Quote of the Week WK/E 31 August 2012 September 1, 2012
Posted by Audit Monkey in Quote of the Week.Tags: auditor interview questions, crass interviewer, interview questions, Quote of the Week, recruitment
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I realised that it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted a ‘quote of the week’. For those readers who are oblivious to ‘quote of the week’, this is where I lift a phrase or utterance made by someone in the office, on the train, in the media, etc, which is relevant to my work as an Internal Auditor (cough, splutter) or which I find mildly amusing or simply crass.
Believe it or believe it not, I have had an ‘Interview’ in recent weeks. Note accent on ‘Interview’, the singular, not plural. Anyway, there was some immediate antipathy between the Interviewer and my good self. The Interviewer wasn’t an Internal Auditor by profession (I use the term profession loosely). As the interview plodded along, the Interviewer came out with:
“Internal Audit, it’s a pretty simple job”.
To be honest, I still don’t know how to interpret this comment. Does my accountancy qualification count for very little? Does my interaction with audit clients count for very little? Does my ability to write coherent reports count for very little? Or should I offer management a free-ride?
The comment was either designed to provoke a response or the Interviewer was being deadly serious. Answers please.
Audit Monkey's Blog 
I am internal auditor. Job very easy. 5 year old could do it.
I think it is very easy to jump to conclusion that Internal Auditing is a simple job. While the job may be simple, It is very easy for the Auditor to fall into the trap into thinking a system or process is simple and does not deserve the consideration and scrutiny it deserves.
I recall a MI review, where the Auditor simply stated that data is extracted from three systems into different reports for MI purposes. While on one level this was valid, the Auditor had completely ignored the fact that data was manually transferred from subsidiary systems and there was scope for data manipulation, which proved to be the case.
Let’s face it, the majority of professional jobs are easy, accountancy, auditing, law, actuarial but what separates the men from the boys is technical expertise and the ability to recognise the implications arising from the work or matter the professional is engaged with.