CQA or CIA

Hello,

I'm planning on furthering my career by becoming certified and have the following question.

Are the Certified Quality Auditor and Certified Internal Auditor designations recognized as fairly equal in terms of showing competency as an Auditor? If not, which is best?

Thanks,

Andrew

 

My take: being certified means you passed the tests whereas competency can only be demonstrated through application.

There are plenty of "certified" auditors that come up a bit short on the competency scale and there are excellent auditors that aren't certified.

I do think that getting certified is a good building block (I am a CQA). Being certified can, at times, open doors. I've seen job postings where certification is mandatory. Not sure where you are but here in the Dallas, TX area, we have an Audit Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting monthly. Being active in relevant professional organizations is another way to continually grow.

 

Hi Yodon and Andy,

Thanks for the replies. The organization I'm looking at applying to requests Certified Internal Auditor (https://na.theiia.org/certification/CIA-Certification/Pages/CIA-Certification.aspx) although I am planning on obtaining a CQA from ASQ. I'm just wondering if whether the CQA is seen in the industry as perhaps the gold standard or is it the CIA or both are equal.

From your responses, it seems like there is no one "best" certification and competency is key. However, I'm wondering when they do require one, which is the most well regarded.

Thanks again for your comments,

Andrew

 

Yes, I agree. Thanks Andy.