Internal Audit

x982021

Hi,

I'm considering moving from BIG4 external auditing to internal audit.

Anyone work in internal audit can share on what you do and what you like and not like about your job? Also when is internal auditor's busy season and if Overtime is more or less the same as big4 auditing hours?

Much appreciated !

I'm not in an IA position but I've experience working in a related role.

IA shouldn't have a busy season in theory because you're running a year-long work plan with plenty of advance planning and you're not waiting for cut-offs, but generally reports will go to an Audit Committee on a quarterly basis and if delays have occurred throughout the year you can end up with heavy demands coming up to the year-end AC. This isn't the same as an external reporting deadline, it's mostly just management letting their stress trickle down. The downside to no busy season is that there's no slow season either, so if you're someone who thrives on the whole work-hard/play-hard thing you might not like the more consistent pace. Generally less overtime than ext audit.

Internal audit is actually a very different skill set, but since a lot of external audit go into internal audit in industry, you'd often see teams that are really running internal audit like it was external. If I were you I'd scope out job specs for the ones you can tell are led by ex-external auditors, because it'll likely be a more comfortable transition.