It's probably not a stretch to say that every business and organization has pressing cybersecurity concerns that need to be addressed. There is intense competition among employers to hire skilled cybersecurity professionals. If you're an IT newcomer, or a veteran in some related IT field who is pondering a switch to cybersecurity, then certification has probably popped up on your radar as a potential path to acquiring the skills and knowledge needed to enter the information security sector. A new post this week to the Insights blog of employment facilitator Dice lays out five key questions that aspiring security professionals might want answered. For example, someone on the outside looking in might well be wondering which of the many cybersecurity certifications out there is considered to be the "best" of the bunch. The Dice team mentions that (ISC)2's Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) is probably the best known and most widely respected blanket security credential, and that either CompTIA's Security+ credential or GIAC's Information Security Fundaments (GISF) cert is a good place to start for information security newcomers.
CompTIA Outlines Options for Online IT Training
Online classrooms have, in one form or another, been a widely utilized educational forum for several years now. In the past couple of weeks, however, with the COVID-19 pandemic bringing traditional education to a standstill in countries around the globe, the internet has become the default setting for almost all educational endeavors. A new post to the blog of tech industry association CompTIA gives a wide-ranging overview of what is still, for some, a largely unknown sphere. If you're still warming up to the idea of getting (or continuing to get) an education via the internet, then you'll appreciate blogger Debra McCraw's list of reasons to "love" online learning. For example, McCraw writes, online learning lets you combine "new" learning with prior knowledge: "If you already have some knowledge on the topic you're studying, you may want to prioritize your studies based on what you don't yet know versus what you do. Some eLearning platforms are designed to build upon your existing knowledge to help you learn new skills." If you've been hesitant or uncertain about venturing online to continue your IT education, then this post could help.
Doing IT in a Small Town: CBT Nuggets Helps You Find the Jobs
At the end of last week, a post to the all-purpose blog of IT training provider CBT Nuggets revealed (to us) a fascinating resource for IT pros. The post discusses the "10 Best U.S. Cities Under 50,000 for CCNAs." That's worth a mention here almost by itself, but the truly cool feature brought to our attention in this instance is the State of IT Jobs search tool created and maintained by CBT Nuggets. Want to find a tech job in the United States? Check out this interactive map-based tool, which lets you filter by type of certification and see at a glance where the highest density of jobs can be found. The map takes into consideration "every ZIP code in the United States," just in case you're wondering how far you can fine tune your search. Totally cool.
What Lies Ahead for IT Certification?
Nobody has a proverbial crystal ball, or at least nobody has one in the sense that crystal balls are proverbially said to work. We can make educated guesses about the future, however, and especially about things that will or could happen in a couple of years from now. If you're interested in thinking about the future before it gets here, then you'll probably enjoy a feature recently posted to CertMag.com, the official website of Certification Magazine, that discusses "The next five years ot IT certification." Tech writer Aaron Axline talks about key trends that could shape the course of IT certification over the next five years, looking ahead across the span from 2020 through 2024. For example, Axline speculates that IT certification will increasingly trend in the direction of being tied to specific IT jobs, rather than giving a broad overview of particular areas of IT, something we can already see with Microsoft wholesale push to shift toward "role-based" certs.
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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