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The Institute of Internal Auditors presents all things internal audit.
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in this episode here from Manisha and Iresh Anarkat,
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a mother and son whose paths in volunteering highlight two sides of the internal audit pipeline.
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Manisha shares how chapter leadership builds community skills and opportunity.
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while Irish offers a students perspective on discovering the CIA, promoting the profession on campus, and stepping outside his comfort zone.
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Together, they show why volunteering whether two hours a month or leading a chapter, matters for today and tomorrow.
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We need to thank you for sitting down with us today.
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you for having me today.
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As chapter president of the Northern California East Bay chapter. What are some goals you're looking to accomplish in this role?
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my goal is to like, you know, focus on building the pipeline, also giving a lot of opportunity to the members to learn. Right. You know, we want to have more and more programs so that the members get more benefit. And with the latest
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changes in the AI industry,
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all the internal auditor also needs to,
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enhance and
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their due diligence to,
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upskill their skills.
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And I think this will be a good opportunity for us to have those kind of programs in the IEA headquarter already offered. There are multiple programs which we can do with the use of the headquarter and, that will also give some certification to the member. So there are a lot of opportunities which we can bring for the benefit of the members.
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Awesome. Yeah. I mean,
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it seems like there's so much that you can get out of it. What kind of even brought you into joining your local chapter?
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I always believe in volunteering and giving back to the community, and I've been doing that for a longer time. I've been on the board of various other nonprofit organization similar to IEEE.
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There is Isaka, which caters the need for the I.T auditors and I'm on the board of the ICA, also on the board of Chartered Accountants San Francisco chapter, which was the founding chapter in US, the first chapter in US, for the Chartered Accountant of India. And I'm one of the management committee member there. So I always believe in giving back to the community.
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And I like mentoring young students. I have been mentoring many students in the past, not only student like, you know, people who are struggling in their career and would like to have a, you know, one on one meetings with me. So I think due to those things, I felt like, you know, okay, this is a perfect way for me to join the board.
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And also try to help other, members.
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So that was a big part of it. It was kind of like helping people and being involved. And it also sounds like you're very busy. So
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what was that moment that made you say, because I'm assuming this was somewhat early on in your career, right? I'm going to volunteer. Like I'm very busy, but I'm going I'm going to to help out. I'm going to join my local chapter. What was that moment? Do you have a specific moment
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So when I joined, I think that was a selfish moment where I wanted to get out of, like, you know, the network like an I wanted to get a good network who can help me when I get stuck. That's how I started. And I did see that, you know, the CC who joined those meetings. They are so helpful.
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On top of that, there are so many programs and trainings in which really helped me. On top of that, the third element to it, if there are any job openings, it becomes so easy to apply and get
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to the top of the list because you already know the hiring manager, right? So those were my kind of selfish, more motives to start.
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But then I thought the same, struggle might be with other people. Right. So now I have to take a seat on the other side and try to help other people who are going through the same struggle.
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What are the challenges that you've had being on both sides
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that coin.
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So one is
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constant learning.
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You need to learn constantly because things are changing so much. And in internal audit, the expectation from the internal auditor is to you should know everything, right? And you are working with the cross functional teams. It's not that you are working with only accounting or only IT team. You are working with all the different departments of the company and for you to do that, you have to make sure that you keep your knowledge updated all the time
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and also learn from other chapter other leaders who are in the industry.
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So
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in order for us to do that, you have to be part of one of the chapter no matter what, so that you learn from others and everyone goes through the same challenges with their external auditors, or maybe some other compliance or accounting. So how do they come up with the solution for that? And on top of that, like if there are any systems which you want to use,
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what other people have used and try to learn from them, right, so that always helps.
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How would you say,
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being involved in your chapter
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has helped you better understand,
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the internal audit profession.
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one recent example.
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So we did a joint event with five different chapter in the region and Anthony,
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our chairman,
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he came there and he talked about 20, 35 vision. He talked about the survey, which was which was done. And that really opened up, the eyes like, you know, okay, there are so many other risk areas.
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Sometimes you think about, like, you know, the areas only which
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your company or like, you know, other leaders are talking about.
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But when the survey was, announced, like, you know, it had the results from an entire world, right? So there is so many things like, you know, other,
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internal auditors are thinking about which we are not. So, you know, it opened up the eyes. One area which I really liked about he said, like, you know, the the pipeline is trained, right?
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The internal audit pipeline. So our role and responsibility is to make sure that how we, bring more people into the stream and more student, more, people from the other,
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industry, you can bring them to the internal audit and also try to give them opportunity not only to learn, but also try to give them, internship opportunity.
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That was amazing to hear that. Okay. How you can help and build a pipeline to keep it going,
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are you guys planning on kind of implementing,
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bringing students, helping the pipeline? What what's kind of the move that you guys are doing with that?
