The Curse of the Generalist Internal Auditor

As a child, or young adult, I never had this dream or fantasy to one day become an internal auditor. In fact, to be honest and thinking back, I never thought much about “what I wanted to become one-day”. Life was different then. You either went into business (finance), or you became an artisan, or, if you shot for the start, you went into the medical world.

Truth be told, I grew up in a lower/middle class area. Becoming a doctor or scientist…it wasn’t really heard of on the playgrounds. In our group, I know of 1 person who actually became a doctor. The rest ended up becoming mechanics, hair stylists, 1 not-so-well-know musician, some went into IT and other well, started some kind of business.

I was also one of few that actually went to university (also the first in my family) and finished by degree. I chose a “general” Bachelor’s degree as I didn’t know which way I wanted to go and then I stumbled across this relatively new concept “internal audit”.

The lecturers convinced us with text book examples and news articles on how important this function is becoming, how it evolved and how much value it is going to add to the business. And the best of all (and I think this was the selling point for me) was that you get to learn about all areas of the business – and it will be the fastest way to the top. I was in…

After finishing my bachelor’s degree, we were only 10 students who did our honors degree in internal audit. Only 10. We were pruned to become CIA’s. It was our golden ticket to great careers. Then I started my first job. I think I was the last one to actually get a job. But I was so exited and ready to implement all the text book ideas in my new job and add value and change the organisation and the face of internal audit. My first job – for a government organisation.

I was so eager to start auditing…to throw away the old ways of how they do things and put in place all these new ideas we were taught in university…I remember, Control Self Assessments…one of the things that really excited me…people basically auditing themselves and implement processes that actually works…My manager at the time let me have such a project…for the Marketing Department if I remember correctly.

I followed the steps as per the text books…but boy, it was a rude awaking. Management was not that into doing things differently “as it has been working this way for years and you are fresh from university, 22 years old, what do you know”.

To my disappointment, it didn’t get much traction and I was handed my first non-audit project to keep me busy…and this is where my “generalist” career started. Fast forward a few years and I find myself working for a construction/ infrastructure company with a small “audit” department. I start to travel abroad and I am responsible for the complete audit cycle. I had carte blanche to design/implement the best ways I can think off to do my work. Soon the Quality, Health, Safety and Environment areas also becomes my responsibility and I said Yes…bring it on. I had to quickly learn the ins and outs of ISO and legislative requirements and it was exciting.

About 5 years passed and I was offered a pure internal audit manager role at a very prestigious company. How could I say no. I was working in a world-class internal audit function and the perks of seeing the world made it so much more exiting. I did what I do well and built good relationships with management (who did not really like us internal auditors at the time) and I was soon asked to join their team and directly work for them. They even designed a job title for me “Financial Manager: Best Practices”. It was an exciting time. They were expanding and went on a shopping spree and bought companies across the globe. It was my responsibility to get these newly acquired companies to implement the company policies, procedures, reporting, controls etc. It had its challenges, telling a CEO who was the owner of a company to do things differently and that you have to follow a certain protocol was by far the most difficult thing to do…so I built relationships. It was difficult, but is was done.

During this period, I was seconded to assist in projects to implement an e-HR system, in-source the payroll system, be part of the due diligence team, assist in financial year-end preparations, complex transfer pricing issues etc. to name a few. All of it new to me, but I said yes. I became a generalist. I knew a little about a lot of things, but by no way a specialist in anything significant. Like a good friend, mentor and manager used to say: As long as you know enough to be dangerous”. And that is what I did…I said yes and I got involved in as much variety as possible.

The next step was consulting. An opportunity came along to get involved in a project which was the first of its kind in Africa. The system was new and complex and had to be tested. Policies and procedures needed to be developed, reviewed and approved. Financial reporting requirements had to be established. The project had a huge public eye on it and the project itself was and still remains very controversial. Nevertheless, I said yes. Yes to anything coming my way.  I had to learn how to write requirements, how to test a system for compliance, how to operate under a very onerous FIDIC contract, how be involved but remain independent...

Then came along IFRS requirements and I had to research and present and research more.  The only way to be able to provide assurance on a project that big was to perform data analytics – totally new to me. I had to learn to read basic scripts, analyse reports, recreate, recalculate. If I had to make a list of the things I had to learn and had to get involved with it will be pages and pages of line-items. Sometimes I am the manager, sometimes I am the clerk. Sometimes I show someone how to do a reconciliation and sometimes I am the chairman of an audit or finance committee.

So yes, I don’t know everything about something – I am no expert. I make mistakes but I always own up to them. I make sure I have access to experts. I make sure that relationships remain intact. I praise those who do well and humbly thank and acknowledge those who help and provide me with insight. I leverage. I research. I ask.  I am thankful for the vast variety that my career as afforded me

But here is my curse:

The one thing I find hard to do is such a simple thing. When someone asks me…what do you do…I cannot give them a simple and straight answer…is the answer as simple as “anything” or “something of everything”? Am I still an internal auditor? Will there ever come up an available / ideal position that precisely fits or describes what I do? What is my professional identity? I honestly do not now. I sometimes read job requirements and think, I can do that…I have done that…that could not be so difficult…but in my world and career history it has no name, it was called something else or it just fell into one of the many buckets of what I had to do at some stage.

My passion remains to serve, to build relationships. If I can choose a career now, but my history and experience, I would be an Executive Assistant. I would treat my Executive like he/she is the most important client in the world. No task will be to small, immaterial or too big. If I don’t know how, I will find out how. I would feel comfortable doing a lot of different things. He/She will feel comfortable to ask me to find a pet-sitter the one day and the next day prepare and present a report to the Executive Board. I am a generalist. I am who I am. I know what must be done and see everything as part of a bigger picture.

So, in a nutshell, yes, I probably am a generalist. I know enough to be dangerous. I am thankful for all the great experiences. I am happy not to be a typical auditor. There might never be a name for what I do, but one day I am sure that calling will come my way. What may seem to be a curse has also exposed me to more than the typical internal auditor would ever have the privily to – and that makes me special, thankful and unique (like everyone else - LOL)