Building a Better Auditor: Earning My CIA
Blogs Tonya Crawford, CIA Jul 29, 2024
“Put your mind to it.” These were words I’d often hear from my mother’s lips. She had a bright smile with perfect teeth and deep dimples on each side of her face. My mother’s legacy to me was a deep-seated trust in my purpose, my abilities, and my determination. She would freely proclaim, “You can do it, if you put your mind to it.”
I enjoy dropping comforting quotes from great people like my mom and dad, Betty Crawford and Earl Banks, or from Frederick Douglass (“If there is no struggle, there is no progress”), or even John F. Kennedy (“Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan). However, those quotes meant very little until I embarked upon my journey to become a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA).
My journey began with my landing a position with a local government’s compliance team. Mrs. U was my highly educated manager who stressed the importance of education, training, and credentials. Mrs. U said she wanted all her compliance staff to become Certified Internal Auditors. The only CIA I’d ever heard of was a vastly different thing. Nor did I know the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) existed. After diving into the world of internal auditing and learning more about the CIA, my journey began. I was naive in thinking my manager would hold our team firmly to the CIA accomplishment, as I saw nearly none of my colleagues focusing on the CIA exam and preparation. After the first year under Mrs. U’s leadership, it was clear that I alone had paid any attention to the CIA exam. Mrs. U didn’t really require the CIA; rather, it was her hope. My manager’s hope soon became my goal.
Although I’d earned an MBA in 2006, it was now 2019, and I had almost no frame of reference for this new goal. I was egregiously unprepared and unaware. Having minimal resources from Mrs. U and the local government I served, I found myself alone in desire, resources, and mentorship. Mrs. U was highly educated — but not in internal auditing. Although there were knowledgeable professionals all around me, none were CIAs who could substantially guide me. After a cursory introduction to the CIA exam, I was certain I would ace it — that was until I failed my first exam. I soon learned that I needed abundant resources. The IIA’s CIA Learning System was critical to passing the CIA, but it wasn’t all that I needed. I invested in study prep materials, dusted off my old accounting books, and began to freshen up on forgotten — and some completely unknown — concepts, principles, foundations, and bodies of knowledge.
Earning my CIA took longer than my MBA to complete. My first CIA exam started before the pandemic in 2019, and just as I began to get comfortable with the idea of pushing forward and earning the CIA, the world shut down. I passed Part 1 — Essentials of Internal Auditing in December 2019 and wouldn’t comfortably be able to test again until nearly 12 months later. In late 2020, I began testing again, focusing relentlessly on my new goal.
I still had no idea what I was committing to when I passed Part 1, after 3 attempts. I couldn’t imagine that I would test 15 times in total for all three parts. My success in completing Part 1 gave me fuel and arrogance. But Part 1 was the least difficult for me; Parts 2 and 3 were totally different. My accounting foundation wasn’t the strongest. There were concepts I’d encountered for 20 years but didn’t fully understand. There were policies, principles, and processes that maybe I should’ve known, but didn’t. I quickly saw that earning my CIA was not going to be a quick CliffsNotes recap, the payment of a fee, and then success. The breadth of audit, accounting, and management concepts required for all three parts would force me to embark upon a mission of self-discovery and true determination.
I took my last exam on April 4, 2023. Even though I wasn’t fresh out of school with resources, mentorship, and memory to rely upon, I passed the CIA. Even though neither my manager nor my colleagues could relate to or contribute to my efforts, I passed the CIA. Even though I faced mental and emotional stress and turmoil during the pandemic, I passed the CIA. Even though no one in my family had ever held such credentials, I passed the CIA. Acquiring knowledge of concepts, principles, models, and strategies aided in my becoming a Certified Internal Auditor. Ultimately, though, no book could teach me what my mother taught me long ago: “You can do it, if you put your mind to it!” As always, mom was right.
This year, The IIA is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its CIA certification.