Hi Aditi
Career in Internal audit is awesome. If you are seriously interested, then don't step back. They are hell lot of oppurtunities in Internal audit. Some of the profiles I will explain.
1) MNC's, Ford for example hires CA's for internal audit and sometimes that CA needs to roam south asia for performing internal audits in various locations of Ford in south asian countries. I know a friend who has gone to many countries. Once you fix in a particular company and got well versed with its internal audit guidelines, you would become irreplaceable. Very good future if you pursue international certifications. There could be a chance to settle down in company's foreign locations either temporarily or permanently.
2) Joining BIG4: If you join Big4's internal audit, you will know the mechanism of internal audit in various companies, I mean, in various sectors. It would be good and awesome experience but you need to stretch long working hours as is the practise in BIG4's.
3) Mid-sized companies: You would become a boss to yourself and devise ways and means to perform work leisurely and in cool ways. If the company has locations, then you may need to roam all its geographical locations and it could be bothersome if you don't like travel.
How to kick start your career in Internal Audit?
1) Many companies ask for experienced candidates in Internal audit. So start you career even in a small firm and start gaining experience and exposure in various areas of internal audit.
2) Learning Oppurtunity would be immense so be prepared to learn all through your life.
3) Internal audit is sector and company based. There could be general rules but the way audit is done and the report format prepared is customised to the needs of the company. So, there could be various formats of reports prepared based on sector in which the company is operating and the methodology or format or data required by the senior people in the company. So, prepare for this minor changes. They could be minor for few but major at the corporate level.
4) Try to do international certifications like certified internal auditor from USA - not immediately required you can pursue it slowly and it doesn't take much time and also try to learn various softwares like SAP/Oracle DB financial. Based on company, the application software changes and sometimes you will be given preference if you know SAP. Also, try to gain experience in manufacturing concerns first as most companies prefer internal audit experience from manufacturing concerns.
CAclubindia
