Within your role in Assurance, would you classify your activities as akin to internal and external auditor?

Within assurance, we often find that activities and procedures performed can be relatively similar as both internal and external auditors are working towards the same output - that the financial statements are presented in a manner that is fair and true. When auditing companies with internal audit teams we will often work hand in hand with the internal audit team to help improve business processes to reduce likelihood of errors or possibility of fraud. The main way in which I would say the role of an external auditor differs to that of an internal auditor is firstly we operate entirely independent of the company and we have to provide the final audit opinion before financials can be released. Secondly, as an external auditor, for the most part, you will work on multiple different companies rather than spending all of you time focused on the one business. I really enjoy this as an external auditor as it diversifies my job and also gives me insights into different businesses and industries, this helps to keep me interested by having varied work.