Career as a Company Secretary

Aside from CEO, CFO, and managing director, are there other occupations you know of? If you want to work with C-suite executives but avoid pursuing a career in the C-suite, you might want to look into pursuing a career as a Company Secretary.

Many company secretaries earn their law degrees before beginning their careers. One of the best majors to choose from if one wants to work as a company secretary is law. You can work as a company secretary if corporate law interests you.

In this blog, we shall be discussing everything you need to know about a career as a Company Secretary, what you need to study, where you can work, and much more. Read on!

What does a Company Secretary do?

These are the tasks you will have to complete if you want to pursue a career as a Company Secretary.

• Become a key communication channel between the business and its board of directors, the public, its shareholders, and regulatory bodies.
• Assure the legal compliance and ongoing evaluation of Board procedures.
• Advise the Board’s members on proper corporate governance procedures and compliance.
• Include secretarial services in the workplace, such as planning board or general meetings, promoting and incorporating businesses, and maintaining secretarial records.

Job roles for a Company Secretary

If you are wondering what kinds of job roles you can do to pursue a career as a Company Secretary, here’s a list you can refer to.

• Chief Administrative Officer:
  A company’s general administrative operations are overseen by the chief administrative officer. These officers are also in charge of protecting all corporate legal documents and other sensitive information.
• Company Registrar:
  In a company’s or organization’s hierarchy, a company registrar is regarded as important.
• Corporate Planner: The corporate planner carefully monitors the company’s potential for growth. These officials are also in charge of mergers, joint ventures, collaborations, and acquisitions both inside and outside the organization.
• Corporate Policymaker:
  A corporate policymaker is in charge of developing a company’s short- and long-term corporate policies. When current policies are periodically brought up for review, these policymakers also provide advice to the company board. 
• Legal Advisor:
  In the event of a legal dispute or issue, a legal advisor offers assistance to the business. Legal counsel also ensures that the business abides by all applicable corporate, securities, and statutory laws.
• Member of Board of Directors:
  Providing secretarial and professional advice on behalf of a member of the board of directors is a duty that occasionally falls on company secretaries.
• Miscellaneous Responsibilities:
  Company secretaries are also needed for tax management of a company, tax filing, and assessment in addition to the roles mentioned above.
• Principal Secretary:
  A principal secretary is in charge of overseeing all facets of business gatherings, including board meetings, annual general meetings, and meetings with important clients, private delegations, and the government

Career path to be a Company Secretary

You can follow this career path if you want to pursue a career as a Company Secretary.

Path 1:

Complete your 10+2 in the Commerce field. Enrol for the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) Foundation course. Get admission for a bachelor’s degree except for Fine Arts. Students can choose a postgraduate programme that has been validated by The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) after earning their bachelor’s degree, which will prepare them for a career as a company secretary.

Path 2:

Complete your 10+2 preferably in the Commerce stream. Enrol for a bachelor’s degree. Once you complete your graduation, you will be eligible to enrol for the Intermediate Course directly. After this, you can opt to get an ICSA certification.

If you are keen on pursuing a career as a Company Secretary, make sure to check this blog! How to become a Company Secretary

Salary in different career stages of a Company Secretary

Are you worried whether a career as a Company Secretary is rewarding? Take a look at this salary table.

Level	Company Secretary	Legal Advisor	Principal Secretary
Entry-level	Rs.3,00,000	Rs.3,00,000	Rs.3,00,000
Mid-level	Rs.6,00,000	Rs.4,00,000 – 5,00,000	Rs.6,00,000
Senior-level	Rs.9,00,000 – 12,00,000	Rs.10,00,000	Rs.9,00,000 – 12,00,000

Skills to be a Company Secretary

A person needs certain skills in order to pursue a career as a Company Secretary. The following are crucial competencies a company secretary must possess:

• Analytical abilities:
  These abilities include forecasting future market trends and identifying the various benefits and risks of a particular path. Even though people frequently use their knowledge and skills in the workplace, analytical skills can occasionally sound strange. Analytical abilities are helpful because they enable people to solve various problems and decide what actions need to be taken immediately. At every stage, it’s important to recognize obstacles and analyze the situation for potential solutions.
  
• Commercial awareness:
  Commercial awareness is understanding how businesses and industries function in the marketplace. It is really important to comprehend what is going on around the world and assess how it might significantly affect the mentioned businesses and industries. Knowing what makes a business or organization successful through the purchase and sale of goods or by providing services to the sector is known as having commercial awareness.
  
• Communication abilities:
  Effective and productive business operations depend on effective workplace communication. Due to a lack of the necessary communication skills and competencies to carry out the office job, secretaries in a company face several difficulties and challenges. One of the fundamental tools needed for secretaries to function effectively within an organization is communication, which is essentially an art. To be truly capable of performing well in an office, secretaries work with agility, courage, and determination.
  
• Creativity:
  In addition to being analytical and logical, highly successful company secretaries also exhibit a great deal of creativity when solving problems. The best course of action is not always the most obvious one; it is frequently necessary to think outside the box to get around one’s opponent.
  
