Alright guys. Here is the authoritative reply on this topic to clear misconceptions.
Chartered Accountancy is a professional accounting qualification which is granted in countries that were under British Commonwealth. These include UK (England and Wales) , Australia, Canada, Pakistan, India and some others. Each country has different rules for license but generally speaking it requires an articleship/studentship with an accounting firm for 2-4 years. During this time you take your professional exams and hopefully get licensed. ACA, FCA or CA are basically the same thing and just denote the status of membership i.e. Associate, Fellow or just simply a Chartered Accountant. People who are qualified as CA work as Accounting Managers, CFO's (even CEO's) in private or publicly traded companies. And if they chose to remain in the profession of audit and tax, they can rise to a Partner position in an accounting firm.
CPA or Certified Public Accountant is the equivalent of CA, and is used in USA and many other countries. In the USA, there is no requirement of articleship/studentship to sit for your CPA exams. CPA exams are administered as a uniform test for the entire US, but the eligibility requirements vary from state to state. After college, you can take your CPA tests any time. To get the license, you need to work for a CPA firm/similar for a certain number of hours. Generally speaking in USA, CPA is the benchmark for getting accounting jobs. Job titles for CPA's are similar i.e. Accounting Managers, CFO's (even CEO's) in private or publicly traded companies.
Both Chartered Accountancy and Certified Public Accountancy allow people to go into eithery audit or tax or other more speciallized fields (fraud detection, Information systems, forensic accounting, management consulting etc).
In terms of level of difficulty, its very subjective. I think it is far more tough to pass CA in Pakistan, than to pass CPA in the USA. There are many reasons for that, and I can explain in detail if you want, but thats my opinion.
In terms of job opportunities in the middle east etc, both should be fine, as they are considered equivalent. But it depends if your employer/interviewer is biased toward US qualifications or not.
umair, to answer your question about what you should do... it depends entirely on you. The turnover rate at Big 4 should not bother you, as you have to make your own decision on what you want to do with your life. If you like working for a professional firm and enjoy doing tax work, you can stay on and go as high as a Partner in the firm, or start your own practice. If you don't enjoy this work, then after getting your license, go into a private company and rise up the cadre there. There is no one answer here. Money is good either way.
And in case you are wondering how do I know all this, then by way of background, I qualified Chartered Accountancy in Pakistan as well as CPA in the USA. If you have more questions, feel free to ask.
Totally agreed
I have recently qualified CA (Pak) doing job in UAE and going to start CFA
any suggestion / guidance