Government Auditing?

I’ve been reading through the business major forums and it seems like the most common route for accounting majors is getting their cpa and working for the big 4. In terms of what my future career goals are, 5-7 years down the road I just want a stable job with a decent salary (50-70k). I’m not interested nor do I want to work for the big 4, but they do recruit at my school (Virginia Tech). So it’s an option, although an unlikely one. I’ve been considering government auditing and was wondering if anyone could give me some more information about it. Here are some questions I have:

How do you begin a career in govt. auditing? Do you start local and then move up to state/federal?
What are the prospects for career advancement?
Are their any specific requirements to begin working in this field?
What certifications should I look into?
What is the typical salary/work environment like?