Balancing Certifications & Revisions

iVictor

I see folks continue to up the game and capture the cert-shines with finesse.

So, you have done a handful of certifications within, let's say, an year and going strong. It is a consistent effort that keeps this ball rolling.

What I am interested in knowing is do you plan and do revision of all the subjects that you covered & got certified in an year?

Those that actively do this, how do you keep a balance with the pause & resume for the next certification study.

I understand that some subjects may or may not be your primary domain of work. How do you balance it up with the overall picture then - preparing for the next cert, revising what you have done and studying, practicing and revising the subjects that are not your direct line of work?

I feel this is an important aspect of certification studies & preparations.

I'd like to hear how you guys approach this.

+Victor

docrice

In my case, things are very fluid. My certification path has veered more than expected depending on new job responsibilities, mood, industry trends, personal interests, and so on. Most of my certs center around a common skills base so revising them periodically with additional studies in the same area (say for example, the CCNP: Security track) would only reinforce and build upon what I already got certified in.

There was a time when I wanted to get an MCITP as I've been working on Microsoft technologies for a long while, but I'm also relieved that I didn't since I don't really focus on the sysadmin side of things anymore and my efforts around networking has paid off much nicer. I'll miss it, but I can't be a generalist forever, even if that knowledge would benefit me strongly in my current job.

In the security scene, things shift often and so I just have to adapt as things roll along. I'm sure I'll have to let some things slide depending on what work requires and the amount of real left-over time available at home. I'd say that I hit the pause and resumes buttons somewhat irregularly. At some point (especially with the deep concentration subjects), you have to spend plenty of time doing the work in the area that a given certification covered, which leaves a lot less time for new cert studies than before. It's dangerous to stretch yourself too thin. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

N2IT

iVictor wrote: »

I see folks continue to up the game and capture the cert-shines with finesse.

So, you have done a handful of certifications within, let's say, an year and going strong. It is a consistent effort that keeps this ball rolling.

What I am interested in knowing is do you plan and do revision of all the subjects that you covered & got certified in an year?

Those that actively do this, how do you keep a balance with the pause & resume for the next certification study.

I understand that some subjects may or may not be your primary domain of work. How do you balance it up with the overall picture then - preparing for the next cert, revising what you have done and studying, practicing and revising the subjects that are not your direct line of work?

I feel this is an important aspect of certification studies & preparations.

I'd like to hear how you guys approach this.

+Victor

Victor you seem to have some very technicial certifications. With all those I would have difficulty keeping up that's for sure.

My basic plan is around service management, so anything service management or project management I tend to go towards. That is about where my scope ends. I also do a lot of financial reading and studying. I have some vendor certs and some CompTIA's because of the stakeholders expectations. They wanted the team lead to have some technical comptency and with me having those certifications I show that, I guess

So in a nut shell I keep moving forward in service management and focus on 3 things. Frameworks (ITIL, ISO, ITSM, PMI, etc), Financials, and Technology.

Technology for me would be the use of tools like SharePoint or Access.

mikedisd2

iVictor wrote: »

What I am interested in knowing is do you plan and do revision of all the subjects that you covered & got certified in an year?

No there is simply way too much to cover with a reasonable amount of depth. I'm studying for my MCITP right now and am getting a reminder of all sorts of things I learnt during the MCSE which I'd forgotten about because it's stuff that never got used. Anything that comes up in my job, I could simply brush up on and address when required.

[cringe]In nerd talk, think of it as an incremental knowledge transfer on demand instead of a routine full knowledge transfer. [/cringe]

instant000

iVictor wrote: »

I see folks continue to up the game and capture the cert-shines with finesse.

So, you have done a handful of certifications within, let's say, an year and going strong. It is a consistent effort that keeps this ball rolling.

What I am interested in knowing is do you plan and do revision of all the subjects that you covered & got certified in an year?

Those that actively do this, how do you keep a balance with the pause & resume for the next certification study.

I understand that some subjects may or may not be your primary domain of work. How do you balance it up with the overall picture then - preparing for the next cert, revising what you have done and studying, practicing and revising the subjects that are not your direct line of work?

I feel this is an important aspect of certification studies & preparations.

I'd like to hear how you guys approach this.

