Su Alexander, the Chicago-based Midwest leader for experienced hires at Deloitte & Touche, says, �Big 4 audit managers must have a CPA. They also typically have five to eight years of experience with a Big 4 firm. Most of our audit managers are �home grown� within the Big 4.�However, says Alexander, �That�s not to say we do not look outside the realm of the Big 4.� If a candidate can break in from outside, he or she typically possesses the ability to sell Deloitte�s business as well as the ability �to lead and develop a group into the next managers,� she says. �Great management skills or sales or consulting experience might overshadow non-Big 4 experience.�
Chicago (Deloitte�s largest market) and other major cities are always hot, she says, and hiring is �quite steady.� Further, she says, �different clients or engagements as they present themselves will need various kinds of industry expertise.�
�People with strong auditing skills in public accounting or internal audit are much in demand,� seconds Jim Barton, managing partner at XSOR Group in Rutherford, New Jersey. �The demand probably is as great if not greater than it has been as public accounting is losing [employees] to private industry and consulting. Some companies still are looking for that traditional seven-to-10-year person coming from public accounting,� � although, he says, such people are few and far between because they have so many options available to them.
Alexander says Deloitte�s salaries, although stratified in different markets, are competitive within the Big 4. �They are higher than industry, and our increases are higher than industry as well,� she says.
Pay as You Go... Up
According to the 2006 Robert Half Salary Guide, an internal audit manager at a large company might expect to earn between $73,250 and $96,000 in 2006, a 6% increase over 2005. At a medium company, the range is between $64,000 and $84,000 (a 7% rise over 2005). And at a small company, it�s $59,750 to $75,000 (up 5%).
Barton says that at the director level, salaries might go as high as $140,000.
Salary Wizard at salary.com says the median expected salary for a typical auditing manager in the U.S. is $94,938; median cash compensation is $102,667. Including benefits, Salary Wizard says the median total compensation is $135,889.
If you have several years of managerial and specific industry experience and a CPA, you should find the market quite a warm one.
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