[Anonymous]

I have 3 years worth of Staff Accounting. Currently a Senior Staff.I was really interested in Baker Hughes Internal Audit positions as they travel overseas. Can anyone suggest more more jobs where I travel overseas? and also, with my experience, can i get a senior role in Internal Audit?

[jdub]

I think it depends on the company and what they are willing to do. I was an Internal Auditor for a year and loved it but had to move due to my spouse's job. When I was hired I had 4 years of experience – and was a Senior Accountant at the company I was coming from, and had an MBA and was starting the CPA journey, but I was hired as a staff auditor because I didn't have IA or public experience.

However, going from a private company to a public company it was still a pretty big pay increase. I was worried about the job title being a “downgrade”. But at my current job they didn't care at all because they liked that I even had IA experience because they said they don't see many people with it. So I would say it depends on the appetite of the company.

I worked for an aerospace manufacturing company who had plants overseas and it allowed for 1 international trip a year. Other than that I don't have suggestions for overseas travel – my husband is in the military and gets plenty of overseas travel, although it's probably not the kind you are wanting 😉 but they do have Officer positions in Finance/Accounting/Auditing in the military and you could see the world for free if that's what your appetite is.

[Joetse]

I think it depends on how much operational/controls/compliance experience you have had in the past, and if you can demonstrate that in the interview. Internal audit is sorta like external audit, except, you're on the inside, explaining to the external auditors walk-through procedures and showing them your flowcharts and narratives, or asking for those from the subject matter experts for the accounts which are very valuation-heavy or estimates are subjective. Internal auditors work very closely with external auditors as well as SMEs, and are involved in compliance and regulatory audits as well. Having worked with external auditors or even bankers in the past will help in the interview. If you have any experience with controls, that is KEY. Cause internal audit is ALL about controls – IT controls as well as operational controls. If you demonstrate to them, for example, how your department had control gaps in the past, and how you or your department went about to close or address those gaps and explain the results, they probably would think you know what you're talking about…so it's a matter of convincing them of the nature of the job. Maybe just find people that do it currently and ask them exactly what they do, and jot it down and make something up to repeat it but tailor it to your own companies. Like, do you have any experience reviewing or creating internal control flowcharts, questionnaires, risk assessment matrixes, etc, internal control designs around programs or data? Data flow or work flow diagrams? Segregation of duties with sensitive user access? Sharepoint development or being a user access administrator? That's the experience they're looking for.

[Author]

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