About Myself - Personal Essay

Question 1:

Tell me something about yourself.

Prepare two answers for this question – One answer is to tell about yourself in 1 minute or less. The other answer is to tell about yourself as much as you can.

Answer 1:

I am Yash Rachh. I am born and brought up in Ahmedabad. I am a graduate in commerce and a qualified Chartered Accountant. As a part of my CA curriculum, I have undergone an articleship for three and a half years in A. Bafna & Co. where I was a part of Audit and Debt syndication projects. My articleship training and rigorous academic curriculum of CA helped me inculcate a sound understanding of financial reporting and analysis along with the legal and taxation aspects of business. After completing my CA, I joined Infosys as an SAP consultant for Finance and Controlling module where my primary responsibility was to provide consulting to the end users of SAP regarding financial processes configured in the system. After I quit my job last year, I was working as an independent practitioner where I was involved in Stock Audit and Debt syndication projects. In my spare time, I like to read about current affairs in economy and politics and I also use Quora (Questions – Answers platform) to get various perspectives on economical, social and political issues. I also enjoy watching TV sitcoms.

Answer 2:

I am Yash Rachh. I am born and brought up in Ahmedabad. I am a graduate in commerce and a qualified Chartered Accountant with consistent academic record. Having studied in vernacular medium, it was challenging for me to pursue graduation and CA studies in English right after high school. I was able to get acquainted to curriculum in short time and I achieved 11th rank in Gujarat University and highest marks in Economics in Second year B.Com examination. So, quick grasping ability is something I would describe as my strength. As a part of a CA Curriculum I underwent an articleship for three and a half years. During my articleship tenure I was a part of various projects involving statutory audits, internal audits and tax Audits. I also got an opportunity to be a part of various Debt syndication projects involving term loans and working capital for industries like real estate, trading and manufacturing. Rigorous academic curriculum of CA and an exposure to live projects helped me inculcate a sound understanding of financial reporting and analysis along with taxation and legal aspects related to business. After completing Chartered Accountancy, I joined Infosys as an Associate Consultant for SAP FICO (Finance and Controlling). My primary job responsibility was to provide consulting to the end users of SAP regarding financial processes configured in the system. It involved processes like Accounts Payable, Accounts receivables and Travel and expense. My job role also involved coordinating with various teams like Development and Basis to fix the technical issues in the programming. My overall stint with Infosys gave me an understanding of organizational functions and hierarchy. It also gave me an opportunity to understand various cultures as consulting involved for clients across the globe. Team work was another crucial learning from my corporate stint. During my job, I was also involved in the unit level initiatives where I imparted training on Financial Statements to the newly recruited batch of engineers. My goal is to become a seasoned finance professional. I am particularly interested in the areas like Financial Consulting, Equity research, and Private equity. In my spare time, I like to read about current affairs in economy and politics. I also use Quora (Question- Answer platform) to gain various perspectives on economical, social and political issues. I also like to watch TV Sitcoms and movies.

Question 2:

Mention 3 strengths. State one instance demonstrating each.

• Curiosity: I believe curiosity is my biggest strength. I am information oriented and I like to go into the details. This has helped me throughout my academic and professional career. While studying in CA final, I also used to read magazines and other material issued by our institute apart from curriculum books. In one of the question papers there was a question on XBRL and I was able to answer it because of my habit of additional reading.

• Hard work: I believe I am hard working and I put my best efforts to achieve my goals. CA being a rigorous curriculum, I learned to work hard to perform well in academics as well as in the articleship training.

• Perseverance: Perseverance is another strength which has helped me get through the difficult times. In my academic career I had to manage CA studies, graduation studies and articleship training at once. This gave me the best experience as to how to be resilient in tough times and manage multiple tasks at once.

Question 3:

Mention 3 weaknesses. State what you’ve been doing/planning to do to overcome the same.

• Time management: Sometimes I get too much into the details while handling the tasks which results in a sub optimal output when multiple tasks are needed to be managed. During my work experience I used to spend a lot of my time in writing long e mails to clients on a particular problem which would leave less time to analyse and manage other deliverables at hand. I learned to communicate with concise yet informative write up and concentrate more on the other important tasks at hand.

• Over thinking: I tend to be sensitive sometimes and that makes me over think and over analyse situations. I take some time to adapt to the changing events and situations in my personal life. Over the period of time, I have learned to balance my professional and personal goals to perform at my best.

• Impatient: I tend to be impatient at times and expect results in short time. While in study or work if I become nervous if I am not able to achieve my goals in desired time. Over the period of time, I have realized that sometimes results take time to appear on surface and I am training myself to keep putting my best and hold a longer term view.

Question 4:

Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years (short term) and 10-15 years (long term)?

Short term: In the next 3 to 5 years I see my self taking roles in consulting or investment banking firm. My preferred verticals are M&A, equity research and project finance . I would like to be finance professional with a combination of academic depth and problem solving skills.

Long term: In the long term, I would like