Swarnim Chiripal’s journey in finance was not mapped out from the start.
She began with CA, building a strong foundation in accounting, taxation and audit. Along the way, CFA Level I, industrial training at a leading FMCG company and experience with financial modelling expanded her view of what finance could look like.
Today, her experience spans corporate finance, financial analysis and a global financial institution.
What stands out is how each experience changed the way she understood finance, from numbers on a page to the decisions and stories behind them.
So, let's rewind to where it all began, in her own words.
CA Taught Me the Numbers. CFA Taught Me to Look at Them Differently
After completing my CA IPCC and spending about six months in articleship, I decided to pursue CFA Level I.
CA had taught me how financial information is recorded, reported and audited. But once I started working, I became curious about what happened beyond the financial statements. How do you analyse a business? How do you value it? How do investors look at performance? How do markets react to what a company does?
That curiosity led me to CFA.
“CA taught me to understand numbers from a reporting and compliance perspective. CFA taught me to look at them from an investor’s perspective.”
For me, that was the real value of doing both. I stopped seeing finance as separate subjects and started seeing how accounting, valuation, markets and business decisions connected.
And I realised something early: a qualification can give you the foundation, but curiosity determines how much you build on it.
I Didn't Want to Just Read About Business. I Wanted to See It.
By the end of my first year of articleship, I knew I wanted exposure to the corporate side of finance.
Coming from Kolkata, I knew the options were limited. But instead of treating that as a constraint, I started reaching out, speaking to people in investment banking and FMCG and understanding what different roles could teach me.
That search eventually took me to a leading FMCG company, where finance started becoming real for me. At a CA firm, I was looking at businesses from the outside. Here, I was inside the organisation, working with teams that were actually generating the numbers.
The organisation’s scale made that learning even richer. With multiple divisions, subsidiaries and joint ventures, I saw how different businesses came together to create one financial picture.
I also worked on the implementation of Ind AS 115 and Ind AS 116.
I had studied these standards for CA Final. But applying them was different. I had to analyse the situation, discuss the treatment and understand its implications.
That experience changed the way I learned.
I stopped asking only, “What is the right answer?” I started asking, “Why is this the right answer?”
That question has probably stayed with me longer than any individual accounting standard.
A Spreadsheet Is Only Useful If It Answers a Question
My experience at a global financial institution took that idea further.
Financial modelling was no longer about getting the spreadsheet right. It was about using the model to understand what could happen to the business.
What if the market moved by a certain percentage? What would happen to assets under management? Which assumption would have the biggest impact? Which scenario should management pay attention to?
The model helped turn those questions into something measurable.
That taught me to look at financial models differently.
A model is valuable not because of the spreadsheet you build, but because of the decision it helps someone make.
That distinction matters. Because in the real world, nobody needs another impressive spreadsheet. They need clarity on what the numbers are saying and what they should do about it.
The Questions Start Getting Better
Looking back, the biggest change in my career has not been the qualifications I added or the companies I worked with. It has been the questions I learned to ask.
Early on, I was focused on getting the technical answer right.
Then I started asking:
- Why does this number look like this?
- What is driving it?
- What happens if this assumption changes?
- Who does this affect?
- What decision does this help us make?
Those questions pushed me beyond technical knowledge and towards something harder to learn from a textbook: commercial judgement.
And that is where practical exposure matters. You learn to work with people outside your immediate function. You learn to explain your thinking. You learn that the technically correct answer is not always enough. You also need to understand the business context around it.
What I Would Tell My Younger Self
If I had to look at my journey as a whole, I would not describe it as CA → CFA → corporate finance → global financial institution.
That makes it sound like a checklist.
For me, it was more about one question leading to another. CA made me curious about the bigger picture. CFA helped me see finance from an investor’s perspective. My experience in FMCG showed me how those concepts work inside a real business. My experience with a global financial institution taught me how analysis can turn numbers into decisions.
Along the way, having the right mentor made a difference. Aswini Bajaj helped me look beyond simply learning concepts for an exam. He encouraged me to question them, connect them to real situations and understand how they work beyond the classroom.
That perspective stayed with me as I moved through different roles and experiences.
The qualifications opened doors. The questions I kept asking, and the people who encouraged me to ask better ones, shaped what I did once I walked through them.
And if there is one thing I would tell students starting out, it would be this:
Don't just focus on collecting qualifications. Use each one to become more curious, more practical and better at connecting what you learn to the real world.
Lessons from Swarnim’s Journey
- Build the foundation, but don't stop there: A qualification gives you technical knowledge. Your curiosity determines what you do with it.
- Choose exposure that teaches you something: The right opportunity is not always the one with the biggest name. It is the one that changes how you think.
- Ask why: Knowing the answer is useful. Understanding why it is the answer is what builds depth.
- Make theory practical: The concepts that stay with you are often the ones you have had to apply, not just memorise.
- Connect numbers to decisions: Finance becomes much more meaningful when you understand what the numbers are helping someone decide.
- Keep expanding your perspective: Technical expertise is the starting point. Communication, context and judgement are what make it useful.
- Let your curiosity shape your career: Your career does not have to be perfectly planned at 20. Sometimes, knowing what you want to understand next is enough to take the next step.