Hello all,
I have recently decided to transition my career into auditing. I plan on obtaining many different certifications for more opportunities but as of right now I have achieved my ISO 9001:2015 lead auditor certificate. I understand that I need to obtain a certain number of observation audits before I am “officially” certified. Would anyone be willing to give me some guidance on how I go about getting these observations? I am pretty new to this but eager and willing to put in the time and effort. I have spoken with a few registrars but I feel they are looking for people with more experience in the auditing industry. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Or if there are any auditors out there willing to let me tag along just let me know!
As a "heads up" - Randy is an exception so take his replies in this discussion with a "grain of salt".
There are a number of discussions going back some years started by people who want to become auditors. You might want to read some for a broader scope of responses.
The best responses in this thread are from Andy, SpinDr99, Sidney and dsanabria (in my opinion).
Also bear in mind that the "ISO 9001 transition/upgrade" rush will soon be over... And while there are comments about how many older auditors are out there who are near retirement, like in all occupations it's not (in my belief) going to lead to a sudden surge in a need for new auditors.
Another factor, for newer auditors, notice no one posts what auditors are paid these days, especially newer ones.
And, don't forget some aspects such as time to prepare for an audit, the end of day writeup, and all that is involved.
I am definitely not trying to discourage you. Rather, I want to point out some of the downsides that often aren't mentioned. I know - I've been there as an auditor and a business systems consultant who traveled for years where I was lucky to be "home" two weekends a month.
It is not that bad - but yes - it is dark - airport are hard to sleep on and delays on aircraft are common which will cause your flights to be missed. So a 2 hour flight turns into a 12 hour flight.
I don't even want to think back to how many times I went through that, or how many nights I slept in airports...