Life of an auditor

Can you give a more robust description of an internal auditor? What he/she primarily works with/for?  IA essentially is in charge of ensuring that all operations across the company have set processes and controls for each process. They ensure that there is a solid segregation of duties for all these processes. They then are in charge of walking through these processes and testing our internal controls around these processes and ensuring that they are effective. The auditors expect that IA's walkthroughs and control testing would be enough to rely on a sample of them. They also want IA to know all of our walkthroughs and controls inside-out, because that, in theory , is their job. In the instances that I've been exposed to, both in audit and in private, it's really not feasible for IA to know these processes inside out. Most IA groups aren't really that big, so from a process perspective,for them to know all the nuts and bolts of a company would be hard (unles...

My interactions with our current auditors always helps reinforce in me that my decision to leave was the right decision, but it actually takes it further - it makes me wonder - how the heck did I survive for so many years in audit. When I hear their questions, many of which are purely for PCAOB documentation purposes, I just want to walk away because I'd rather waste my time watching paint dry than answer such non-value added questions.  I even frequently ask them why they continue to stay in audit. And from what I hear in my old firm, life's still the same. People constantly complaining, the Firms saying that things will change, but it isn't really. And life goes on. Factory model. Look, auditors add value, don't get me wrong. But there's a lot of non-value add in what they do. I get it, it's not their fault, it's the system and the regulation board. But man - can't believe I used to do that.