BLACKEAGLE

Oh yes I am ! But Thanks...! Your a good chap yourself ! Okay bro..see you, its 4:00 a.m over here and I'd better catch some hours worth of sleep because I have a lot of studying to do later in the day !Take care and Khudahafiz !

I confess that I have a deep, deep love for a 'good story' and the only language I read in is 'English' ! And thats because I've gone to an 'English Medium School' from day 1, as does almost every educated Pakistani. But the embarrassing aspect of it is that I never paid due attention to my own mother tongue - Urdu and so I can't really appreciate its literature as it ought to be.

But no...I wasn't patronizing you, mate ! You're English is good !

I see, well it does seem good enough ! Better than mine at any rate ! So did you sit for your SATs when you were applying for the admission to your University or do you have a local admission test ?

Mate, my fluency is completely shot because most of my days are spent conversing in Urdu or the occasional Punjabi but rarely am I required to use English as part of my speech ! And so I do get your point but I'm sure as polished as your English might have become because of such a disciplined study of the Language have you tried writing 'articles' ?

Aaah....! That sounds interesting and I'm sure that there would be a good demand for your abilities amongst not only the Governmental Organizations but also NGOs who use 'English' as their language of communication and I'm sure this might even extend to the rest of the Arab world ! Sounds like a good, well paying job to be in ! Good Luck with that, bro !

Yeah well I hope that I can avoid the 'Work-Place Politics' for the better ! But tell me about your self...are you going to continue on to pursue a 'post-graduate' degree in 'linguistics' or are you still trying to make your mind up ?

Yeah, I've got an internship offer from 'Grant Thornton, Pk' which comes 5th in the world in terms of audit firm rankings and 4th in Pakistan because one of the usual top 4 or 'Big4', as they are called, isn't really performing well or even honestly in Pakistan and so its share of the clientele is drying up ! The aforementioned firm might not set the world on fire but its still a fairly good, respected firm with presence in around 113 countries and an annual turnover of $1.3 billion (the one that tops the list has it closer to the $5b mark) ! Right now the reason I'm going for the second qualification side-by-side is to increase my employability to get into that 'Big4' club but even if I don't I won't loose much sleep over it ! So lets see if I can pass them papers quickly and send my resume to any would-be employer.

Hey, thanks for the offer...I appreciate the gesture *wheres the hug emoticon when you need one * !

What about you ? How long till your done with the University and which field are you going to opt for in the future ?

Nah mate, over here our under-grad too is a 4 year program that leads to a Bachelors with Honors degree in a subject and it, depending upon how good the university is, usually involves a number of 4-5 month internships over those 4 years to qualify for the degree ! But the thing is that my stream isn't the 'academic one' its the 'professional stream of education' and so instead of 4 years at the University with all them credit hours that your supposed to earn....I'm supposed to pass a minimum of pretty bitchy 14 papers to be eligible for that 3 year mandatory internship without which (the internship) I don't qualify !

It's too early to worry about job now, however, accountants are really needed in GCC in huge numbers. The only thing you should get is an at least two years experience. Your English language is perfect, and I guess you are doing well in your major. Don't worry about a job from now. Anyway, inform me when you finish so I send you links of the most visited GCC job agencies.

But my heart's set on Finance and that too Investment Related Finance but it comes with the inherent problem of 1) Pakistan with the mess its in right now isn't really a very good place for an Investment Analyst to be right now and so entry level jobs are going to be very...very hard to find. And 2) Even if you find one...this field carries the inherent risk of getting the sack depending upon the job-market and the country's economy whereas 'accounting, audit and tax' are much more safer, if boring ! So I am in a bit of a conundrum over here !

The good thing about these Chartered Accountancy qualifications is that because the accounting and audit profession has been so...so very standardized over the last decade because of these multi-billion $$$ corporate frauds (Enron, Satyam, Lehman Bro. etc) that its fairly easy to obtain Chartered Accountancy qualifications from other countries as well. For example the one I'm doing right now is an England based qualification and on its completion I can obtain exemptions up to 13 of 15 papers of another England based Chartered Accountancy qualification and around 8 of 13 of another one from England ! The same can be said of the CAs offered by Canada, Australia, Ireland, Scotland, Singapore etc. ! So lets see.

Dunno yaaar ! I should be done with my studies by the end of the year or the June of 2013 (depending upon a few things...namely the workload of another side-degree) ! Then I'm going to have to do a compulsory 3 year internship in an accounting, finance, audit or tax consulting capacity but its usually done with an audit firm and so I'd probably join one !

Oye, wassup ? What are your future plans after University ? Working for a few years or straight to a 'post-graduate' degree ?