Hey Everyone 1834



  • New to the forum and I’ve been lurking for sometime. A lot of good information and intelligent debate, that’s excellent.
    Just thought introduce myself. I’m a recent college grad with a decent amount of experience with SAP/Oracle sys administration. I’ve joined a company that’s primarily Oracle, so that’s currently becoming my strongest skill set.
    After completing an audit in part with EY, I spoke to a Senior Auditor and I feel auditing might be the right career path for me. I recently picked up a CISA book and I find the subject fascinating.
    The above being said, I do have a few questions.

    • I feel I’m on a strong path to becoming an auditor. I’m enrolling for this summers CISA exam and I have a good amount of Oracle experience that’s growing each day. I also have a small amount of SAP r/3 experience. Do you agree that I should continue on the path I’m on or would you suggest I look into a few additional avenues of study? My plan is to work with Oracle three years and then look for an auditing position at a private firm or big 4.
    • Has anyone ever considered a number of questions that could/would determine if auditing is the right career path before going down that road? I think that would be very helpful, certainly in my case.
    • What are some pro’s/con’s about being an auditor (IT or Financial)? I’d like to eventually get into finance later in my career. Right now, I hate siting at my desk all day. I like to get out there, problem solve, and interact with people.
      I think that’s it for now, but I’m sure down the road I’ll have more to say and ask. I just wanted to introduce myself and commend everyone on the great information posted here.
      -Erich


  • Pros of being a financial Auditor - Lets assume Big 4 firm:

    1. You are with an organisation that will be of huge benefit to your CV in the future.
    2. Opportunity of working with clients from many large organisations and developing and understanding of how they work.
    3. Remuneration and progression through the firm will be relatively transparent.
    4. Opportunity to work with different teams on each client
    5. Opportunity to travel - you will rarely be in the firm’s office
    6. Many starters will be at graduate level - leading to a great social scene within work
      Cons of being a Financial Audtor:
    7. You will normally start at the very bottom and need to work your way up.
    8. Whilst it may not seem to be the case - things can get very political
      3.Clients may resent your presence, and in some instances, be quite rude. therefore you need to be patient and assertive.
    9. You feel like you spend your life nagging others to provide you with information
    10. After about 2 years, the work will feel very repetitive


  • Hi Erich and welcome the forums 🙂 … EMM has offered excellent advice and I’ll share a few more ideas even though professionally I’m in IT myself
    Do you agree that I should continue on the path I’m on or would you suggest I look into a few additional avenues of study? My plan is to work with Oracle three years and then look for an auditing position at a private firm or big 4.
    Any investment you make in continuing education is a plus for your career path . In a worse case scenario, if you pursued the business/financial educational route then decide ‘auditing ain’t for me’ – you would have enhanced your skill set.
    If you decide that auditing is something you’re interested in, the CISA designation is excellent … Longer term a CPA designation (i.e., which is greatly respected in the industry) which is hard to achieve would enhance your chances even further to move up organizationally, if you were looking strategically ahead.
    Finally, you might research local educational opportunities (e.g., universities, community college, etc), if you need more Accounting or Financial training.

    • Has anyone ever considered a number of questions that could/would determine if auditing is the right career path before going down that road?
      While I personally like IT and want to stick with it, becoming either an IT or financial auditor is a good career path also. The neat thing there is you can point out all the problems and let someone else fix them 😉 🙂
    • What are some pro’s/con’s about being an auditor (IT or Financial)? I’d like to eventually get into finance later in my career. Right now, I hate siting at my desk all day. I like to get out there, problem solve, and interact with people.
      Not much to add to EMM’s list … As an auditor, you’ll have to keep up with the legal side (e.g., as regulatory changes take place you’ll have to stay up-to-date). Financial auditng requires a lot of number crunching, so I’d become knowledgeable on Excel (and maybe SAS, Easytrieve, Oracle Toad SQL browser, etc).
      As an auditor you might be sitting quite a bit creating reports or work papers. Although there are other times where you’re interacting with people (e.g., when assessing departmental controls or workflows). This depends on how the Audit department is chartered and functions within a specific company.
      You might explore becoming an IT auditor , as you get the best of both worlds (e.g., technology and the audit profession).
      Good luck to you and hopefully other members with a more direct role in audit might be able to answer these questions better 🙂


  • Hey guys … thanks for all the advice. Good information.
    Ironically, I’m proficient with Toad, Crystal Reports, Excel, and I’ve used SAS a time or two.
    Once I pass the CISA, I plan on enrolling in a post-baccalaureate certificate program in finance.
    In three years I hope to pass the CISA and complete the post-baccalaureate finance certificate program.
    From what you guys have posted, it seems like in three years I’ll be in an excellent position to move into IT or Financial auditing.
    Two more questions if you don’t mind 😄

    • Should I wait three years? I think that’s a good time for a career change, but maybe you guys see things differently?
    • In three years I hope to have the finance certificate and the CISA cert, but I won’t have any experience utilizing the two outside of what I do for external audits and annual rights reviews. Do you think firms will see this as a liability? Perhaps firms will view this as an asset because I’m already trained and certified, it saves the firm time and money, but I’d still need the experience.
      edit: Care to recommend a book that takes a look at SOX in general? By general, I mean not weighing hard on IT or Finance, but weighing on each equally (or close to).


