To get a CA articleship, clear both groups of CA Intermediate, complete the mandatory ICITSS (IT and OC) training, and then apply through the ICAI placement portal, firm career pages, LinkedIn, and referrals from seniors. Decide early what kind of exposure you want — Big 4 and large firms offer structured exposure and brand value, while smaller firms often give hands-on work across audit, tax, and compliance. Apply with a crisp one-page resume and prepare for basic accounting and auditing questions, since seats fill fast during recruitment season.

Getting a CA articleship in the Big 4 — Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG — mainly comes down to timing, referrals, and preparation. Apply through their career portals and ICAI campus placement drives during recruitment season, and reach out to current articles and managers at these firms on LinkedIn for referrals. Clearing both groups of Intermediate early strengthens your shortlist, and interviews usually test accounting and audit fundamentals, general awareness, and communication.

Most firms don't run a permanent job page for articles, so vacancy hunting works differently. Track the ICAI placement portal during its articleship rounds, follow the career pages and LinkedIn pages of firms in your target city, and ask seniors or CA groups that regularly share openings. A CA articleship vacancy in Mumbai or Pune is often filled through referrals or posted only on LinkedIn and city-level CA groups, so networking locally genuinely improves your chances.

Under ICAI's new scheme of education and training, the CA articleship duration is two years, while students registered under the earlier scheme complete three years. The training has to be served continuously under a principal, with leave, transfer, and reporting rules as prescribed by ICAI. Since the window is fixed, plan your exam attempts and any industrial training plans around it in advance.

ICAI prescribes the minimum CA articleship stipend based on your year of training and the population of the city, and these notified amounts are revised from time to time, so check the latest ICAI update for current figures. In practice, small firms often pay close to the minimum, while Big 4 and large corporate offices in metros pay significantly more. The stipend is a monthly training payment and should not be confused with a post-qualification salary.

At the end of your training, the CA articleship completion form — Form 108 — is signed by your principal and submitted on ICAI's Self Service Portal. Once ICAI processes and approves it, your articleship completion is recorded against your registration and the certificate can be downloaded from the same portal. If the certificate doesn't appear or your training dates show an error, get the discrepancy fixed with your principal or ICAI support before it delays your Final exam eligibility.

A CA industrial trainee is a CA student who completes part of the practical training inside a company's finance function instead of a CA firm, working in areas like financial reporting, internal audit, taxation, treasury, and FP&A. It usually comes with a higher stipend than regular articleship and is a popular route for students targeting corporate roles after qualification. Companies announce industrial trainee openings on their career pages and LinkedIn, typically for the final stretch of the training period.

To get CA industrial training, clear both groups of CA Intermediate and apply to companies for the final phase of your practical training as permitted under ICAI norms. Most CA industrial training vacancies are scattered across company career pages, LinkedIn job posts, and employee referrals rather than one central listing, so start applying three to six months before you want to begin. Tailor your resume to the corporate role you want, highlight your audit or tax assignments, and prepare for interviews that test accounting standards and financial analysis.

The stipend for CA industrial training is decided by the hiring company, and it is generally higher than a regular articleship stipend. Multinationals, banks, consulting firms, and large PSUs typically pay the most, and the amount varies widely by company, role, and city. Since companies don't always publish the figure upfront, it's completely acceptable to ask HR about the stipend during the interview or offer stage.

The most sought-after CA industrial training companies in India include the Big 4 (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG), strategy consulting firms like BCG, banks and financial institutions, FMCG majors, and large PSUs in oil, gas, and power. Instead of chasing only the brand, choose based on the exposure you want — audit and advisory at consulting firms versus core finance, FP&A, or treasury experience in industry. Seats at each company are limited, so track career pages and LinkedIn and apply early.

JP Morgan takes CA students as industrial trainees, usually listed as CAT roles, with most openings at its Mumbai offices. Track the JPMorgan careers site and LinkedIn so you can apply as soon as a role goes live, and reach out to CAs working there for referrals with a short pitch and a one-page resume. Interviews typically test accounting fundamentals, journal entries, financial products, and communication, so revise your basics and do a mock interview before the real one.

IBS (Integrated Business Solutions) is the sixth and final paper of the new-scheme CA Final — a multidisciplinary, case-study-based paper that blends strategic management with application-level questions from financial reporting, audit, tax, and finance. It is a 100-mark paper designed to test how you solve business problems rather than how much theory you remember. Since it cuts across subjects, most students prepare for it alongside their other CA Final papers instead of treating it as a separate subject.

In the new CA Final scheme, the IBS paper is conducted as an open book exam, which means ICAI allows you to carry specified study material into the exam hall. Open book does not mean easy — the paper is built around long, time-pressured case studies, and flipping through books mid-exam costs more time than it saves. Students who score well have usually solved multiple full mock case studies, know exactly where everything sits in their permitted material, and can write structured answers quickly.

After the CA Final exam, results are typically declared around two months later, and once you clear both groups you can apply for ICAI membership and choose your route — practice, industry, or Big 4. Use the waiting period productively: complete any pending Advanced ICITSS requirement, update your resume, and start applying through the ICAI placement portal, LinkedIn, and referrals. Preparing well for job interviews during this gap matters, because your first offer after qualification shapes your early career.

ICAI conducts CA Final exams twice a year, in May and November, and the detailed datesheet for the Nov 2026 attempt is published on the official ICAI website through its exam notification. The CA Final exam form for Nov 2026 usually opens around two months before the exams, with a late-fee window afterwards, so keep your registration and eligibility details ready in advance. Once the dates are announced, plan at least two full revisions working backwards from the first paper.