Career Development Hub

Hello Rajeev

Thank you for posting this here, I hope someone in the community can support your request. Good luck!

kind regards

Hi Rajeev, if you are after audit observation time, the most reliable route is to make yourself useful to the people already running the audits. Certification bodies and consultancies often let a trainee sit in as an observer once they know you are serious and Exemplar Global certified, so a short direct note to a few of them saying what you can offer and that you want witnessed audit experience tends to travel further than waiting for an opening to appear. Internal audits at your own workplace count too, and they are the easiest place to start building real hours.

When someone joins a course I run, the ones who progress fastest treat every audit they can get near as a chance to watch how questions are framed and how findings are reasoned. Say yes to the small unglamorous ones, keep a simple log of what you observed, and the witnessed experience adds up faster than you expect.

Rajeev, one point I would add is that an observer opportunity becomes much more valuable when it is treated as a structured learning exercise rather than simply attendance.

Try to document how the auditor selects samples, follows evidence across processes, decides when to pursue an audit trail, and converts observations into defensible conclusions.

If possible, discussing the reasoning behind those decisions with the lead auditor after the audit can be more valuable than simply observing the audit itself.

In my view, this is one of the most effective bridges between completing Lead Auditor training and developing real audit judgement.

Good point, Ahmed. And good advice for anyone who is accompanying the auditor. Sometimes, it is a random selection, sometimes the newest and one of the older established entries/suppliers, sometimes it's an entry that just seems odd for some reason. It wouldn't be acceptable to ask which one(s) before or during the audit, but certainly while the auditor is delivering the report.

Rajeev, one point I would add is that an observer opportunity becomes much more valuable when it is treated as a structured learning exercise rather than simply attendance.

Try to document how the auditor selects samples, follows evidence across processes, decides when to pursue an audit trail, and converts observations into defensible conclusions.

If possible, discussing the reasoning behind those decisions with the lead auditor after the audit can be more valuable than simply observing the audit itself.

In my view, this is one of the most effective bridges between completing Lead Auditor training and developing real audit judgement.

Good Day everyone,

As the owner of a small consulting firm here in Houston, Texas, I recently invested a lot of money in expanding my qualifications, by completing the BSI Lead Auditor training courses.

Going into this, I was under the impression that completing these rigorous courses would provide a clear pathway to practical application and auditing work for my clients. However, the administrative and logistical barriers feel nearly insurmountable. Without a direct pipeline to a certification body or a large registrar willing to sponsor observer or shadow audits, it seems almost impossible to obtain the necessary hours in any reasonable timeframe.

I would love to hear from other independent consultants or registrar representatives on how they navigated this hurdle. Is there a viable path for small business owners to bridge the gap from classroom training to active auditing?

Best regards,

Bruce Miebs

Stormwater Advisors

Houston, Texas

Good point, Ahmed. And good advice for anyone who is accompanying the auditor. Sometimes, it is a random selection, sometimes the newest and one of the older established entries/suppliers, sometimes it's an entry that just seems odd for some reason. It wouldn't be acceptable to ask which one(s) before or during the audit, but certainly while the auditor is delivering the report.

Rajeev, one point I would add is that an observer opportunity becomes much more valuable when it is treated as a structured learning exercise rather than simply attendance.

Try to document how the auditor selects samples, follows evidence across processes, decides when to pursue an audit trail, and converts observations into defensible conclusions.

If possible, discussing the reasoning behind those decisions with the lead auditor after the audit can be more valuable than simply observing the audit itself.

In my view, this is one of the most effective bridges between completing Lead Auditor training and developing real audit judgement.

Bruce, the gap you have hit is structural rather than anything about you. A registrar carries the cost of an observer on a paid job, so the yes usually comes from the smaller regional bodies rather than the big names, and it comes to a short direct note to a named scheme or operations manager offering to travel at your own cost and sign whatever confidentiality they need. Two or three of those beat a general enquiry every time, and it helps to say which sectors you can already speak the language of.

The route people overlook is that your own client work counts. Internal audits run properly for the organisations you consult to, planned against the standard and reported the way a certification audit would be, build documented experience a registrar will recognise later and give you the interviewing and sampling practice the classroom never quite delivers. Your stormwater background is an asset here too, because registrars are usually short of auditors with real sector depth rather than short of generalists.

Good Day everyone,

As the owner of a small consulting firm here in Houston, Texas, I recently invested a lot of money in expanding my qualifications, by completing the BSI Lead Auditor training courses.

Going into this, I was under the impression that completing these rigorous courses would provide a clear pathway to practical application and auditing work for my clients. However, the administrative and logistical barriers feel nearly insurmountable. Without a direct pipeline to a certification body or a large registrar willing to sponsor observer or shadow audits, it seems almost impossible to obtain the necessary hours in any reasonable timeframe.

I would love to hear from other independent consultants or registrar representatives on how they navigated this hurdle. Is there a viable path for small business owners to bridge the gap from classroom training to active auditing?

Best regards,

Bruce Miebs

Stormwater Advisors

Houston, Texas

Good point, Ahmed. And good advice for anyone who is accompanying the auditor. Sometimes, it is a random selection, sometimes the newest and one of the older established entries/suppliers, sometimes it's an entry that just seems odd for some reason. It wouldn't be acceptable to ask which one(s) before or during the audit, but certainly while the auditor is delivering the report.

Good point, Ahmed. And good advice for anyone who is accompanying the auditor. Sometimes, it is a random selection, sometimes the newest and one of the older established entries/suppliers, sometimes it's an entry that just seems odd for some reason. It wouldn't be acceptable to ask which one(s) before or during the audit, but certainly while the auditor is delivering the report.

Rajeev, one point I would add is that an observer opportunity becomes much more valuable when it is treated as a structured learning exercise rather than simply attendance.

Try to document how the auditor selects samples, follows evidence across processes, decides when to pursue an audit trail, and converts observations into defensible conclusions.

If possible, discussing the reasoning behind those decisions with the lead auditor after the audit can be more valuable than simply observing the audit itself.

In my view, this is one of the most effective bridges between completing Lead Auditor training and developing real audit judgement.