Dave Sweede
Internal Auditor
ADP
Norfolk, VA USA
“The best advice I have been given is to be comfortable being uncomfortable.”
Milestones
My road in life took a while to figure out.
High School Graduation and my first "tour" at ODU.
Partied way too hard at ODU and was about to fail out of college and get cut off from my parents.
I joined the Marines in an attempt to get my life right.
I was sent to Iraq in 2003 and experienced a life-changing deployment.
I returned home and had to deal with the effects of my deployment, not fully understanding how I was affected.
I worked retail jobs, and never really could make any decent money.
I started school at TCC to study business, and found I really understood accounting.
I transferred to ODU's accounting program, graduated, and was hired by a fortune 300 (Norfolk Southern) a full year before I actually graduated.
Keep following my journey
Education
High School
Career
Internal Auditor
Audit / Independent Review of internal SOX Controls, Compliance and Operational Audits, Risk Management
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Business
Numbers
Learning / Being Challenged
Day to Day
The awesome thing about Audit is that there is not always a daily grind. The best advice I have been given is to be comfortable being uncomfortable. The nuts and bolts would be learning new business processes, exploring them, observing them, documenting them, and then testing them. The idea is to look at the efficiency of the process and ensure the possible risks are being addressed and mitigated. You can learn a multi billion dollar company in a short time.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for everyone
Be involved in the recruiting scene while you are in school. Make sure you are getting your resume out and you are attending the events the local companies are hosting in order to get to know you. They want to hire you, so make it easier for them! Be humble, you are not ready to be a manager right out of college. You simply do not know what you do not know, so be willing to start at the bottom. If you are as good as you think, your work and talent will be noticed and rewarded.
Recommended Education
My career is related to what I studied. I'd recommend the path I took:
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Teachers:
"I would not make it through the ODU Accounting program from an adviser."
Challenges I Overcame
Learning Issues
