Although many industry certifications, including the Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) credential, require several years of professional experience to attain the certification, there are plenty of steps recent graduates and newcomers to the field can take to accelerate their early-career growth.
A new three-part series on the ISACA Now blog from author Patrick Trierweiler focuses on steps newcomers to the IT audit space can take while they accumulate the needed professional experience to obtain the CISA credential.
Among the key pieces of guidance provided by Trierweiler throughout the series were:
- Join ISACA and your local chapter. “I tell this to every new hire class, every college class, potential recruit, and student who talks to me interested in working in IT audit,” Trierweiler writes. “ISACA provides free webinars and resources, discounted certification tests and events, and more. Your local chapter will vary but many chapters provide the same resources but are more personalized and cost effective.”
- Find a mentor and support system. “This is great advice for anyone at any time but especially in the field of IT audit,” Trierweiler writes. “IT audit is a niche space and you will bump into the same people for your entire career, which is why it is important to identify a mentor and create a support system of peers at your job.”
- Learn about options to reduce the needed five years of experience. Although five years of related experience is required to obtain CISA certification, Trierweiler notes that there are education-based waivers that can reduce the amount by up to three years for specific master's degrees. Find out more on the CISA application.
- Pursue the IT Audit Fundamentals Certificate. ISACA’s IT Audit Fundamentals Certificate, designed for early-career professionals and newcomers to the field, provided foundational knowledge of audit concepts and does not require years of professional experience to obtain it. It can serve as a great early-career launching pad until obtaining the CISA is possible.
- Find a community to help you answer your questions. A global community of audit and assurance professionals is available to help industry newcomers work through many of the questions and challenges that are on their mind. ISACA’s Engage platform has an audit and assurance community, as well as a CISA exam prep forum, through which early-career professionals can leverage the power of community to prepare themselves for career growth.
To read each of Trierweiler’s blog posts in this series, visit the ISACA Now blog. Find more audit resources from ISACA here.