has been warm, welcoming and I can’t wait to get myself inducted as a member which would allow me to interact with individuals who have achieved so much in this profession.


Appreciation:
Shout out to my tutors at Al Mihad Training especially Mr Hassan Abdullah for always keeping the topics simple and easy to understand irrespective of the difficulty of the papers. Also special mention to Mr Hamad Shoukat for making the timings flexible and always being supportive

Any Last Words: You don’t have to be a genius to crack the exams. The most important is to stick to the basics. Complete your study materials, make sure you give at least one mock and have it checked by your tutor, solve a specimen a day prior to the exam, Manage time well during the exam because in the end, it doesn’t matter if you study for months or study for a week but what you do in those 3 hours and 15 minutes( 4 hours in case of SBL) of examination is what matters for the result.