Kirkian Computing

Tag: BCS

  • My first 50 certifications

    I did my first (vocational) IT exam in 1999. This was after an annual appraisal from my (then) manager, who said “I’ve spoken to lots of people, and they’re all very impressed with your work. However, there’s no way for me to quantify your performance, so you don’t get a pay rise.” Based on that, I decided that it would be useful to have some objective evidence of my abilities from a neutral 3rd party, so I took the Visual Basic 5.0 exam and became a Microsoft Certified Professional.

    Fast forward to 2023: I’ve now passed 41 exams and earned 50 certifications. In all honesty, this process has been a bit haphazard; I’ve picked certifications based on what looked interesting at the time, or what related to a skill I’d been using at work, rather than having a clear roadmap of where I wanted my career to go. I’ve also sometimes leant towards the Pokémon approach of “gotta collect them all!” So, I think it’s time to look back and review which of these were worthwhile, and which I’d recommend to other people.

    NB I’m not including my university degrees in this list, because they’re academic rather than vocational. I’m also not including the European Computer Driving License (ECDL), because that’s aimed at end users rather than IT professionals.

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  • BCS CISMP (v9)

    In March 2022, I passed the CISMP-V9 exam, and gained the BCS Foundation Certificate in Information Security Management Principles.

    As the name suggests, this is related to setting up an ISMS (Information Security Management System). Basically, it falls under GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) rather than hands-on technical skills.

    So, who’s the target audience for this certification? I’d recommend the Security+ to anyone who works in IT, but the CISMP is only relevant to a smaller group. Be aware that this won’t teach you how to set up an ISMS from scratch. It’s a foundation certification, so it’s really just laying the groundwork, by introducing concepts.

    When I was looking at a QA training course for the CPSA, they recommended the CISMP as a pre-requisite. Now that I’ve done both exams, I’d say that the CISMP isn’t really relevant to the CPSA at all! However, I did find the CISMP useful for IASME Cyber Assurance.

    The CISMP meets the requirements for Accredited Affiliate membership of the CIISec (Chartered Institute of Information Security). However, the Security+ also meets the CIISec requirements (along with various other certifications), and that’s more widely recognised. So, I wouldn’t recommend doing the CISMP just for this, but if you get the CISMP then you might want to look at CIISec membership as a fringe benefit.

    TSG Training did a 40 minute webinar about the CISMP:
    BCS CISMP Webinar : 15th April 2021 – YouTube
    I think that video is worth watching, and the key point they emphasise is that this isn’t a difficult exam.
    NB The sound quality is a bit iffy for the first minute or so, but it gets a lot better when they switch over to the main presenter.

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