Audit Exit Opportunities

Joining the audit group within a public accounting firm is a common first step for many young professionals beginning their careers in accounting and finance. The structured training programs and exposure to various industries, businesses, and work environments that audit firms provide are excellent foundations for future success. However, most auditors do not intend to remain in audit for their entire careers. Fortunately, the skills gained through auditing and the prestige of public accounting firms (specifically Big 4) make these professionals marketable for numerous exit opportunities into industry, government or other areas of finance and accounting.

What are the Skills Gained in Audit

Auditors gain a unique breadth of experience and develop versatile skills that make them prime candidates for a variety of roles. Key skills include:

• Understanding accounting controls, businesses risks, and ways to mitigate risk
• Testing operational and financial processes and identifying weaknesses
• Getting firsthand exposure to the inner workings of large, successful businesses
• Conducting detailed analysis of financial statements
• Understanding how businesses contract and generate revenue
• Understanding the flow of cash through a business
• Exposure to a number of different businesses and industries
• Developing an understanding for the key drivers of a businesses financial performance
• Exposure to the ‘guts’ of how a business operates
• Building relationships with clients across the organization, including management teams
• Learning the operational and financial reporting processes of companies
• Gaining expertise around accounting standards, regulations, and compliance requirements
• Enhancing communication, teamwork, project management and organizational abilities

The abundance of these transferable skills acquired while working in audit allows auditors to transition into many attractive positions and rapidly progress their careers.

Exit Opportunities in Industry

Many auditors choose to leverage their experience and move into industry positions, and in many cases, auditors may end up working for the companies in which they are auditing. Industry roles in financial reporting, financial planning and analysis (FP&A), and controllership are common destinations.

Financial reporting draws heavily on technical accounting skills in areas like revenue recognition, valuation, and technical research. Ex-auditors are well-equipped to prepare SEC filings, ensure compliance with GAAP and support audits. Opportunities exist across public, private or non-profit entities.

FP&A involves budgeting, forecasting, performance metrics, and strategic finance decision support. Auditors have great training in analyzing financial statements, understanding business processes, and identifying improvement areas to add value in FP&A roles. Exposure to various industries helps in benchmarking analyses.

Controllers oversee a company’s accounting operations and control systems. Auditors understand accounting processes end-to-end and have trained many clients on improving internal controls. This enables them to smoothly transition into leadership of an accounting function.

Beyond accounting, auditors may pursue roles in operations, IT audit, risk management, internal audit, and even general management. Their balanced understanding of accounting, controls, systems, and business operations makes them flexible. Many companies specifically target auditors for their well-rounded foundation.

Other Areas of Public Accounting

In addition to industry careers, auditors commonly transition to other areas within public accounting firms. Common destinations include:

Tax – Many auditors pursue tax due to overlap in technical accounting knowledge. Their client exposure helps in understanding different industries and tax scenarios. Learning tax code and regulations is required, but strong foundations transfer.

Advisory – Advisory practices value auditors’ project management, analytical, and client relationship skills. Transitioning from audit to advisory enables providing higher value services to drive business performance, rather than just audit compliance.

Forensics/Valuation – Auditors’ investigation skills developed in searching for fraud or errors are useful in forensics. Valuation leverages auditors’ combination of accounting knowledge and business acumen in areas like purchase price allocations.

Actuarial – Actuaries quantify risk and design insurance policies. Auditors’ modeling and analytics abilities are foundations for predicting liability costs. Understanding controls around financial reporting assists in evaluating risks.

Government Opportunities

Auditors may also transition into government roles such as:

FBI/Treasury – Investigative skills are useful in quantifying fraud. Knowledge of controls, accounting standards, and reporting requirements supports cases.

IRS/SEC/PCAOB – Expertise around compliance, accounting standards, and regulations enables effective oversight and enforcement. Industry exposure helps assess risk areas.

GAO – Strong foundation for government auditing roles focused on evaluating efficiency and effectiveness of public programs and expenditures.

Finance Roles

After gaining valuable auditing experience, many professionals choose to leverage their skills and transition into financial due diligence or investment banking roles. The technical accounting knowledge and business acumen developed in audit translates well into these finance-focused careers

• Financial Due Diligence – Financial due diligence involves reviewing the financial statements and operations of a company that is the target of an acquisition, merger, or other transaction. The objective is to identify key financial risks, trends, opportunities, potential deal implications, and adequate earnings. Auditors are strong candidates for due diligence roles because they have expertise in reviewing financial statements, understanding new business models, understanding new industries, and the ability to identify financial risks,
• Investment Banking – Investment banks advise companies on financing options, mergers, IPOs, M&A, and other strategic decisions. Auditors often begin in analyst programs and rotate between financial modeling, industry/company valuation, M&A analysis, and pitch book development. Key transferable skills from auditing include advanced Excel abilities honed from audit workpapers, foundation in financial statement analysis, experience gathering information from management across the organization, work ethic to handle high pressure deadlines, and communication skills to distill analyses into key insights.

Preparing for the Transition

Targeted preparation enables auditors to make smooth transitions into whatever field interests them. Focus on understanding the particular skillsets needed to make the transition and focus on developing those skillsets on the job. Auditors at big 4 firms have a lot of flexibility into what they do and which clients they work on. Leverage this flexibility to tailor your experience towards whatever job you ultimately want. With proper planning, auditors can leverage their well-rounded foundations to propel a variety of successful careers.