Why is auditing interesting

I originally planned to work in external audit, however, the opportunities I had led me to assisting with Internal Audit departments. Overall, the career path has been different than what I expected, however, it has been very rewarding. So you can really move around depending on your interests. I found it very interesting and it gave me good insight into the company's processes and systems that has been very useful later, and help prepare me for each of my subsequent roles.

Honestly, I didn't know what I wanted to do and it seemed to be the broadest route to give me experience in business - it's paid off. Auditing allows you to get an understanding of almost all aspects of business operations and you can identify the area that you would want to spend the time in to become an expert. Internet Explorer Detected! I understand and accept the effects of using IE as a browser. What language would you like to translate to? An error occurred while translating.

Please try again. Close Loading Shayla C. Seattle, Washington. See original. Why did you become an auditor? Login to comment. Answer This. Cancel Delete. Thanks for your help keeping CareerVillage safe! Add a reason: No reason given. Cancel Flag Question. Preview of the email that will be sent on your behalf: From: You.

Phone Number. Cancel Follow. Flag for review. Cancel Accept. Cancel Flag Answer. Justin Gault Product Development Manager. Denver, Colorado. Hi Shayla, Thanks so much for your question and there are a lot of really great answers here! Good luck! Stamford, Connecticut. I think the others in this post have done a great job answering your question. I will just add what I consider to be 3 of the cooler experiences that I've had as an auditor: - Working on initial public offerings and large financings where the overall success of the transaction and the price of the proposed transaction is all directly related to the financial information that you are auditing.

Being in the room as a client's Board of Directors and management close their initial public offering that raises hundreds of millions of dollars for their company and stakeholders, seeing their excitement and joy and knowing that I was able to contribute as an independent auditor was very rewarding. I've obtained a significant amount of knowledge in how different places encounter different business, financial, legal or people issues which has shaped my view of the world in ways I never imagined.

I've been able to meet with companies and executives that are building blockchains, cloud computing infrastructures, robots, quantum computers and medical devices just to name a few. As you can see, the job extends much further beyond spreadsheets and number crunching. Richard Rengel Audit. New York, New York. Or you could just take the spreadsheet your given and have a really miserable time. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I would also like to say that Justin's comment on this post represents my thoughts on the benefits of the auditing profession exactly.

I believe I can add to the answer and help clear some things up for you. I won't lie However, I don't find myself solving equations all that often. Instead, how I often explain my job to friends is "I'm basically a lawyer that uses numbers". In auditing, the majority of our work concerns areas of judgment: "How should we treat this adjustment?

From my experience, while it can be a lot of numbers and spreadsheets, especially in the first few years of your career, it always has a ton of diversity. As a public company auditor, you will have endless opportunities to continue your education and development, while still getting paid.

Consider it an MBA without the student debt. Also, after only a few years on the job, many public company auditors are supervising teams and participating in meetings with some of the smartest business executives around. I have sat on panels with Bill Gates, interviewed Presidents Bush and Clinton, and stood on the red carpet at the Oscars.

As long as there is business to be done, there will be a job for auditors. Experts say the number of jobs for accountants and auditors will grow 11 percent from to , faster than the average for many other occupations. During tax season, Lindsey usually works from am until pm and comes into the office on Saturdays for about five hours. The rest of the year, she works from am until pm, which lets her have a personal life. The off-season is a good time for vacation, and Lindsey is allowed eight weeks of paid time off per year.

Her auditing activities focus on testing the existence and valuation of the securities her hedge fund clients hold. She also tests investor capital activity and related party transactions such as management fees and the performance allocation paid to the general partner.

For her SEC-registered hedge fund clients, she prepares the audited financial statements that the funds must file with the SEC within days of year-end. These clients also use their audited financial statements to report to current investors and to inform potential new investors.

Internal audit manager Daniel has spent the last eight years as an auditor or consultant and has held many positions from associate to manager. He currently works for a large retailer as an internal auditor. Daniel helps clients prepare for external auditors for their annual review. An internal auditor's job often requires collaboration with other departments and different levels of senior and executive management.

Internal auditors also have a greater ability than external auditors to perform operational assessments outside of finance.

Daniel arrives at the office at am and spends his first hour checking voicemail and email. From am to am, he meets with the audit director to go over departmental projects and news. He delves into his projects starting at am, which typically includes meeting with various departmental personnel to collaborate on solutions to problems and risks identified by management or his department. On a typical day, the projects he works on might include process improvements, internal control identification and testing, reviews of policies and procedures, audit planning, external audit assistance, reviewing work papers, inventory counts, IT audits, and, on rare occasions, fraud investigations.

Daniel spends a lot of time on operational audits and reviews, which examine how things work and the risks involved in operations. This work often requires significant collaboration with various departments and different levels of senior and executive management. After an hour's lunch break, Daniel spends two hours attending meetings similar to his morning meetings. Then from pm to pm, Daniel digests and documents the information gathered during his meetings. He leverages his Microsoft Office skills, spending a lot of time working on process flow, advanced data analytics, and writing reports.

From pm to pm, he wraps up any open items and prepares for the following day. Any and all changes made to programs, systems, or procedures must be documented, tested, and approved by a board of peers to mitigate risks related to unintended consequences of change, Daniel explains.

Possible changes might include code changes, hardware and software upgrades, new system implementations, and policy and procedure changes. Quarterly, he prepares presentations to update executive management on change control audits, which entail verification of development and testing activities, checking for requisite approvals throughout the process, and post-implementation reviews to ensure that all policies and procedures for change management have been adhered to.

He assists in risk identification and in producing an audit plan. Identifying risks specific to his company and its different operational areas requires great collaborative and analytical skills, he says.

These skills give you access to a large potential pool of employers from public sector bodies and global charities, to multinational consumer companies and local, specialist accountancy firms. Find out who you could work for.

You can find ACA training opportunities, placements and internships via our Training Vacancies website, where you can sign up to receive alerts when new vacancies are posted. My training and the fact that I have officially qualified as an accountant has given me much more confidence which is essential to manage a team.

I have most enjoyed learning on-the-job and also putting what I have learnt into practice on a daily basis. Skip to content. Your current browser is not capable of using this site without JavaScript. Please use an updated browser or enable JavaScript to continue.