Interview with 2nd Year Trainee CA Zanethemba Malinga

00:13 SAVS 0 Comments

I am Zanethemba Malinga from Pinetown in Kwa Zulu Natal. I matriculated at St Francis College and then proceeded to do my tertiary education at the University of Cape Town where I obtained my Bachelors in Commerce specialising in Financial Accounting (CA option) degree. I then obtained my Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting at the University of Kwa Zulu Natal (Westville Campus).

I am currently in my second year of articles about to write my second board exam in November.

Chartered Accountancy was amongst the three options of careers that I wanted to pursue after matric. I applied to do Engineering at Wits as my father was pushing me towards that direction but I personally didn’t enjoy physical sciences at all. I therefore had two other options Actuarial Sciences and Accounting. I did Actuarial Sciences in my first year at University and then I changed to accounting as Actuarial Science was not what I expected it to be.

Firstly, I studied BCOM Accounting in university as my undergraduate degree. I then did my Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting as it is a requirement in becoming a CA(SA).

The following are the other ways one can become a CA:

Like any other student, I enjoyed the holidays and not having to wake up for lectures because you could watch the recordings from the comfort of your own room lol…

My biggest challenge in University is the jump from undergrad to post grad. This was the biggest jump of my life because of the adjustment that was required. In undergrad I hardly attended lectures and I would catch up quite easily just before the tests and exams. I couldn’t apply the same strategy in Post grad, you miss a single day of lectures and tutorials catching up would be a mission.

It means great exposure to big clients in the industry which looks really great on your CV.

As I started working as a first year, the work that I was doing was not the work I was expecting to do when I started my CA journey. But as the year progressed and got given more responsibility and more exposure to the exciting work, the work became more interesting and even better than what I had expected as a student.

There are a lot of career paths one could take, below I will just list a few:

The journey to becoming a CA is not smooth sailing, there are a lot of bumps on the road. All you need to do is persevere as it will all be worth it one day. Some would say you should have done medicine as it takes round about the same number of years to qualifying as CA(SA) but if you enjoy numbers and working with people, as you get to meet interesting people at the clients which increases your network and helps when it comes to building your brand, then being a Chartered Accountant is the career path you should be exploring.

Editors note: If you want to study to become a CA just because you grew up being told that it's a high paying job, you must know that it has one of the lowest starting salaries for a career where people start off with a post graduate qualification. Auditing firms where you will get the most experience pay you very little at first and companies in Johannesburg tend to pay better than companies in the rest of South Africa. At best you will start making serious money after 6 years.

Next: Interview with Dr Luke Sampson about medical school and internship

For more informative posts and interesting interviews like our Facebook Page so you never miss out and subscribe to our email list.