This time last year I posted an article about the most in-demand and respected certifications in IT. Three weeks ago I obtained one of them, the Project Mgmt Professional credential (PMP). Right after I wrote my article, I kept thinking about getting the PMP more than any of the certifications I listed. I managed several projects with multiple deliverables, often staffed by consultants or serviced by vendors. I had more than the required number of PM hours under me (PMI requires that you have about 4500 hours of project management experience, and even more if you do not have a college degree), and I had deep experience in at least 4 of the 5 domains covered by the PMBOK Guide.
So the PMP just made sense. I filed my application and took the journey, and it’s really a great feeling to pass such a recognized (and difficult) exam.
My thoughts now turn to “what’s next?”. What do I want to learn, validate that I know, and what direction do I want to take as an IT project manager? There is the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE R/S) certification, which remains one of the hardest to obtain and most respected certs. I’ve been thinking about attempting the CCIE Written exam in this spring. That would put me on a 6 to 18-month journey to sit the CCIE lab exam.
But then there are the recent Sony hacks and literally 100s of other security breaches reported in the past year (that we know of). And it makes me wonder if the better way to go for an IT PM, is to look to another respected and difficult-to-obtain certifcation: the CISSP. The Certified Information Systems Security Professional is one of the best credentials for engineers and IT PMs to attain if they work anywhere near projects and opreations that require security.
If you work in IT you know exactly what all these certs are, what it means to learn and validate a skillset (but not overvalue certs over experience), and so you probably get it when I went MIA to study for the PMP. For those not in the biz: IT guys used to get the “MCSE” (Microsoft) and/or “CCNA/CCNP” (Cisco) certs and stop there (like I did). Those were very respected and fatastic certifications, but I want to move further afield.
I want to continue my learning, but I also balance this with writing (which includes contributing something to this poorly-maintained blog, occasionaly).
So I tossed a coin, and decided on the CISSP. I think I can be ready for it in about 2 months, and I think I can do this while writing more on the blog. Game on!
Who knows I could end up with a CISSP/CCIE/PMP combo by 2016. That combo is probably held by only a tiny fraction of (well-compensated) IT geeks worldwide. Not a bad place to be in, since I must pay for my mom’s increasing care as she approaches age 90, and I want to start a family. These studies and credentials will help me do all that, while keeping employer independence and do it without needing an MBA or needing to become CIO (which I have little-to-no interest in ever doing — yuck! No offense to any executives reading this).
But in the end it’s not just about having enough money to continue providing dignity for my elderly mom, or starting a family: I love technology. And with security and DevOps becoming the largest growing areas on my industry, I think I have a good gameplan to continue doing what I love for a long time to come.
Originally published at julianwest.me on December 25, 2014.