29/08/2026
CA Articleship Series #1
I still remember walking into Shetty & Bhat on my first day, a little early, a little nervous, and completely lost with all the apps and websites on my new laptop. I had no idea what half of them even did. But the seniors did, and somehow they never once made me feel like the new guy who didn't understand anything.
A few months in, those same seniors had turned into people I teased all the time until my first real audit landed on my desk and I froze. No clue where to even begin. That was my "uno reverse" moment. They laughed at me first, then dropped everything to help me figure it out.
Somewhere along the way, I learned that "common sense is not so common" (thank you for that lesson), that audit isn't just about getting the numbers right it's about asking the right questions. I also learned that my first-ever reply to an income tax notice was so bad, my senior said if I actually sent it, the department would send back two more notices just to mess with us.
Then came the season everyone warns you about, ITR filing. Suddenly I was the one handling every client call and query before it got passed on. Some clients were calm and easy-going, others kept us on our toes with messages at 11pm and follow-ups at midnight. That's when all the client jokes of my seniors begin to make sense.
Right after that came audit season, and by then I wasn't the new guy anymore. I was handling work from start to finish, catching things I'd have completely missed a year ago and somehow still laughing through the long days with a team that made it all feel a lot lighter.
If I could go back and talk to Month 1 me, I'd just say that "you're going to mess up, get laughed at, redo work more than once, and still end up loving this more than you thought you would."
Journey's still on. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
— Shaan
This is part of a series where our articles, past and present, share what this journey actually feels like, in their own words. If you're a CA student curious about articleship, stay tuned. More stories coming soon.