The Difficult Side of Starting Over: Returning to Learning After Stability

“Over time, I realized there is no end to learning, only a point where you decide whether to continue or settle,” says Dhanish Sharma, the Income Tax Officer-turned finance professional.

As an Income Tax Officer, Dhanish Sharma had the kind of stability most professionals aim to secure. But he chose to walk away from the conventional idea of certainty and begin again, this time as a student. With Mentor Aswini Bajaj, he found something career stability alone could never guarantee.

The CFA journey didn’t just redirect his path; it fundamentally reshaped how he learns, thinks, and makes decisions (even about his life).

What follows is his story, in his own words.

I did not expect to return to the classroom after spending more than two decades in Government Service.

My career began in 1998 through the Staff Selection Commission. I started in Customs and Central Excise, later moved to the Income Tax Department, and eventually served as an Income Tax Officer.

The work was structured like every other government job and was demanding. Investigations, assessments, and raids across cities became an everyday routine, which required discipline and attention to detail. It also offered stability.

For a long time, that was enough.

But when I needed to read government files, SEBI submissions, and prepared reports for senior authorities, I found myself increasingly drawn towards equity markets.

My interest in Finance did not begin as a career decision. It began as a gap in understanding.

I was earning and investing, but without clarity. Even though I understood processes, I didn't know the markets. I could follow transactions, but not the logic behind them. Over time, I found myself returning to a simple question: If I am making financial decisions, why don’t I fully understand them?

That curiosity gradually turned into a clear intent.

I did not want to step into finance blindly. As SEBI data shows, nearly 93% of participants lose money in futures and options, and I did not want to enter unprepared.

That is what led me to structured learning, and eventually to the CFA curriculum.

There comes a point in most careers when the path ahead becomes predictable. I had reached that point.

Going for a voluntary retirement was not a reaction to dissatisfaction, but rather a conscious decision to create space for further learning and doing something I had not done before. Finance offered that possibility, and the CFA program provided a structured way to approach it.

It was not a continuation of my previous work, but a total reset.

Returning to academics, especially after a long gap, required adjustment.

No wonder the early phase was a bit uneven. Subjects like derivatives and fixed income were unfamiliar and difficult to navigate.

But more difficult was the discipline required to study again for hours, sit through lectures, revisit concepts, and maintain consistency.

I had to rebuild that, right from scratch. The transition, however, was not linear.

After the initial subjects, the process slowly became more intuitive. The effort that once went into keeping up with the study materials gradually translated into understanding.

Concepts began to connect, and equity valuation started to feel directly linked with the questions that brought me here. Over time, the effort shifted from completing material to genuinely understanding it.

It was also during this phase that I enrolled for the CFA exams and formally began preparing. While exploring how to structure my preparation, I came across Aswini Bajaj Classes. I discovered it through a search, then watched a few online lectures before making a decision. What stood out was not just the learning content but also the credibility that came through, both in the way concepts were taught and in the mentor's depth of academic grounding.

The guidance provided structure to the preparation, making a demanding curriculum easier to understand. For me, that combination of self-driven study and structured mentorship became central to my approach to the course.

In that phase, the structure of preparation became quite crucial.

Sir’s classes provided me with a way to navigate the curriculum's volume and complexity. The approach was deliberate and detailed, with a clear emphasis on clarity over speed.

Whenever I struggled with a topic, there was direction on what to revisit and how to approach it again, which helped me identify gaps without noise. Over time, that consistency reduced friction in the learning process.

Gradually, the focus shifted. I was no longer struggling to keep up with the pace. I was trying to understand.

Today, I am working independently in mutual funds and PMS advisory.

The transition into finance is no longer theoretical.

The shift is most visible in how I engage in market conversations. When fund managers discuss macroeconomic conditions, markets, or allocation strategies, I can follow the reasoning, not just the terminology.

Even concepts such as beta are no longer surface-level references; I understand their derivation and application in context.

This has been possible through the CFA curriculum taught at Aswini Bajaj Classes, which has given me both the language and the depth to engage more meaningfully in these discussions. It has made it easier to follow the vocabulary used in webinars, seminars, and fund manager interactions, where terms are no longer isolated expressions but connected to underlying frameworks.

“Earlier, I could recognize concepts. Now, I can work with them.”

Not everyone around me has misunderstood my inclination towards continuous learning. For many, learning is viewed as a defined phase, one that concludes early and thereafter remains within conventional boundaries.

My experience, however, has been different, largely shaped by my grandfather, who used to read a lot. Over time, this orientation has found a natural resonance with the philosophy of Aswini Bajaj Sir, rooted in his idea of depth, discipline, and continuity.

However, I have been fortunate to receive the unwavering support of my family in this process. My children are engaged in their own academic journeys, which has naturally created a learning environment.

Beyond the home, the decision to return to structured learning all over again met with skepticism. Questions were raised about timing (my age, precisely), relevance, and necessity. However, these perspectives have not altered the direction of my decision.

It was a continuation of a process that was already in motion.

From the outside, my shift from a stable government job to a career in Finance at this age may seem a bit unusual.

But this is not a career shift; rather, it is a mindset shift that determines how I engage with what I work on in the long run. I no longer approach concepts as information to be understood in isolation. They now connect directly to decisions, markets, and outcomes.

That shift has been more defining than the change in role itself.

1. • Structure reduces friction in complex learning environments: In a curriculum as expansive as finance, it is not the volume but the absence of structure that creates resistance.
   • Application, not completion, defines the value of education: The measure of learning is not whether the material has been covered, but whether it can be applied in real-life scenarios.
   • Consistency matters more than intensity: Sustained, disciplined effort over time proves more effective than sporadic bursts of motivation.
   • Starting again requires discipline, not confidence: The decision to begin anew is rarely driven by certainty, but by the willingness to commit despite its absence.
   • Depth of understanding affects your decision-making: True learning begins when concepts move beyond recognition and inform judgment in real-world situations.