cissp designation and computer skills question

aboerens

I currently work in finance as a risk analyst. I have my CFE designation, but looking to further my career. I have been thinking about CISSP designation, my question is i am not the most computer savvy guy. I use excel daily and office appications all the time. But I am by no means great with a computer. Do you need to have amazing computer skills and knowledge to obtain this designation?

TheProfezzor

In my own experience, a big factor for passing this exam is industry experience. Like most of the professionals here suggest, experience helps big time for this exam. If you aren't a computer guy and have had no previous experience in the field, you are going to have a very hard time getting the concepts because, you will have to visualize all of it. I would never recommend you to go for CISSP, if you just want the $$$.

aboerens

very informative, I have over 8 years of experience in regulations, investigations and compliance. Like I said I use the computer a lot, excel, microsoft applications, etc. But no experience with programming, networking etc.
I have lots of licenses and CFE designation but no college degree. I was just looking at another avenue to go down, something to make myself more marketable in a field I want to stay in.

aboerens

also I took a practice test on this site for the cissp. It didn't seem too computer based, a lot of security risk related questions.

TheProfezzor

I have a suggestion. Get the "Shon Harris AIO Guide to CISSP CBK 6th". Start reading it from page 1. It's a very lengthy book and you will lose interest very easily, if you don't keep up with it. This book explains the concepts of security in a detail. See if you manage to grasp the concepts of security, one at a time. Also, see if you can memorize standards and numbers. If you feel you are comfortable with CISSP after reading 2 chapters from AIO, I guess you can make it through. You can also attempt the tests at the end of each chapter, once you are done with it.

aboerens

Sounds good I will buy and give it a read. Would you recommend another designation for me?

MSP-IT

Have you thought about the CRISC? I've heard mixed results about the ISACA exams, but that seems to be more along the lines of your current work.

aboerens

I will take a look at that designation. Thanks for the info. I have been trying to figure out a way to enhance my career. I really dont like sales or a lot of interaction, speaking etc so i figure a way to combine my risk/financial crimes background with computers would be the way to go and the way the industry is going. Would you recommend taking some computer classes or starting with another designation, before jumping into somethng like the cissp or the crisc?

JDMurray

IMHO, one of the most useful tools in all of Information Security is Microsoft Excel. Having a mastery of Excel means you can mine and report on data like no one around you. So for a learning experience, I think the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certs are worth looking at too.

aboerens

Sounds good, I have been thinking about taking an advanced excel class, so I guess I wll knock that out this summer