CISA Certification Prerequisites, Cost, Skills, Job Prospects and Salary

Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) is a certification that provides credence to the role of an IT auditor. It’s issuing body is ISACA, which itself is a globally renowned association. Individuals who successfully become CISA certified work towards ensuring that a firm’s systems are working in the intended manner by offering management, audit and control-level services.

Passing CISA is a rigorous process comprising of many different requirements. Only after you successfully meet all these criteria are you awarded the title of a CISA certified professional. Modern-day IT audits require a high amount of skill towards understanding the risks, vulnerabilities and issues in modern enterprise environments so that they can build mechanisms that control or mitigate the effect of these problems. CISA certification is aimed to address the required skills to complete this task.

This certification is primarily aimed at IT auditors, but IT consultants, cybersecurity experts and even conventional IT managers can benefit immensely from passing this certification.

Organizations across the globe not just recognize this certification but often make it a compulsory or a strongly recommended requirement when looking for talent in IT audit roles. If you possess this certification, it will greatly benefit you by allowing you to gain better visibility among candidates that have applied for the same roles.

However, the benefits that this certification ensures are hard-earned. There is a 50% pass rate for the certification’s first exam, and the exam is just one among a list of requirements an individual has to fulfill to gain and maintain the certification’s validity.

If you are planning on getting CISA certification online, then you will first need to learn about the prerequisites for enrolling in this certification:

Pre-requisites for CISA certification

Five years of professional work experience in a related field like auditing, assurance or security is required for an individual to become eligible for the CISA certification. This can be considered a certification for mid-senior level executives.

ISACA’s guidelines further say that these five years of experience should not be older than 10 years from the examination itself. An individual can also give the exam and then gain the required work experience, but this experience criterion should be within five years after appearing and clearing the CISA certification. However, since the certification is only valid for three years before you have to renew it, it is strongly recommended that an individual gain the required experience prior to appearing in the exam.

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The Exam

The CISA exam is exhaustive and contains around 150 MCQs. The duration of the exam is four hours, and the course material ensures that the candidates have the required knowledge in domains like the process of auditing information systems; government and management of IT; information systems acquisition, development, and implementation; information systems operations, maintenance and service management; and protection of information assets.

Grading is done on a scale of 200-800. To pass the CISA exam, an individual must earn 450 or higher.

ISACA test centers are spread throughout the world, and the CISA exam is offered in many different languages besides English, like Korean and French.

Since the exam is so extensive and detailed, many candidates opt for CISA online training courses to ramp up their preparation and ensure that they improve their chances of passing the exam in the first attempt.

Maintaining the Certification’s Validity

Once you pass the exam, you won’t just gain the certification, as you have to further comply with other stringent requirements as well. Firstly, you have to demonstrate adherence to the ISACA’s professional code of conduct. Secondly, you have to ensure your presence in Continuing Professional Education (CPE) program, which asks an individual to invest 20 hours each year in the program. On top of this, 120 hours over a span of three years in contact is also a necessary requirement.

Read more: CISA: The Cyber Security Certification

Skills Gained & Job Prospects

CISA certified individuals are exceedingly competent at not just auditing a firm’s IT infrastructure and implementing controls, but they are also incredibly valuable resources for organizations merging their IT systems with top-line business goals. These qualified resources develop and implement the outline of a firm’s systems, thereby ensuring that they are working in an optimal manner.

Job prospects open up for individuals within a diverse array of fields after a CISA certification. Apart from IT audit roles, these individuals can also apply for jobs in domains related to security, control, management and IT infrastructure development. All of these roles often are in the mid-senior level categories, allowing an individual to fast track their career development and ensure that the hard work definitely paid off.

Salary Benefits

CISA certification will not just allow you to land better job prospects, they also have a significantly positive impact on your salary. The average salary for a CISA qualified individual varies in the range of $52,429 - $122,326 per year, depending on the individual’s previous experience, their previous job roles and the location where they reside.

Out of all job roles that a CISA certified individual can acquire, the role of an internal audit director holds the most lucrative earning potential, with an average yearly salary of about $136,082.

Wrapping Things Up

CISA is one of the most premier certifications offered by ISACA, and people from across the world have gained many tangible benefits from becoming members of this certification. The cost of total registration is $465 if you are a current member of ISACA and $595 if you aren’t. On top of this, there is also a maintenance fee that you will have to pay each after the qualification.

But all the hard work and costs will definitely translate into a much-needed career boost for you in a highly assured manner. If you are looking to become CISA certified, then you can start preparing for it now through CISA online training available at QuickStart.

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