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one CIA exam down, three to go

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

I've had confirmation that I'm exempted from the fourth exam in the CIA certification process. Now I just have to get through the other three.

So far, I'm doing "OK" with the practice quizzes in the study guide, but I have the feeling I'm in for some surprises along the way. For instance, the next chapter's on accounting, which I've only just started to study.

And speaking of which, I've learned that there's a fundamental difference in the way that accountants track the cost of line employees versus staff like me. For instance, I'm essentially a fixed overhead cost at my current employer, while the developers I work with are variable costs counted against the cost of production. Fundamentally I understood how this works, but it's fascinating to see how these things are arranged for decision making purposes. It explains, for one thing, why in a slow period it's so often the "productive" staff that get cut.