Auditing Knowledge, Professional Skepticism, Professional Ethics, and a Two-Item Auditor Career-Interest Proxy: A Cross-Sectional Study of Accounting Students in Serang City

Abstract

Prior audit-career research has emphasized professional familiarity, career perceptions, and general accounting-career choice, whereas professional skepticism and ethics have been studied mainly among practicing auditors. This study therefore examines whether auditing knowledge, professional skepticism, and professional ethics are associated with a narrowly operationalized auditor career-interest outcome among accounting students in Serang City. A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted with 55 students from three universities who had completed advanced auditing coursework and were recruited through incidental non-probability sampling. PLS-SEM indicated that auditing knowledge was positively associated with the two-item career-interest proxy (β = 0.445, t = 2.199, p = 0.028), whereas professional skepticism (β = 0.128, p = 0.563) and professional ethics (β = 0.177, p = 0.243) were not statistically significant; R² was 0.442. Supplementary diagnostics nevertheless require caution: the reconstructed SRMR was 0.1017, Harman's first component explained 51.6% of item variance, and the X2-X3 HTMT bootstrap interval [0.593, 1.024] included 1.00. A full-collinearity VIF check did not show severe collinearity, but it does not eliminate common-method concerns. Accordingly, the results are presented as provisional, sample-specific evidence rather than a comprehensive test of career intention. Practically, the findings support further evaluation of audit-knowledge exposure using stronger, validated multi-item career-intention measures and more rigorous sampling and method-bias controls.