• Judgment abilities:
  A company secretary must be able to make logical deductions or reasonable assumptions based on the limited information that is available to them. It is a company secretary’s responsibility to critically evaluate these conclusions to foresee potential areas of one’s argument that need to be strengthened against. Therefore, to excel and succeed in their respective cases, one must possess strong judgment skills.
  
• People skills:
  Working as a company secretary is not a practice that recapitulates. Being a company secretary requires being influential, well-spoken, and able to read people. Being approachable enables a company secretary to choose the best course of action to achieve the desired outcome, which can be either client taking a company secretary’s advice or coming to an amicable agreement with the opposition.
  
• Research abilities:
  To succeed in a career as a company secretary, one must conduct in-depth research into pertinent facts. Any argument must be won by being confident in the facts being presented. Without an undeniable fact, no argument can be won, especially a legal one. A company secretary’s ability to conduct quick, efficient research is crucial for understanding clients, and their needs, and developing legal strategies.
  
• Strong administrative abilities:
  These abilities are crucial for completing tasks related to business. This may entail duties like filing paperwork, speaking with various stakeholders, exchanging pertinent information, putting policies into place, and responding to inquiries from staff members and others. Administrative abilities are crucial for a company secretary to maintain smooth business operations. A company secretary with strong administrative abilities is a requirement for any successful, productive business.

Is Company Secretary a good career option?

Organizations are under increasing pressure to show corporate accountability and transparency when managing their internal affairs. Additionally, various stakeholders need to maintain their credibility. Since upper management will be too busy creating overall organizational work, only a few talented and skilled professionals will be able to take advantage of the new opportunity. The need for this position has increased as the role of a company secretary has grown increasingly important to a company entity’s smooth operations.

Not only do they occupy the highest position in the hierarchy, but they also play a crucial role both inside and outside the company. This job description offers a wide range of enjoyable career opportunities along with a lot of difficult situations. After obtaining a certificate of practice, company secretaries can also launch their consultancy. Therefore, a career as a Company Secretary will also provide you with entrepreneurship opportunities.

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Types of industries hiring Company Secretaries

You can pursue a career as a Company Secretary in these industries.

• Banks
• Company law boards
• Department of Company Affairs 
• Financial institutions
• Government departments
• Private sector
• Public sector

Top recruiters for Company Secretaries

Here’s a list of the top recruiters you can work with to pursue a career as a Company Secretary.

• ACB Group of Companies
• DaVita Care (India) Pvt Limited
• Glocal Healthcare Systems Pvt Ltd
• Indian Railway Finance Corporation Limited
• Janalakshmi Financial Services Pvt Ltd
• Monolith Industries Limited
• Parsvnath Infra ltd
• Punjab National Bank
• Shri Lal Mahal Ltd
• Trinity Reinsurance Brokers Limited

Courses to upskill as a Company Secretary

Once you complete your graduation from high school, you will be required to take the ICSI Foundation course to pursue a career as a Company Secretary. The foundation course takes eight months to complete.

After admission, the foundation course must be finished within three years. The ICSI Intermediate Course is open to students who have completed the ICSI Foundation Course.

However, Graduates and Postgraduates can enrol directly in the Intermediate course without first finishing the Foundation course (except for the Fine Arts students).

Students who complete the Intermediate stage of the ICSI course are eligible to move on to the Final stage.

Depending on how quickly students pass their exams, the Company Secretary course may last between three and five years.

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Qualifications to become a Company Secretary

To pursue a career as a Company Secretary, you need to meet certain educational qualifications. In this section, we shall be discussing everything you need to know about the degree programs you can take.

Degrees in India

Here’s a list of the degree programs you can study in India to pursue a career as a Company Secretary.

Undergraduate courses in India

1. Bachelor of Commerce
2. 5- year integrated LLB

Degrees abroad

Here’s a list of the degree programs you can study abroad to pursue a career as a Company Secretary.

Undergraduate courses abroad

You must first obtain authorization by passing the necessary exams in order to work as a company secretary in another country. It’s crucial to remember, though, that having a degree from India and work experience can be beneficial in a number of ways. Anywhere you go, you can receive benefits and exemptions with those.

Postgraduate courses in India and abroad

Once you get certified as a Company Secretary, it is equivalent to a master’s degree. Therefore, you don’t need to enrol in a master’s degree program separately to pursue a career as a Company Secretary.

References

Books to read

Future aspirants who want to pursue a career as a Company Secretary can use some of the books on the list below to expand their knowledge.

• Company Law by Sangeet Kedia
• Cost and Management Accounting by NS Zad
• CS Executive Company Law by NS Zad
• Economic and Commercial Laws by Tejpal Seth
• Tax Laws and Practice by Sangeet Kedia
• Taxman Company Accounts and Auditing by NS Zad

Top paid Company Secretaries

Name	Company Name	Average Salary (Rs.)
Dev Bajpai	HUL	553.17 Lakhs
Rajendra Moholkar	TCS	118.50 Lakhs
Ranganath Athreya	ICICI Bank	208.25 Lakhs
R. J. Jeyamurugan	Asian Paints	257.77 Lakhs
R. K. Singhi	ITC	148.77 Lakhs

FAQs related to a career as a Company Secretary