re: Is internal audit a waste of a career?

That’s what I hear. I guess it’s the external movement to another company out of IA that is a challange

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SAS70. LOL. That hasn't existed in about a decade

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Almost 15 years now. It was a simpler time.

It’s a steady well paying job. If you went through the lsu program then they probably convinced you it was the foundation of western civilization. Depending on your organization, staying with your company in IA will require those ahead of you to move up, die, or move away. A CIA is only valuable to other internal auditors. Usually to move up in IA you need a company with a rotation program, move companies, have a clear succession path, or transfer internally. It’s a good job in a company that values it vs those companies where you are justifying your existence.

Director of IA here. 25 years of experience. Turned down promos because I got comfy. I’ll retire in about 5 years. It’s not a bad career. You can see a lot of an organization through the audit lense.
I think AI will phase it out over the next decade in my opinion.

I'm nearly 10 years removed from starting my career in Risk/IA at a Big 4 so I'm sure things have changed, but it seemed to me that the breadth of exposure across functions offers the opportunity to transition into a variety of finance, accounting, and ops roles if you stick with the same company for a while, particularly if that company has a valued IA shop. That's a big if though, as many companies simply don't value it or their talent pool is a huge drop off from Big 4 talent. Alternatively, if you stick with Big 4 long enough, you'll get exposure across industries and internal networks that if you want to jump into another service line or specialty within (or adjacent to) IA/Risk, you can probably make it happen.

After 3-4 years, I was able to more freely explore healthcare regulatory work, some of it that was straight up IA, some more consultative, and some completely outside of the IA/Risk world. I didn't stick with it, nor was I the most savvy or driven worker, but the doors were there for me and others. In fact, just about anyone in my starting class either transferred internally to more interesting service lines or externally to the ops side of tech.

From what I've heard, more and more of the entry level work is going offshore or AI. The trend in professional services in general seems to be middle managers and entry level are both getting cut out due to AI. Either you're a senior individual contributor who can work well with AI or you're a senior leader who is excellent at generating revenue and/or strategic leadership.

No career is a waste if it's serving you in the life you want (financially, stress, freedom, relationships, family, etc...) which you're not raising any concerns about.

That said, I felt that IA was a waste of a function and a waste of my life in my 20s. Stepping away was the best thing for me.

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wonder how often transitions like this happen. Are you a CPA?

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Inactive CIA

I don't think I could go back to audit

I have a buddy who did a similar route. Do you find you are still compensated well (compared to audit)

I find the whole “AI will replace _____ argument” to be a bit of an exaggeration. Will it have impacts? Certainly. Some sales jobs could have been replace 2 decades ago but people still want people (for the most part). The initial cost of having a secure and intelligent enough AI system is steep and would take years upon years to develop.

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Accounting in general I think is at risk with AI,

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If high level accounting, not processing invoices and bullshite where you don’t get paid very well anyway, is, well then everything is. Accounting is extremely fact specific so if and when AI is advanced enough to synthesize a specific set of facts and make the correct recommendations, it’s going to be able to do a ton of shite. It would be able to replace attorneys, doctors, engineers etc