This is the fourth in our series on certifications for accountants. Previously, we’ve covered the CFP, CMA, and CFE so if you’re not sure what you want to be when you grow up, be sure to check those out.
So, what’s the CIA all about?
Education Requirement
CIA candidates must hold a bachelor’s degree. Unlike the CPA exam, which often requires certain coursework or a minimum master’s level education in accounting, the CIA certification has no such requirements. The CIA exam is administered year-round by the Institute of Internal Auditors.
Professional Requirements
Those interested in pursuing a CIA designation must have at least 24 months (2 years) professional experience in internal auditing or its equivalent. Equivalent experience would be in the areas audit/assessment disciplines, including external auditing, quality assurance, compliance, and internal control. Candidates with a master’s degree can substitute their degree for one year of experience. Candidates may sit for the CIA exam before satisfying the experience requirement but will not be certified until meeting this requirement.
Career Options
Certified Internal Auditors can be in public or private industry and experience a diverse workload checking controls, planning the audit process for their company, testing, and compiling reports. Internal auditors may also give feedback on management policies and procedures based on their findings.
Compensation and Other Benefits
CIAs can expect to make a median yearly salary of $55k freshly certified and around $100k with 20 years of experience, making it a cozy career choice for auditors (Payscale). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, growth in auditing and accounting positions is expected to rise 18% between 2006 and 2016, which gives CIAs a certain level of job security not seen in other industries. Equally important, executive responsibility attached to Sarbanes-Oxley means CIAs are that much more critical to an organization by isolating incidents of fraud or waste.
Obviously, CIAs are not in it for the money but for fraud-fighters who love information systems, technology and auditing, the CIA is a safe, always-in-need designation worth looking into!
I take a paycut if I do not have to pretend to be friends with coworkers
Sandy forgot to mention our workplace friends in huge numbers who were impacted by US workforce reductions due to Kpmg offshore decisions.
It’s a goofy time for KPMG to post this kind of stuff when all the Big4 Firms are not extending offers to a majority of their interns…in the past you had to really screw up to not get an offer, now it’s like a 95% rejection rate.
I guess everyone just loves working with their offshore counterparts? Hence why the Big4 is hiring so many this year versus US staff because “these kids out of college just suck”…
In case there are any college students out there reading this, the numbers in this are categorically false. It’s true that the 2025 summer class got screwed compared to years past, but the offer rate was still well north of 70%… not 5%. My office was 82%. Also, the firms have “right sized” their internal hiring levels, so the expectation is we’ll be back to near 100% offers.
– a B4 partner
I’m sure it “depends” on the city, group, etc. but I think the acceptance rates are abysmal and the truth is probably between the numbers we are throwing out there…so it’s really bad..
Tagging yourself as “a B4 partner” just tells me you gotta keep saying “everything is fine” so that pipeline is nice and plump even as y’all offshore everything.
So to any college students reading this, it’s probably a good idea to look into another career path while you can.
You can always tell when a KPMG Partner is lying. Their mouth will be moving
So what that really means is you want 20% more to work with the @#$%&es you work with now.