[Amanda1234]

I’ve been searching for jobs lately and noted a lot of open positions for internal auditors, from staff level to manager level. Is internal auditor in high demand in the market lately? Anyone has some insight on the reason? Is there anyone working as internal auditor? Do you like the job and what is the career path for internal auditors?

Many thanks for sharing your opinion.

[Anonymous]

Based from what I see, internal auditor is probably one of the most hated positions within a corporation since you are constantly creating more controls and not being a “team player”. I would take it as an opportunity to learn but not make it into a career.

[tg7174]

Been in internal auditing for 3 years. As CuriousD says, you can learn a lot but may get blackballed from other positions in the company. To the honest, I think the reason is because we don't bend the rules. We look at things black and white and let management make the final decisions. The “team players” are generally breaking some rules or trying to figure out how to break them. In a game when everyone knows the rules, you eventually run out of comparative advantage unless you cheat–so people tend to cheat and encourage cheating. Being in internal auditing signals that you won't cheat, so they tend not to hire you. That's my opinion anyway. Personally, I enjoy internal auditing enough to make it a career and would encourage anyone who likes constant challenges, constant learning, and high moral standards to consider it.

[ruggercpa2b]

I totally disagree that internal auditors create more controls and are not team players. I have worked as an internal auditor went to public and now back to IA. It all depends on the organization. Where I work and places I have worked in the past we are all about building relationships with the different departments we audit to where most will call us to look into things and also ask us to come in as consultants. Controls we test are SOX controls. You also want to make sure you understand what the IA department audits. Compliance only sucks because it's not very challenging work. My group does a mix of financial and operational and then we do SOX work that our external auditors rely on. You can make a career out of it. And it's also a great department to be in to be exposed to different areas of an organization that you can easily transition to other departments as well, especially if you have built good relationships with the management of the different departments.

AUD - 73, 72 retake 7/2/2016
BEC - 8/20/2016
REG - TBD
FAR - TBD

I am so ready for this nightmare to be over. Been at this way too long.

[Anonymous]

When I did internal audit engagements, we weren't there to “never break the rules”.

When I saw that people would find themselves in a position where they needed to depart from normal procedures, I would ask them what the situation was and suggest an amendment to overly strict policies or a change to the way work flow was handled. Overall, it increased efficiency and effectiveness to make everyone's job easier. People get stressed when they feel they need to cheat or break rules in order to do a good job or to keep their job. Internal audit actually helped relieve that stress.

For example, one rule in my audit was that every bill that was paid had to be approved by management first, indicated by their initials on the bill or an email from the manager stapled to the bill. That was the control. So, I tested it by sampling a bunch of paid invoices, and I looked for the manager's initials as proof that the bill was approved before it was paid. There were a few that weren't approved. So instead of saying “X”! NO! WRONG! and listing it as a violation in my report and scaring the bejesus out of the AP clerk, I asked her why. She said sometimes the Accounting Manager was too busy and told her verbally that if it was the monthly utility bill, and it was about the same amount that it always is, then don't bother her. Which, kinda makes sense to me…

So, in my report, I listed the bills sampled that did not include the required initials. Then I explained that they were regular recurring monthly bills at the regular amount and the AP clerk had been given verbal approval on a going forward basis. Then, I suggested that management consider amending their written procedures to require management approval in writing except in the case of regularly monthly bills. I suggested that they make a list of the regular bills including a reasonable range for the amount for the AP clerk to use as reference. This would allow the clerk to make basic judgments based on a written reasonableness test, which relieved the AP Clerk's stress, she felt less like a robot and more like someone who was allowed to think and make judgments, it saved the Manager time, and they didn't get dings on their internal audit report for issues that aren't a true concern.

A guy from the Institute of Internal Auditors was a speaker at my school, and he said that Internal Auditors kind of had the reputation of being the “gotcha” person in the office, always trying to catch you making mistakes, but that perception is dying out. That negative view was pretty much the norm in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. After SOX, businesses started to rely more on internal audit functions, so the profession has made a lot of progress. There's a lot of ways that Internal Auditors can help a business evolve its operations by providing useful feed back, which is part of applying the COSO framework. More and more businesses are bringing in full time internal audit staff and internal audit departments rather than hiring external internal auditors like I used to be. The profession is growing, it can be interesting work, and you can still be well liked.

In the big public companies, they often use the Internal Audit department as a training ground for developing upper management because that's one of the best places to be able to get hands-on exposure to how the entire company operates. Not a bad place to network.

[GiniC]

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago about the increasing need for internal auditors, and a severe shortage of them. The changes in FASB standards for things like Revenue Recognition, leases, etc. are making it more necessary for industry to have knowledgeable CPAs on staff who have been educated to understand FASB and adapting to changes. So many new CPAs go straight to public accounting firms that industry is having trouble finding the people they need, which increases the value of any CPA who is willing to go the non-public route.

[Anonymous]

All I wanted to add is that, it really depends on the company you are with. If you are a consultancy firm then it might be different. However, most of the for profit big corps, do not value IA as much as it seems, the function is there to meet the compliance and support. But definitely not one of the most valued because having one of those VPs that lead 800 employees to listen to IA seems to belittle them or they just bust out the question “Who are making the numbers here?”. Sure, you can pick on those lesser functions within the entity, but once they get smarter, they will start playing games with you.

I am not discouraging people from IA, as you surely learn a lot, especially when your hard work is being valued and recognized. I also believe in ethical business practices. But as many above stated, you got to play your game right and as IA will constantly bump into many obstacles and resistance both external and within.

P.S this Prof taught one of my IA classes back then, I was shocked when this happened to him.
(https://voiceofoc.org/2015/08/countys-longtime-internal-audit-director-pushed-out/)

[Tncincy]

Is Internal audit a good way to break into industry since I have my own business and really don't have an idea of how long it will take to transform my bookkeeping business into a CPA firm.

It begins with a 75
Been here too long as a cheerleader....ready to pass

[Anonymous]

@tncincy I believe most IA consultancy firms hold CIA/CPA and other certifications. Also as the I.T play field becomes more complex, most firms also hire very senior system engineers and software developers to audit software controls.

P.S I don't run an IA business but it's based from observation and firms I have engaged with.

[Yukkeko]

I started as an internal auditor straight out of school with a Fortune 200 campany. Unfortunately it didn't last very long before I decided to switch my career path.
Pros: Great great opportunity to get to know different segment/BU of the company especially big ones. You also got to know and talk to senior management and you'll learn a lot from them. Good work-life balance though it really depends on the company.
Cons: Boring work especially for staff positions. Sometimes it takes forever to get requested support which can be very frustrating. But the thing that I hated most was I spent a lot of time giving out audit opinions and recommendations, people don't care or they do care but they don't get the resources to achieve due to the market downturn. There is very little that you can do as an auditor. To a point that I no longer felt motivated.

My thoughts – IA is not for everyone and it really depends on the company.

FAR (4/14/14) - 97
REG (11/17/14) - 94
BEC (11/30/14) - 92
AUD (2/28/15) - 99
TEARS!

[Author]

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