Lander International - 30 Years of Audit Recruiting Excellence

Hi Richard! How are you?

I have a dozen years of experience in the IT area. Here in South America we do not have the strong culture of acceptance concerning IS Auditing. There are a number of companies like Deloitte, Accenture, and others that provide this service, but I tend to believe in the United States, Canada, and Europe this kind of service is more common. I have some experience in IT Auditing and recently I became member of ISACA and in the next year my intention is to sit for the CISA certification and to take post-graduate courses in Internal Auditing. I have worked in some projects using COBIT, ITIL, ISO/IEC 17799, COSO and I obtained experience with a project where the customer needed to be compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley. With this experience I would like your opinion about an international career as an Internal (or IS) Auditor in the United States or Canada. Is there any chance for a professional like myself in these markets? I assume with a CISA and a CIA certification on my resume I would be more interesting to US and Canada based firms.

Thanks for your help and support.

Mario

Dear Mario:

While it is true that U.S. continues to need IT audit professionals for both internal IT audit groups as well as for public accounting and other consulting organizations, the barriers to entry for someone working outside the U.S. are huge.

H1B visa sponsorship is rarely offered for IT audit professionals by internal audit departments, and only occasionally by the Big 4 or other consulting organizations. The rationale for this policy is the cost and legal hassles (internal audit is a shared service or corporate cost center, thus keeping overhead costs is critical); the 6-year life-cycle of the H1B (the auditor must return to his/her home country after 6 years on an H1B); and the issue of sponsoring a Green Card, which can be done for an employee on an H1B, but again involves significant cost and some risk for the employer. Bottom-line, while your skills would be marketable, the visa issue makes the likelihood of securing employment in the U.S. exceedingly difficult.

With that in mind, a very good option for you to explore in Brazil would be to seek employment with a public accounting firm, like Deloitte, or with a consulting firm, like Accenture or Protiviti. These firms typically offer fantastic training opportunities in cutting edge IT audit methodologies, exposure to new tools, and projects that would give you breadth across industries.

On occasion it is possible to ask for an intra-company transfer to a Big 4 or consulting office in the U.S. As we have worked on searches, we have encountered IT audit professionals who are currently working "on special assignment" or "on loan" to a Big 4 practice office in the U.S.

However, an intra-company transfer (L1 visa) does not make it any easier to secure employment in the U.S. If an employee on an L1 visa were to seek employment with another U.S. based company, the prospective employer would need to apply for a new H1B visa. There is a quota for H1B visas, and the applications for new H1B's usually exceed supply.

Another option would be to look for an American company in Brazil and find out if they have a need for a locally based IT auditor. Due to language, cross-cultural business styles, and the cost / inconvenience factors of sending audit staff from the U.S. to locations overseas, many companies find it advantageous to have an IT auditor on staff at their local data center.

It is important to note that if you want to work for a consulting organization or a local business unit of an American company, you will need very strong English communication skills - both verbal and written. Technical skills and certification are great qualifications, but outstanding communication skills are an absolute pre-requisite for employment in these roles.