I completely agree. People with good, real-world experience, who have good work ethics and research skills, who have a large body of knowledge, and have "street smarts" that allow idea extrapolation for problem solving will probably be wasting their time taking a certification course, even from ISC2. But it is a torturous road for newbies, which I was but a handful of years ago. I was lucky. I found a place where I could grow and prove my worth, and have had ample opportunity to build good contacts. I will find less use for a certification than others might. It is very difficult to break into a business without luck, unless you make your own. A certification opens some doors, and if you are diligent, hard working, smart, etc., the certification may be the first step to becoming a bona fide security professional (no quotes). I would not turn someone away because they had a certification. I would examine all the prospects, "certified" and otherwise, very closely before making a decision. "A certification does not make a person incompetent. They were incompetent long before." ;) Again, I must stress that a company interested in security, and not just looking to check boxes off of a financial audit list, needs to vet their applicants better than just looking for certifications. ICMan Last of the Soap Box Heros ;) To: Shane Mason/SECURE cc: firewall-wizardsat_private Subject: Re: Network Security Certification 1998-04-29-16:34:52 Shane Mason: > If you are a "security professional", or want to be, I would recommend > taking a certification course [...] Good point! And if you're trying to hire a "security professional" then looking for such certifications will probably expedite your process. If however you're an actual security professional and no quotes, you may want to avoid a certification; you don't want to look like an incompetant who has gone out and spent time and money to try and pad your resume. And you probably don't want to consider working in places so badly-managed that they regard such certification as a plus. -Bennett
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Apr 13 2001 - 12:58:03 PDT