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Our chapter is definitely thinking about that. Like, you know, we have one student right now, who is joining us, and he's going to be a certification officer. Irish and, Irish is going to promote internal audit
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at the University. He is a student at Cal Poly University, and he's going to promote about what is CIA, what is IEEE.
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And because there are people student who know accounting, but they have not
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got exposure to the internal audit world, as well as not to the kind of certification we offer. All the students think about, okay, I want to do CPA, but there is a way you can do CIA also. Right? So
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I think there is opportunity for us to advocate that.
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And this is how we started, like, you know, hiring Irish first so that he can start getting more student and we can help them
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So we have Irish anarchist. He's from Cal Poly school. College. And then he is accounting major, but he's going to promote the CIA. And I.
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you've tasked Irish
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with,
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going out and promoting the profession somewhat through your chapter. Why do you think that these roles of leadership are so valuable within your chapter, but just within the profession as well?
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That's a good question. And I think that,
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we all are busy in our life and we can do only certain things, but the student who are there on campus all the time,
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and they can understand that the student. Right. So if,
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they advocate about IEEE and the student will listen to them, they will definitely listen to us.
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Also, as a leader, but at the same time, we are not there all the time, right? So we can just go there once a month at the most and then try to do the marketing or the branding of our logo, or talk about IEEE. So for us to put our people there on the field, it's a good idea to, you know, give the opportunity to those upcoming student.
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And in the way they see the value and the student can follow them.
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Sort of, stepping more back into your role, what surprised you the most about
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being
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in this leadership type of situation in the chapter?
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there are plus and minus points, right? Like in any chapter,
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officer role you take on, like, you know, the learning curve. Plus you also need, member engagement. So we have that struggle, like, you know, we do have around 200 plus members. But there are not two active, like, you know, whenever we have, in-person event, like, you know, there are only 10 to 15 attendees.
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So we want to bring up
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the awareness and we want to
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cater their needs in a way that
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more and more members can attend. And for that, we will have to focus more on the programing. And once we have more programs which are well covered for the training, then I think we can attract more members.
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We can attract more volunteers because right now that is another challenge for our chapter is to have volunteers. So there are some positions we every year we file some exceptions and which is not good. You know, you need to have, enough volunteers who can volunteer to different positions. So plus now the rotation also like, you know, if every one year we have to rotate or every two years we have to rotate, you need to build up, build a pipeline of volunteers.
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so that's my challenge. Like in as a president, like, you know, I have to think about, okay, how we are going to do this. What will be our strategy to hire and recruit more members?
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And through that process, do you think and through even just your leadership role, do you think there's something you've learned about yourself?
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definitely right now, because when when you are in education, you learn a lot, right?
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So as a president, what I learned is
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any area where the
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other officer is falling behind or suddenly says, okay, I have to move out and I cannot
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continue.
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Right? So if they drop out during the term,
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president has to take on that responsibility. And the same thing happened with me, like, you know, the president from prior to me had to move out of the state and then, you know, then income as a vice president, I took the responsibility to be a president, which I think in any, any organization.
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I think that will be the case. But for, chapters, like, you know, it's very important for the president
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to be hands on and, like, you know, be ready to take on the responsibility where other members are falling behind.
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how would you say that?
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Learning. Dealing with you know, a situation like that where you have to step in, you're taking over different roles, right?
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And that's all volunteer based. How has that
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kind of shaped your professional development?
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any time you come across the challenges and then you know how to find a solution for that because you're stretching yourself and being adaptable to do certain things. Sometimes you do not know that you have that capacity, right.
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Unknown
And you don't know that you have that strength. So building that awareness and also knowing that, okay, I can do it. So that's I mean, and that helps in your professional career as well. Right. Because every time you will find someone or other challenges every day, there will be a new issue coming up by the compliance or any other thing.
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Unknown
But knowing that you can do it, I think that's more important.
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Unknown
Yeah, you can do it. I like that that's a good thing to take away from that. Definitely.
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Unknown
this is even a perfect segue into the next question. What was the moment where you thought,
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that's exactly why I do this.
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Because I learn a lot.
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for II there is a
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really good resource of a library of resources. I can see
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even the look at the sponsors we have. Right. So why they are sponsoring? Because they see the value. They see that, like, you know, how this profession is going to help other people, how it is going to add value.
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Unknown
I think for me also like, you know, it's I'm very proud of myself that I am part of the IEEE
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and also part I am,
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CPA. I also think plus I would like to be a CIA.
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it's interesting. Right? Because it's always a challenge and it's always pushing you.
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Unknown
But
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what would you say is something you wish more people knew about chapter volunteering.
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Unknown
So the benefit of the volunteering. Right. So how you can, not only, get the benefit, also help the community give back to the community. So that's, I think, very important. And sometimes people don't know
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that number of hours they have to commit. So whatever hours they can give the, to the chapter, I think that should be sufficient.
