what does it take to become an auditor?

Question

schooling, degree, salary, experience, etc.?

Answer 1

As a former auditor and recruiter for my Big 6 firm, here's the answers:

Schooling: Accounting degree from any college or university

Salary: About US$35k as a first year, depending on which firm and what city you live in. Scales up quickly, though. Scales to about US$80k/year for senior manager (years 8+ experience). Partnership varies on the profitability of the entire firm.

Experience. None needed. You just need to know accounting. Some classes in auditing are a plus. The broader your experience, the better. In other words, it's not necessarily a good thing if you're white, middle-class person who went straight from high school to university paid by your parents.

Work/life: Heavy work loads after year-end close and very heavy after January 1. Expect very light loads during summer times. Depending on the firm, sometimes you can take extensive time off. Think (8 am to 9 pm) with some work on weekends. Partied like a rock star because was in a "class" of people near my same age and experience. Also, San Francisco was a great city to be newly legal drinking age, salaried and have a dangerously high amount of hormones. Work hard, play hard. Like any service industry, can be very political - but promotion/advancement is very visible.

The accounting experience is one that few people travel, will always be in demand and transports well to other types of industry if you find that bean counting is not for you (like me). I went into investment banking.

Don't worry about having a CPA. No new recruit is going to have a CPA. You just put in two years, pass the CPA exam, pay the AICPA some cash and *voila* - you're a CPA. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Good luck!

Answer 2

My husband became an inner auditor at an extremely super economic company (probable acceptable 10). He purely had an accounting degree. they also have a certification extraordinarily for inner auditors talked approximately as CIA (qualified inner auditor). an excellent variety of the people he labored with went for that cert.

Answer 3

My husband was an internal auditor at a very large bank (probably top 10). He only had an accounting degree. They also have a certification specifically for internal auditors called CIA (certified internal auditor). Most of the people he worked with went for that cert.

Answer 4

In the USA, you'll need a CPA certification. As I recall, that generally means a BA or BS in accounting, plus an internship after graduation, as well as passing your CPA exams.

Answer 5

The US Dept. of Labor has a great web site for researching occupations. You might want to check this out to do some research: http://www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm