<p>I’m currently finishing my first year of college at Louisiana State University and am pursuing a dual degree in International Trade & Finance (an economics major) and German. </p>
<p>I am very good at accounting and as I understand it, my university is widely considered to have one of the best if not the best internal audit program in the world. The concentration only involves taking four extra accounting courses and comes with a good chance of an internship, too.</p>
<p>The thing is, I really am not interested in working in internal auditing as a career. I am very much a people person and would not like to spend my whole life working behind the scenes. Is internal auditing useful at all in other areas like management? Will the certification impress employers in non-auditing business fields or is it pretty much useless I become an auditor? Finally, will obtaining the certification help at all with getting into an MBA or JD program?</p>
<p>IA is a pretty interesting field. Essentially you serve two functions- (1) you are the eyes and ears of management and (2) you’re looking to improve various business processes. Your “people interaction” comes when you interface with internal clients or the audit committee. All of those skills are obviously transferable to other fields in business if you choose to leave. </p>
<p>With that said, I question the value of a concentration in IA. People who end up in IA come from all corners of the business world and sometimes from outside it completely. I just don’t know how much you would learn by taking classes. I might be speaking out of my ___ because I have only read up on the field and spoken to a few people about it, but have never taken any classes in it.</p>
<p>Internal audit is still a people person type of job. You will be going from division to division working with the company’s other employees to examine their internal controls and processes and whatnot. Depending on your company, you could be doing more consulting type things than bread and butter auditing(as you probably conceive of it anyway).</p>