Perry Leung is an internal audit consultant in Protiviti's New York City office. We asked him the following questions to get an idea of what his day to day responsibilities are as a internal audit professional. Below you will find his responses and advice if you are thinking about entering into this profession.
1. What was your college and your major?
I attended New York University: Stern School of Business. I majored in economics and finance with a minor in anthropology.
2. What courses did you find the most helpful to prepare you for your current position? What advice do you have for students about choosing a major and choosing courses?
The courses that were most helpful were the basic accounting classes. Those classes helped me with my hard technical skills, and my finance classes. In turn they gave me a good background for the clients I’m working on.
3. What are your primary work activities on a day to day basis?
I worked primarily on Sarbanes Oxley engagements so I do a lot of testing of the controls for the project.
4. What industries have you worked in?
I have worked in Financial Services and pharmaceutical.
5. What do you enjoy most about your profession?
I enjoy working on different projects and gaining experience in various industries. Even though we may not always get the project we want, it is also great that we are active in shaping how our career progress, which is not something you get working in a non-consulting environment.
There aren’t too many things I don’t enjoy, but sometimes the administrative duties we are responsible for (time and expense reporting) can get in the way of just completing our work.
6. What advice would you give to students interested in the internal audit/risk consulting business? Anything you would do different or change? Any success strategies to share?
The best advice I could offer is to have an open mind. Being open will make it a lot easier to adapt to different environments, clients, and management styles. With an open mind, you can make the best of every situation.
Also, work on non-technical skills like social skills if consulting is your field of choice. Dealing with conflict and developing a rapport with a client or adapting quickly to new co-workers is just as important as the technical skills that you will use on the job. At the end of the day, you can’t use your technical skills with your client and team if they aren’t willing to listen to you.