How to become an Internal Auditor? Why I choose auditing as my career...

"Audit Manager Tops the List of Best Jobs in the UK for 2019 as per the Forbes report. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 10% increase in demand for auditors from the years 2016 - 2026."

The month of May is the International Internal Audit Awareness Month. In this month, I would like to share my personal experience and suggestion for all those who want to pursue a career in internal audit.

My Journey

In the final year of my Professional Accountancy (ACCA) studies, I asked my accounting teacher on my interest to pursue a career by which I can develop the understanding of entire operations of an organization. He suggested becoming an Internal Auditor. Internal Auditors are involved from strategic to operational activities, which allow them to understand and add value across the board within a company. The very thought of knowing so deeply the organization made me excited to pursue a career in internal audit.

I research a bit to find key prerequisite for the job role. I found big four accounting firm experience and professional auditing qualifications along ACCA (Chartered Certified Accountant) such as Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Information System Auditor (CISA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), etc. will enable me to climb the ladder very fast.

Knowing this, I enrolled in CIA studies and passed it along with my ACCA and BSc Hons (Accounting) at the same time. This additional specialized professional degree gave me an edge over other fresh graduates while applying for big four (PwC and EY). To my delight, PwC offered me an opportunity in Audit Assurance (External Audit) and EY in Risk Advisory (Internal Audit and Risk Management). Before taking the final decision, I consulted one friend Muzzamil Amjid (who back then was working in EY Assurance (External Audit) recommended me to choose EY Business Risk Advisory option, which turns out to be a good decision for me, thanks to him.

That’s how my internal audit journey started and continue to date.

How Rewarding Internal Audit Career Is?

Now, the question arises, how rewarding is this career. The simple answer is "it varies like any other profession". Having said this, I personally see many compelling reasons such as the continuous and rising demand of this profession. Internal audit is also a statutory requirement in many parts of the world at least for publicly traded companies. Further, the global recession, corporate failures, banking crises, money laundering, corporate fraud, cyber-attacks, volatile market, and disruptive innovation, etc. all necessitate the need to have more internal auditors.

To fully understand the scope and importance of internal audit, refer to my article Internal Audit a Dying Career? and the Role of Internal Audit in Artificial Intelligence.

If you love traveling and interacting with people, you will get a lot of opportunities in this profession. I remember one time a recruiter approach me for a job role with reputed MNC requires to travel 70 countries for auditing company's operation but I referred this job to a friend as traveling to that extent is not my cup of tea.

Internal Audit Career Route

Based on my experience, I would recommend the following two approaches to enter in the internal audit profession i.e. entry level route and the experienced professional route.

Entry Level Route

Those who are still students and pursuing an academic or professional qualification route they might follow the following steps:

• In the past, internal audit professional was predominantly dominated by the accounting or business professional but now there is much awareness that students from another discipline graduates can also join this profession.
• I have encountered professionals like engineers, doctors, IT expert working as internal auditors. They have their niece market with limited demand but very specialized job opportunities.
• It is recommended to combine technical expertise with basic accounting or business knowledge gives an edge over other candidates in the job market.
• People pursuing accounting studies (CPA/ACCA/CA) can add CIA, CISA or CFE to increase their chances to enter in the internal audit profession.
• Lastly, a career with an accounting firm (as they specialized in a specific sector or industries and need accounting/business graduate along with with some other technical skills for specific sector/industry such as health care, telecommunication, petrochemical, industrial, etc.) will help to harness the skill sets in this profession.

Experienced Professional Route

• No matter which career you are, you can always obtain the basic audit/accounting/business knowledge before considering a career in internal audit.
• The reason I emphasize on the accounting/business knowledge because the market still lacks the awareness that internal auditor can be outside the realm of the accounting profession. So I don’t want new aspirant to be at a disadvantage while pursuing a career in internal audit.
• Those who already have an accounting/business qualification, I will recommend pursuing internal audit certification such as the CIA (widely accepted) to obtain a basic understanding of the role of internal auditors.
• Initially, once you have some theoretical background, try to move within your organization in the internal audit department either on a rotational basis or permanently.
• If in case your organization does not have internal audit department, it’s better to find a job role in your own field in any big size company which has internal audit department and gradually try to move internally within the internal audit department.
• On the other hand, if you are lucky, you might apply right away for the internal audit jobs but without prior experience, the chances are less.

Internal audit profession gives the flexibility to pursue other careers. The auditing skills can interchangeably be used to pursue other related professions with less effort such as Statutory (External) Audit, Information Security, Risk Management, Internal Control, Forensics (Fraud Investigation), Compliance last but not least the very obvious option Finance and Accounting.

Now the choice is yours, do you want to be an internal auditor?

Please feel free to share your journey for others to learn and be motivated to choose the right profession.

If you find it useful, don't forget to Like and Share to impart knowledge and if you have something to add, comment below

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Arif Zaman brings with more than a decade of proven experience in internal audit, risk management and fraud investigation. He is the Head of Internal Audit at Private Joint Stock Company based in Dubai, UAE. He holds a MSc in Professional Accountancy from University of London and BSc Hons in Applied Accounting from Oxford Brookes University along with an impressive set of professional certification including ACCA, CIA, CISA, CFE, CCSA, CRMA, CRBA, CPA and CGA etc.

For more immediate reading, here are some other posts I have written:

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