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Unknown
At least they should come forward and tell that, okay, I can give at least two hours a week or two hours a month. That also counts. But at least you know, they have to step forward and come and say that there are so many benefits of once they they are.
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Unknown
Maybe people look at it, maybe a little. They're like, this seems like a daunting volunteer. What would you say to people who might be a little nervous, like, do I have enough time to join? What would you say to them?
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Unknown
I think they should start like, you know, there are certain opportunities where they don't have to commit as an officer. They can just volunteer because during the, monthly events, they can just commit for like, you know, okay, during that event, I will be there, become MC for that.
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Unknown
Right. Or I can come and help you and, you know, registration desk, you know, whatever. They can start slowly, and then afterwards they see the value. They see the kind of,
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members turning out during those meeting and also the learning opportunity. Definitely. They will come back.
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what do you think is the best way
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or what's your advice to people in getting involved in their local chapter or just in general in their profession,
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they can first start attending the meetings?
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Unknown
Right. Maybe a webinar or the training, like, you know, then
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some trainings are like, you know, on
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hybrid or, if they don't have time to come and attend in-person, they can just attend virtually. And that's how they will see the kind of,
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training they are getting about the upcoming and new topics. And slowly they can start, coming and attending those meeting
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whatever way they can contribute to the chapter.
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That will be good.
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Now let's turn to her son, Irish,
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who's experiencing that pipeline firsthand as a student leader.
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You.
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what has brought you to the look, your local AIA chapter and what chapter are you in?
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Unknown
Yeah, so I'm in the Northern California East Bay chapter, and something that's brought me to the chapter other than my mom, of course, who is the president, is just being able to get exposed to so many different professionals, getting to getting the opportunity to learn about so many different things, especially revolving around internal audit, some of the career paths I can take.
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Unknown
And, I think just given the opportunity to grow and this is not something that I've been exposed to in my school. So getting to learn more about internal audit, which is, kind of like a subset of accounting, has been a great experience for me.
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Absolutely. And
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you're in school, so you're probably around other students who are looking to get their CPA once they're done with school.
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Unknown
Yeah.
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Unknown
Where do you think you're local chapter comes in kind of showing people, hey, there's other pathways to this profession.
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Unknown
I think it just starts by, like, letting the students know that air is a thing. Internal audit is a thing. The CIA is a thing. Because
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Unknown
I was part of our school's accounting club and just being around all those students who were very driven and focused on accounting.
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Not a lot of them actually know what internal auditing is, or that it is like a career that they could pursue. So just getting more exposure to them and kind of just helping them decide whether it could be the right path for them would be a great thing.
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Unknown
So obviously, your mom has probably had a little bit of a hey, you should join the local chapter, but
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what is something you've kind of found either rewarding or even challenging while being a part of the chapter?
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Unknown
Yeah. So I think rewarding is just being gifted opportunities such as coming to this event. Being able to kind of get out my comfort zone, network with professionals and be thrown into a space, a place where I have no idea what's going on, but also getting to just absorb so much knowledge. And that's been a big benefit.
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Unknown
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that it's it's a lot of information, but do you feel because your mother was kind of talking about the way you're going into your school and sort of helping people, you know, find out about the profession?
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what's the challenge that you found in that?
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Unknown
like the first challenge is stems from me not being able to have experienced internal auditing.
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Unknown
So it's kind of hard to talk about it to other students, given that I just don't have as much experience as well. So I feel like that has been an issue. But something that has helped is just going to I events, doing coffee chats and kind of just learning about the field so I could kind of preach about it to other students.
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Unknown
Definitely. Yeah. Exposures. Huge, right?
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watch your mother. She you see her in her career. What would you say? Seeing her involved in the chapter
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looks like to you,
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Unknown
Well, I feel like it just expanded her network so much. There's so many new people that I get to that I've gotten the pleasure to be introduced to through her,
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Unknown
Even though they all stem from internal auditing, they have so many different professions. I met a partner. I met, chief audit executive, lots of different positions that were there.
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Just being able to see all the different type of people that she's been exposed to and kind of draw from all of them has been huge.
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Unknown
Irish, what kind of advice would you give other students who are looking either to volunteer or confused about their path, sort of to the profession?
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Unknown
know it could be scary, especially not knowing too much about internal auditing or IEA, but I just want to say it's like very rewarding and it's free. So being a student, you should take advantage of the opportunity that you can attend all these new, networking events, attend all the webinar,
00:19:13:22 - 00:19:15:08
Unknown
all the talks, all the,
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different resources that are given through you to being an IEA member and volunteer.
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Unknown
And I just think that students should take advantage of that. And there's no harm in going to an event and seeing it. Internal auditing is for you.
00:19:26:28 - 00:19:28:06
Unknown
Thank you so much for joining me today.
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Irish.
00:19:29:04 - 00:19:30:14
Unknown
Yeah. Thank you for having me.
00:19:31:27 - 00:19:38:13
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