Ernst & Young: Leveraging Business-Savvy IT Veterans

  By Deanna Hartley —

That, along with relevant work experience, will give candidates an edge over their competition.

Certifications that are considered particularly valuable to the company include:

• The Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), as well as the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) for the IT risk assurance team.
• The Certified Management Accountant (CMA) and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) for certified management accountants.
• The Project Management Professional (PMP), Six Sigma and Black Belt certifications. “[These] are important for people to understand business processes and best practices,” McTavish said.
• The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certification for the IT effectiveness team. “[It helps us] identify candidates who really have been and are up to date with what’s going on in the IT service management space,” he said.

Internal Training Gets New Hires Up to Speed Quickly

Any individual who joins the firm, regardless of his or her experience level, is expected to undergo training.

“[There are] three days of pretty extensive training really around Ernst &Young, [including] our processes, procedures and important things to note,” McTavish explained. “And you get a brief technical training on your computers using different aspects of Lotus Notes or Microsoft Office, etc.,” McTavish explained.

“Then, depending on which IT service line they’re hired into, in their first year, [employees] are required to go through 80 to 100 hours of learning. Some of these are basic, like Auditing 101, presentation skills training [and] client interaction skills training, but then we also have really advanced the technical skills training for individuals who need to know Windows, database or mainframe technical training, along with ERP training, like SAP, Oracle and Hyperion.”

A company as large and established as Ernst & Young is capable of offering its employees myriad resources and hands-on training, so it’s only natural for employees to take advantage of such learning opportunities to further their careers.

“A lot of the training is mandatory, but at the same time we have a goal-setting process when people start with the firm,” he said. “We outline some goals that we wish for them to achieve, and at the same time, there are goals that they can look to achieve themselves. Oftentimes learning is a part of that, so we really encourage them to take classes in things they think are going to be interesting.”

– dhartley@certmag.com