  • Just to let you know, most audit firms may look for you to complete the CPA or equivalent ( e.g ACA, ACCA in UK and Ireland). This will involve 3 year’s work experience and work with an audit firm is the general route to gaining the experience and training. This may be more valuable to a firm than the CISA, as they will expect you to know and understand audit standards AND financial accounting standards, together with taxation and company law.
    The only country that I am aware of where this is not expected is France.
    You may need to consider this prior to committing yourself to a Finance baccalaureate and CISA, as the committment to an accountancy qualification will be generally expected by a Big 4 firm. I do not know how this works in the US, but in the UK and Ireland, you are paid peanuts until you are fully qualified.



  • It sounds like you’re doing some good career planning now (as many folks don’t think ahead). I wouldn’t limit a change to 3 years if something were to emerge where you had a good fit (e.g., landing a job is more about being at the right place and at the right time sometimes). During your next annual review, you might also talk with your manager (if it’s a good relationship and a good fit) about your career goals – maybe you could work into the audit profession for the same company you’re working for now.
    I agree with EMM that the CPA is more significantly recognized than CISA, but it’s probably a lot more difficult to achieve as well.



  • It sounds like you’re doing some good career planning now (as many folks don’t think ahead). I wouldn’t limit a change to 3 years if something were to emerge where you had a good fit (e.g., landing a job is more about being at the right place and at the right time sometimes). During your next annual review, you might also talk with your manager (if it’s a good relationship and a good fit) about your career goals – maybe you could work into the audit profession for the same company you’re working for now.
    I agree with EMM that the CPA is more significantly recognized than CISA, but it’s probably a lot more difficult to achieve as well.
    I think EMM may have mis-read what I wrote. I’m interested in a post-baccalaureate certificate, not a degree. The certificate is comprised of four graduate level finance classes … I want to take these four classes to established if an MBA is right for me (down the road) and/or if I fancy making a move into finance (in general or auditing).
    Primarily I’m interested in IT Audit, perhaps down the road I may obtain my CPA and move into Finance Audit. Regardless if I go down the finance side, I’m still interested in obtaining a CPA because I feel it has a plethora of uses.
    I will talk to my manager and our internal audit manager. I love my current company, but I feel they’re far too conservative pay wise. Now I’m getting ahead of myself though.
    I really appreciate all the feedback 😄
    Oh, and I’m from the US … Northeast region.



  • The MBA option is certainly worth looking into – as that is also highly respected in the business world, esp. if you’d like to move into management later in your career.



  • To add to the litany of feedback…
    see if you can do a rotation in Internal Audit (3-6 mos) and it might help you to better choose your career path.
    good luck,
    milan



  • To add to the litany of feedback…
    see if you can do a rotation in Internal Audit (3-6 mos) and it might help you to better choose your career path.
    good luck,
    milan
    I really appreciate everyone’s feedback.
    Interesting you point this out. I just spoke with the lead manager of internal audit/SOX compliance within our organization. I’ll have to take him out to lunch one day and talk about the possibilities.
    I’ve only been with this organization for 6 months … it will probably be sometime (at least another year) before I could even entertain the notion of moving to a different department.
    The problem I feel will present itself is Corp IT at my company is rather small, it’s me and five other guys. I’m the one and only Oracle Apps Admin within the company. When I got hired the recruiter/manager seemed like he was hoping I’d stay with Corp IT for a long time. I guess we’ll see what happens when I bring it up.



  • If in connection as an Oracle App Admin for your company, you can assist the Company in SOX matters…design/develop/implement application controls in Oracle that supports the Company’s significant business processes, you will be able to remain within IT, yet get the experience requisite for eventual CISA cert.
    Additionally, if your company uses Oracle Internal Controls Manager (OICM), you can also get involved in the IT aspects of the SOX compliance efforts and this also, will translate to enhanced value to the org and career opps.
    Currently, there is a shortage of IT professionals with applied experience in implementing SOX and controls assesment. For this reason, remaining within the IT function, but taking on more controls related responsibilities can only enhance your growth and career development.
    Good luck,
    milan



  • Milan makes some great points and ways you can start to build SOX related skill sets. As you’re filling a critical need in you company after only 6 months of being on the job, it might be strategically too early to request a new assignment or job rotation?
    Personally, I work a lot with Oracle, SQL-Server, and DB2. Building on good skills sets there in retrieving information (e.g., Toad, Business Objects, Discoverer, etc), and protecting the Oracle RDBMS security environment are good tactical steps to help prepare the way.
    … and of course visiting at great sites like this where you can get 1st hand accounts of SOX from the trenches is educational – which is why I personally visit here often myself 🙂



  • Thanks guys. You’re right, it is too early to request a change. I’ll take a look it OICM. I haven’t heard of it before and I don’t believe we use it at present. I’ll have to find some documentation and see what I can do.
    Thanks again.






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