Editor’s note: This is the first in a weeklong series of ISACA Now blog posts sharing guidance on how to start 2025 strong across digital trust professions. Today, we focus on audit.
Alright, everybody. It’s officially 2025. Some of us are lucky and already caught up and ready to start the year running, while some of us still have the death rattle of busy season 2024 ringing in our ears because some missing evidence or final approval wasn’t provided before a CTO of a mid-sized B2B MSP left to spend the holidays hitting the slopes. It’s time to take inventory and make sure we are ready for all this year is going to throw at us.
Below are five key strategies that audit and compliance professionals should prioritize early this year for success in 2025.
1. Get Closed out
The reality for many audit professionals is that 2024’s busy season did not end in 2024. The audit cutoff dates may have passed and the last pieces of evidence have been turned in, but much like the elves in the North Pole, once the last whistle was blown for the holidays, we all dropped our tools and went to enjoy time with our loved ones or to relax on our own. We must now return and wrap up what is still on our plates. Spend as much time as you can making a clean break and prioritizing closing out 2024 assignments before getting too deep into 2025’s projects and problems.
2. Go Check-in
During the busy season and the holidays, audit professionals don’t have the bandwidth to speak to all our friends and connections. The typically slower rhythm in Quarter 1 is a wonderful time to catch up with old friends and colleagues, see how everyone is doing and discuss changes/industry trends. Find out how the CMMC rollout is impacting the security landscape. How is the shift to post-quantum cryptography going, if it's going at all? Find out who changed jobs or industries. Who got engaged? Who moved cities? Who got hooked on a new hobby and now spends their weekends painting Orks and Mechs?
3. Get Checked Out
A lot of us go to the doctor far less than we should. We work hard for our insurance and do cost-benefit analysis on which plan is most optimal, but rarely do we take the time to make sure we are firing on all cylinders. Get your annual check-up, see any specialists that you have been dragging out getting appointments for, and communicate if you are having any issues. It might just be age or stress, or it might be a treatable underlying condition. Wear and tear of the security audit profession continues to be at an all-time high, with the push for quantity over quality and the erosion of standards to pad the bottom line as the price tag of an assessment continues to plummet. Every assessment takes something out of you, and you need to properly recharge to avoid fizzling out. We can only perform at 100% if we feel 100% or you are going to burn yourself out faster.
4. Go Plugged In
Using information from your chats with colleagues as a primer, look into trends and changes in the industry. Review the calendar of your local ISACA chapter and see if there are any interesting upcoming webinars or events. Maybe plan to write an article for a publication or post more on LinkedIn. Find out what is going on in your industry and what outside news might impact it. If your old news sources are drying up, make sure to find out who your colleagues are listening to. Being plugged in is about being informed and also knowing who is informing the people in your industry.
5. Get Going
Review and reset your 1,3,5 year goals, be they personal or professional. You checked in with your family and friends – now you can plan a trip or two and put in that PTO early. You plugged back into your professional network – maybe it's time for a change of scenery that you can plan for. Make learning goals to finally get that certification you have been too busy to get for the last few years.
Audit and compliance is unique in the fact that your career is The Long Walk (which, fun fact, is apparently getting a movie!?!) With high turnover, it’s a journey and it only really ends when you decide to stop and leave the industry. If you keep yourself sharp and check-in with yourself at the start of 2025, and each year, it should help boost your longevity in this industry.
If this is your last year in audit, I look forward to speaking to you during fieldwork interviews. Working in audit is like working in food services in a lot of ways, but the main way is it just makes you a more considerate person since you know how the attestation report is made. I hope everyone has a wonderful 2025. Now, go get closed out and hit this year with at least a brisk jog.
