Your Internal Audit Firm Could Care Less About You

Problem: You don’t understand that your employer could care less about you — even if they tell you otherwise. Consequently, most internal auditors don’t take the steps necessary to protect themselves and look out for their own interests.

Solution: Here’s what you need to know: as soon as you get a new internal audit position, start looking for better internal audit opportunities.

Always be on the lookout for better internal audit opportunities; yes, this is a career skill, but it’s also related to auditing skills, in that you’ll need to continue to think in terms of gaining new marketable internal audit skills, and perfecting existing skills, in order to take advantage of new opportunities. It’s also a mindset you need to develop to achieve and maintain your status as an advanced internal auditor.

How much does your company care about you?

What if I told you that as soon as you leave, they will forget all about you.

Sorry, it’s simply a fact.

They’re not going to retire your jersey and ask you to come back to celebrate future victories. They’re not going to wonder how they can possibly make it without you. Everything isn’t going to fall apart for them. They’re not going to realize how valuable you were, then beg you to come back.

What are they going to do?

Nothing.

The day you left, is the last day they gave you a thought. They’ve moved on.

Boy, wouldn’t it have been nice to know that at the time. Wouldn’t it have been nice if someone had told you?

I’m telling you now. Now you have no excuses.

But my boss told me he loved me!

I’m not suggesting that there aren’t decent, caring managers and executives that appreciate you and your work. I am suggesting that when it comes down to saving their a$$ or yours, studies have shown that in 99 out of 100 cases, they save their own a$$. And that 1 out of 100, was the time the boss got run over by a bus on the way into the office that day, so the company had no choice but to keep you.

And I’m not blaming the manager or executive. They often have very little control over what happens. For example, they can’t control a recession, or a decree from corporate to trim the budget by 50%, or that fire that burned down their building.

But here’s the flip side. I’ve seen so many situations where management almost begged an auditor or audit manager to transfer to Siberia (figuratively) or the end of the earth, in order to help save the company. Or they told them that it would be a huge, personal favor to them, and they’d never forget it. Guess what happened? Yep. They went to Siberia and were never heard from again. And that favor? Yep. They forgot all about it.

Moral of the story?

Take care of yourself.

This holds true if you just started your internal audit career, or if you’ve been there for 20 years or more.

So, what do you do? How do you look out for yourself?

1. Always learn and master more marketable, in-demand internal auditing skills. Obviously, we recommend our internal auditor training courses.

2. Continuously update and perfect your CV.

3. Continuously scan internal audit job boards and network with other internal auditors.

4. Maintain relationships with headhunters who specialize in internal auditors.

5. When interesting opportunities come up, contact the company. Go on interviews. Try to obtain job offers.

6. Take our internal audit career course and implement those strategies and tools.

7. Learn our Twitter and LinkedIn strategies for internal auditors — to help set yourself up as an expert and receiving unsolicited job offers.

8. When you do get a new position, immediately start looking for the next one.

9. Spend 99% of your time, preparing for that opportunity that comes along 1% of the time.

Remember, you can always turn down an offer, should you receive one. But it’s very powerful to know that you can generate offers at almost any time.

And once you get to the point where you know you can land a new opportunity at any time, your confidence will go through the roof; you’ll have complete peace of mind; and you’ll never again have to put up with any hostile or negative employment situation.

Imagine going through your career with that mindset.

Check out our Newsletter “Secrets of Millionaire Internal Auditors — Mastering the Game of Internal Auditing & Getting Rich While Doing It” for street-smarts, in-the-trenches internal auditing hacks, techniques and strategies that you won’t get anywhere else.