Vishnu H. Prasad
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Which job is better, IAS or IAAS?

· Answered on Quora

It is like comparing Apples and Oranges. Really.

Both IAS and IAAS have their own merits and demerits. You will have to make your choice depending on what you want to do in your life.

Here I will write an answer biased towards IAAS because you don’t get to hear this side of the debate. The “IAS is better” is easy to come by.

Before I make a comparison between IAS and IAAS, I have to make a disclaimer here that IAS was my first option while I gave the exam. I decided to write the UPSC Exam just because I wanted to be an IAS officer. Hell, I had not even given a second thought to IAAS until I made it into the service. That being said, I can confidently say that it is one of the best, if not the best, among all the services that participate in the UPSC exams. The comparison between the other top options like IFS v IAAS, IPS v IAAS are best reserved for another question. Here I will simply make a comparison between IAS and IAAS.

Let’s first list the core benefits of being an IAS officer.

  1. You become an instant celebrity in almost all the social circles in which you are placed. The social recognition that IAS enjoys can perhaps only be paralleled and at times superseded only by IPS.
  2. You enjoy a 2 year advantage in pay promotions with respect to the other services. This is applicable in case of central deputations. IAAS and IAS are on the same footing as far as staying in your own department is considered.
  3. You are bestowed with executive power, which enables you to directly implement a lot of things for the people.
  4. You are coopted into one of the strongest Civil Service Associations by way of your entry into IAS.
  5. You have more probability than other service members to occupying the top post in the bureaucracy. It continues even after retirement when you get chances to become members of many boards, commissions, etc.
  6. The DM post is almost unparalleled.
  7. Closer interaction with politicians

These benefits which an IAS officer enjoys comes with caveats. For example, if you are not alloted a cadre of your liking, then it is going to impact many other aspects of your life hugely.

Now let’s get into a one on one comparison between these two services.

  1. In IAAS your first posting after training is as Deputy Accountant General (Ad hoc). As a DAG you will not be reporting to your Senior DAG, but to the Accountant General or Principal Accountant General of your State (16/25 years senior to you). Thus your Annual performance report is not written by none other than the head of your department in the State. In IAS, neither do you not report to the chief secretary nor does he write your APR.
  2. Almost Zero interference in your job by anyone else. You get complete creative freedom in your work and as a person coming from Private Sector I can tell you how much I appreciate this aspect of IAAS. It need not be the case with everyone.
  3. IAS is an All India Service. This means you will be alloted to a particular cadre where you will spent the majority of your career. If this cadre is not something you like, then you are pretty much screwed. If I were to get Nagaland cadre, then my children would be cut off from the culture of the mainland, they might not be able to study in the best of schools that others of their age go to, my wife won’e be able to find a job of her liking (i.e if she decides to stay with me.) Same might be the case with a Naga who gets Kerala. IAAS is a central service and you can pretty much work anywhere in India. Your posting will mostly be in State Capitals. There is a very well laid out transfer policy which means you can plan the career of everyone in your family without them making many compromises.
  4. IAAS officers have the best networking/diversified opportunities in the government. The powers of the CAG are so wide that every single penny that the government has spent, or every single penny that was due to the government can be audited by the IAAS officers. Which means your reach extends to the whole government. Do you want to work in the Railways tomorrow? You can. Defence? Of course. Want to audit the Governor? IAAS is the place to be. Visit all the archaeological places that are inaccessible to the others? IAAS is the answer. The scope of your work is so large, that sky is the limit. IAS simply doesn’t have that much wide ambit. You can get to know people from all the departments in the government, study their work, analyse and assess their deliverables etc.
  5. As a Deputy Accountant General (DAG, 4 years into service), I would be interacting directly with the secretary of a department ( who would be a civil servant probably 30 years into service) during my audit entry and exit meetings. A junior IAS officer is usually a small fish in a big sea (A junior IAAS officer swims in a relatively smaller sea)
  6. IAAS officers enjoy the best creature comforts in all government services. Of course you cant match the bungalow of a DM, but in most capitals you can be assured of 4 bhk flats to stay in and vehicle for official purposes.
  7. You are trained to become a generalist in IAS, whereas you are trained to be a specialist in IAAS. The general trend worldwide in bureaucracy is to encourage specialists. I am not implying that the importance of IAS will come down, but this is a fact that you should be aware of.
  8. Both IAS and IAAS have lot of post retirement avenues:- one in audit and the other in administration.
  9. IAAS has the most number of foreign assignments probably after IFS. Unlike in IFS, where you mostly stay at one place for three years, IAAS provides you with multiple short stints, which means you can enjoy more places in your career. IAAS has 5 overseas audit offices. Besides, CAG of India is the external Auditor of WHO, IMO, FAO, OPCW, UNWTO, WFP, IAEA, IOM and WIPO. There are a lot of avenues for you to get absorbed into these organisations too.
  10. In IAS you are one amongst a pool of around 180–190. In IAAS, you compete within a much smaller pool of 26 people which means your cadre strength works to your advantage.
  11. In IAAS, the CAG has the power of cadre review. This means we can create any number of posts at the top (except Dy. CAG and Additional Dy. CAG) without the approval of the Ministry of Finance. This is simply not possible in any other service ( IAS, IFS, IRS etc.)

I have tried to give a gist of how this argument would go. I am not saying that IAAS is better than IAS or vice versa. Ask an IAS officer and he/she will give you a gazillion reasons why IAS is better. However, I can very confidently tell you that IAAS is one of the best Government service you could be in. Chose the service which will best suit your aptitude and skill set.