Can you offer me an insight into career progression in IT Risk Assurance.

Hi Ronan – apologies for the delay in getting back to you, I have been out of office and I am trying to catch up.

Typically a career will look something like this. The first two years typically will be as a consultant. You will get training and exposure to more basic / routine procedures such as walkthroughs and testing. You will also complete exams in the first year, these are the CFAB exams offered by the ICAEW. The ICAEW Certificate in Finance, Accounting and Business (ICAEW CFAB) is an internationally recognised certificate that teaches essential knowledge in business, finance and accounting.

Once you complete the first set of exams you will be given the option to progress and complete the qualification. After these first two years you will typically then progress to senior consultant and begin reviewing work and having a more junior team report into you. In this role you will get exposure to more project management type activities also reporting into managers. You will generally be in this grade for 2/3 years after which you will be promoted to manager. You will have to pass the CISA prior to making it to manager. The Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) qualification awarded by ISACA and is the globally accepted standard of achievement among information systems (IS) audit, control and security professionals.

Once you are a manager you will have your own portfolio of clients, running and delivering audits, keeping key stakeholders informed of progress, issues and challenges. This will also be the point you receive counselees so you engage in mentoring and career development type activities.

You will then progress to Senior managers normally after 2-4 years at which point the portfolio is filled with more complex engagements. As well as audit you will also be involved in non-audit type activities e.g. dealing with regulators, being responsible for innovation and thinking outside of the box.
You then can progress to Director, associate partner and then Partner.

The typical career path is fairly structured with increasing levels of complexity, responsibility and leadership being developed as you progress. You will develop a vast range of highly valued skills very quickly which is why a career in assurance was such an appealing option to me. I cannot think of many roles where you get such good training, progress up the ranks so quickly, work with other talented people and gain access to such large and well known companies from such a early point in your career. To top it off you get a world renowned qualification that will stay with you for the rest of your career.

Anyway I hope this helps and please let me know if you need anything else. Thanks