CISSP cybersecurity certification: How the gold standard in cybersecurity opens career doors.

The recent announcement made by (ISC)2 has created a buzz in the market, it says that CISSP certification has been formally recognized as comparable to Britain’s Master’s degree standard!

The reports released by GISWS states that there is a workforce gap of 1.8 million in Cybersecurity and can grow more till 2022!

If this is not the right time? Then when?

Any professional or postgraduate who dreams of working in Cybersecurity, must know that this is the right time to get certified with Cybersecurity certifications, and out of all CISSP is the best in the industry, it is considered as a benchmark & trendsetter. The reason for it to be addressed as a golden standard is stated below.

Reasons to address it a Gold Standard
RFQ
The UK’s Regulated Qualifications Framework has assessed thoroughly with comparative analysis of skills in the CISSP & scored level 7 standard, which is comparable to PGCE or Master’s degree, Postgraduate certificate & diploma certifications.
This is a big move by any government’s RFQ & EQF in considering any Cybersecurity certification to such prominence. Note that alone with CISSP certification is not enough to enhance the resume; it requires an educational background in Cybersecurity or InfoSec to penetrate the industry. However, CISSP by (ISC)2 has always been in buzz and treated one of the toughest examinations globally.

CPE
The CPE or Continuing Professional education credits makes it more relevant in Cybersecurity space. The CPE involves a series of activities like

• Completing volunteer work & Serving on industry boards
• Publishing security articles or books & providing security training.
• Self-study with completion of university or college courses and educational workshops.
• Obtaining membership to an association & attending meetings, attending security conferences, and vendor presentations.
• Variety of topics from IoT to AI to presentation skills & communication with C-suite are addressed in the form of online self-paced courses.
These all CPE requirements make the certified professional dive deep into research & development, career advancement, landing in top executive roles, leading & freelancing projects, etc. are achieved easily.

Roles & skills
CISSP certification validates professional capabilities like designing, implementing & managing the Cybersecurity program; besides, it also validates professional expertise & unlocks opportunities as a member in (ISC)2. It is ideal for experienced professionals as security practitioners, managers & executives with a minimum of 7 years of work experience out of which five years only in the Cybersecurity domain.

Job roles such as
• Chief Information Security Officer
• Chief Information Officer
• Director of security
• IT Director or Manager
• Security System Engineer
• Security Analyst
• Security Manager
• Security Auditor
• Security Architect
• Security Consultant
• Network Architect

These roles are open; thus, it is not for everyone & best for Cybersecurity professionals. The (ISC)2 has other certification offerings like SSCP that is for security Administration, CCSP for cloud security, today cloud security has become crucial because it is newer & it’s important to have knowledge & certification in this domain because of its expanding presence globally.

Salary
With CISSP certification, the Cybersecurity posture of an organization is dealt with innovation & expertise on design, implementation, and Cybersecurity strategies, etc. Thus a professional with CISSP is the most sought candidate by any organization globally, which reflects on the paychecks also. A survey conducted by PayScale, ZipRecruiter& certification magazine reveals that in the United States, the average salary of a professional with CISSP is $135000 while globally; it is around $123000 which is a huge figure in the domain of Cybersecurity.

Myth Busters
Does experience supersede CISSP?
Needless to say, that experience is not enough to grow in a career nowadays. Certifications are as essential as having an educational background. Certifications like CISSP help the practitioner to follow the best practices benefiting the employer. Records have revealed that with CISSP certification, professionals have increased 75% in job delivery with accuracy.

Are all job selection based on a pure binary selection between experiences vs. paper qualification?
You must know that CISSP is purely paper-based, meaning exam based qualification with MCQs based on real-life scenarios with tricky answers to choose from. The approach of the exam is more psychometric; it brings the next set of questions depending on the answered choice at the first question. This exam is psychologically exhaustive because the approach is to validate professional expertise concerned with the further development of the problem, design, or whatever is asked in the question.