CIDA

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dhuffman63
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Joined: 07/18/2019 - 11:20
CIDA

Just got an email that I qualify to take the CIDA exam and wonder how useful having that certification actually is?  I'm a CFE and have the IIA's Certified Govt Audit Professional.

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Brian Element
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Joined: 07/11/2012 - 19:57

Having a professional designation, like any other designation, it depends on what you want to do with your career.  If you want to show that you have some mastery in the tools of data analytics (namely IDEA in your case) then it is probably useful to have but you don't need it to do data analytics, it just gives some confidence to your customers that you have reached a certain level of knowledge. Just like the CFE, you don't need it to perform fraud examinations but having it shows that you take the field seriously and you have a certain minimum qualification.  I have seen some job postings in the past that a nice to have is data analytics so having the CIDA easily shows that you have that knowledge.  Ultimately it depends on what you want to do.

In my case I am a CPA in Canada, I also have my CFE, CIDA and CISE.  I used to have my CISA as I used to do IT auditing but over the years my career changed and I got away from it and it got to the point that I wasn't meeting the requirements and it was getting more difficult to keep up with the minimum training so I dropped it since for me in my career it didn't make sense to keep it.

Another example from my past is I worked for around 8 years in internal audit, I thought of writing my CIA but at the time I had my CPA and my CISA so I decided having one more designation wasn't worth it to me.

So really it is a personal choice about where you want to go with your career and if having this would enhance it.