+Victor

For the most part, what I do at work keeps me up on the basics. To get that next tier of knowledge, though, you kind of just have to work at it.

I always strive to be that guy in the office that others come to when they need help.

powerfool

A shark survives by always moving. I have essentially three tracks that I have pursued: Microsoft, Cisco, and Security. Honestly, from a security perspective, you need to have a firm understanding of what you are securing, else you won't be any good, which is why I still keep up on my Microsoft stuff, and it is why I went down the Cisco security track. Now, I am moving towards management certifications (PMP, namely). For Cisco, I have to take one exam every three years in order to keep my certs current. For Microsoft, I have to recertify, but MS exams aren't too difficult. For security, I have to do continued studies, but they all overlap with each other and my grad school studies. Honestly, it really isn't that difficult if you keep working... the products evolve and you either pick up the new stuff along the way or you need to study on the side to develop it... either way, you need the knowledge for work... so use it for the certifications, too.

iVictor

@docrice I second you that these days, a day just don't have enough hours. There're too many subjects & books to pick up & go over again. Plus more subjects to study & get certified in.

I don't understand what you mean by stretching self too thin though...

@N2IT It's challenging to keep up and I love every moment of it.

@mikedisd2 I think you are right about the analogy of an incremental KT on demand. But I'd differ that this serves the objective of going over the curricula & domains in holistic way. It certainly would keep the skill afresh with the new ones added on top, but I doubt it'd be easy for someone to dig out a topic when it is needed, only excuse being that it was studied long time ago & one is out-of-touch now. I reckon this approach is probably the most prevelant in any field.

@instant000 I hear ya. Becoming the go to guy can be useful. I'd think with this approach, having a group of people who are as charged up as I am towards the studies and / or learning new stuff, will be more helpful as a catalyst in revising the subjects. Which seems to imply that an ease of giving time to plan & revise, is now directly proportional to the calibre & learning desire of my peers / team members. If they are interested, then I revise actively; if they are not, I create different priorities. This also implies, potentially I could get stuck to be just up on basic levels with this approach. Nevertheless, it can vary from individual to individual, with how much drive (s)he has.

@powerfool Thanx & it appears your approach is same as of mikedisd2, that is of an incremental, on-demand way of revising.

Thanks everyone for sharing your views.

My approach on this aspect has been firstly & foremost to identify and do certs that are directly related to my current & next planned roles [ i.e. in the next 1 year / next job ]. This makes it easier for me to continuously stay in touch with the topics cos they come in use, quite regularly, if not frequently. For instance, when I worked as Sys admin, I gathered up MS related certs, which allowed me to learn, practice & revise [ LPR ] every day. Similarly, with the networking & nw security related certs [ CCNA & CCSP ], I was regularly in touch with the theory & hands-on. In my current, pentesting role, CISSP & GIAC [ GPEN & GCIH ] studies have become an inseparable component bcos of the nature of remediation reports, advisory services & discussions that are written for & held with the customer.

Secondly, I try to plan out an approximate set of activities, subject to my projects & travel schedules, wherein I 'have' to study certain topics from say, Cisco, GPEN or CEH or malware analysis etc. This 'pushing' is cruel at times, no, most of the times [ new cert studies, projects, getting social [ what's that? ], sleeping < 5h a day, missing beers at weekends etc ], if you know what I mean, but that's a necessary good . Some of these activities, which I've found useful in my experience, is to prepare & deliver trainings to my teams, & writing tech articles / blog posts etc. This makes me revise some topics that needed polishing up a bit & attacts an audience, which like instant000 said, makes me a bit of the go to guy in a way, for certain topics, & in turn makes me push more without ranting.

Finally, I confess I do not know how to use the pause button . Like docrice said, fiddling with pause & resume is irregular. The only time I hit the P button, is right after when I get certified on a new subject [ taking time to plan for the next ], when I am pushing out planned activities, or when I am freakingly jacked up with projects.

Besides all this, we have some pretty good books [ non-cert ] come out often. I have the 'Human Hacker', 'Kernel exploitation', 'Malware analyst cookbook' & few others sitting on my desk, and staring at me like hot, desperate girlfriends, saying come get me dude .

Damn, the days are getting shorter.
Oh & btw, has anyone ever called you a cert freak?