How This Chartered Accountant Switched from Finance to Brand Management (And Was It Worth It!)

• Hi, I am Prerna Sangal a seasoned professional with 6 years of cross-functional experience in consultancy and brand management. I am also a content writer (@ThatDramaticWriter on Instagram).
• I am a qualified Chartered Accountant from India and a Brand Manager (yes, you heard correctly!) with an FMCG company based out of – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• A couple of years ago I took a leap of faith and made a life-changing decision that could either make or break me – I decided to move out of Finance to start a career in Marketing.
• Moving from the field of Finance to Marketing was both risky and exciting. And here I am sharing my journey ‘Switching gears in career, from CA to a Brand Manager – And all that happened in between.

The question I have been asked the most is – Why CA?

I was a very hyperactive kid (and have grown up to be an equally hyperactive adult) who wasn’t that academic till say the 5th standard. But then something changed and I started consistently topping my class scoring 99/100 in Maths and Science kinda topping…so by Indian education standards, I was hitting it!

I had a wonderful childhood and sort of idealized my mother growing up…and that is probably why I chose to become a ‘Chartered Accountant’ because she is one! I didn’t know what it meant, or what it entailed but I wanted to become a Chartered Accountant since I was 14.

Fast forward to my undergrad, during which I took the first level of the CA exam and cleared it. Everyone was so excited but not me! It was at this point I realized “everything about the CA course screamed ‘This might not be my thing!'”. All I knew was – I wanted to ‘quit CA and figure out what I really wanted to do’.