After school, I spent two years in public (mid-size firm) doing IT audit. In the last 6-9 months of my public tenure, I was leading several engagements, and was assigned the senior role on all my engagements for the rest of the year. Based on this and the conversations I was having with my manager, I would have 100% been bumped up to senior during the upcoming round of promotions.
Stupidly, I left public before my promotion and took an associate position at an internal audit shop with 6 IT audit headcount. They had a couple open senior spots at the time and my hope was that I would continue my momentum and be on the short track to making senior.
I’ve now been there for 8 months. Since then, I haven’t been assigned any lead roles on any engagements despite my asking, they’ve hired 2 seniors (thus filling all the open spots for that level), and there are no plans to have me be a lead on any engagements for the rest of 2018 (there’s only one other IT audit associate besides myself).
During my time in internal audit, I’ve remained in contact with one of my managers who now works for a small local firm. He’s repeatedly tried to get me to come over to the firm he works for now touting a better culture, better work-life balance, blah blah, but importantly I would start as a senior.
I like my line of work and I can see myself spending a good chunk of my career in the IT Audit realm. I am thinking of taking him up on his offer in pursuit of better career progression. If I like it, then I can stay and have a happy career. If I don’t, then I can gain the title faster than my current job and hunker down for a year or so until the next opportunity comes along.
Has anyone else faced this type of decision? Does it seem short sighted? What are some other things I should consider here that I might be missing?
Any thoughts are appreciated!