Brink's Modern Internal Auditing

CHAPTER 29 Professional Certifications: CIA, CISA, and More

We live in A world today increasingly filled with multiple and sometimes too many professional certification designations. Many are valuable and important, while others are perhaps only of value to their promoters. As an example of these contrasts and variations, a civil engineer designing highway bridges will seek a very important and well-recognized Professional Engineer (PE) certification, while a home interior designer may take a far less well-recognized examination to become a Certified Kitchen Designer (CKD). These certifications may be viewed positively by an employer or customer looking for a candidate to fill a position requiring appropriate job skills.

A PE certification is awarded only after the candidate has some solid job experience and has passed a difficult test. It is an important and well-recognized certification and is often a requirement in contract specifications. A CKD certification may give a candidate working for a local contracting firm some additional points to sell a remodeling job, but the designation is not very well recognized.

While many professional certifications are viewed as worthwhile, others do not appear to be very valuable. For example, and not to pick on an industry, but the insurance industry is filled with many types and levels of certifications. A potential purchaser of life insurance, for example, may encounter sales representatives with a stream of certification initials ...