It's not news around these parts that Cisco is about to overhaul the heck out of its certification program. The ongoing kerfuffle and foofaraw about the mass retirement of existing credentials and the unveiling of a brand new CCNA, however, provided the springboard for an interesting post to the CBT Nuggets Blog of certification training provider CBT Nuggets. Blogger Candi Orchulek uses the excitement over the new CCNA, which many tech professionals are vocally hoping to acquire as soon as it's available, as a jumping-off point to discuss the overall merits of rushing into certification. For example, with respect to the coming CCNA and it aura of New Coke mystique, Orchulek points out that there aren't yet study and training materials available that address the new credential and everything about it that's been changed – and there probably won't be new study materials before next spring or summer at the soonest. There's also the possibility that the new CCNA, or any new-and-improved tech credential, may not be ideally suited to every individuals career needs and aspirations. It's worth reading the full post, as well as thinking about how Orchulek's advice could apply to any certification decision.
Where Have All the Skilled Cybersecurity Professionals Gone?
As the days and hours of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month continue to tick past, discussion of the ongoing shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals has become a hot topic. One interesting perspective popped through to the Insights blog of tech hiring facilitator Dice earlier this week. Guest blogger Ron Hayman, a COO for sales tech provider AVANT, ponders the dual challenge of seeking out new skilled cybersecurity professionals while retaining those already employed by one's organization. Hayman makes the interesting point that colleges and universities are essentially forcing cybersecurity up-and-comers to seek out certification after getting an IT degree because most schools don't yet have fully-fleshed cybersecurity training programs. Though Hayman doesn't make the point directly that cybersecurity certification can help close the gap, it's plain to see that there's a path to gainful employment for anyone who has a good basic understanding of information technology and uses certification to build up her or his knowledge of cybersecurity.
Advance Your Education Through Certification
Speaking of using certification to enhance and build up what you may have learned in a university or college setting, a post on that very topic appeared at the ISACA Now Blog of cybersecurity and governance association ISACA toward the end of last week. Nader Qaimari, the newly appointed Chief Learning Officer of ISACA, directly discusses the importance and value of what he calls his own "liberal arts education" while allowing that there are also blind spots that accrue to anyone relying strictly on their college background to further their career. Qaimari discusses some of the new benchmarks he hopes to hit from his new perch atop the ISACA education infrastructure, as well as how IT certification can fill in critical gaps in the job-readiness of today's tech workforce.
So You Want to Be a Scrum Master
It used to be that the only kind of scrum people really knew about was a rugby-style scrum, the kind where burly players bunch together and struggle against each other in a bruising battle to possess the ball. In 2019, however, there's a wholly different sort of Scrum, and IT and other business organizations are eager to bring its benefits to their product development processes. A certified Scrum master can attract a great deal of interest on the open market, and now the team over at CertMag, the official website of Certification Magazine, has drawn up a playbook for anyone wishing to become a Scrum master. There are a number of certifications available to assist interested individuals in acquiring the needed skills, and tech writer Reena Ghosh (a frequent contributor to GoCertify) directly addresses several of them. If you're ready to knocks heads and seize the ball of your budding Scrum career, then this is a good place to get your feet underneath you and push against the pile. (See what we did there?)
That's all for this edition of Certification Watch. Please keep your certification news and tips coming to the GoCertify News Editor.
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