Re: "Skills gap"?

[John Bambenek <bambenek.infosec () gmail com>]

Oh, some people try to write a good test and we can have a nice 
discussion about psychometrics and the lot, but at the end, we haven't 
even figured out K-12 testing. It's a hard problem with no solution.

In our field, we need to be able to DO things, not be able to recite 
knowledge.  And testing the ability to DO things in an objective way can 
be kinda hard.

So, until then, resume your regularly scheduled hoop jumping and 
ransom-pay for your CISSP certs ;)

On 11/29/12 7:31 AM, Rich Kulawiec wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 24, 2012 at 09:24:29PM -0600, John Bambenek wrote:
> > That said, I've been helping write/audit SANS certifications for
> > awhile.  I'm simply ineligible to take them (for what should be
> > obvious reasons).  I got real tired of submitting resumes and being
> > told I need a GSEC/GCIH/et al.  I'd respond with I wrote part of the
> > question bank and some HR bean counter just didn't get it and
> > insisted I needed the paper.  I ended up taking the CISSP cold one
> > weekend just to have something and even then I got tired of paying
> > the annual ransom for letters that meant nothing.
> Certifications are, in theory, a good idea.
>
> Certifications are, in practice, crap.
>
> Which isn't surprising really, if one takes Deep Throat's advice and
> follows the money.  It rapidly becomes obvious that certification programs
> are designed to maximize revenue, not to promote and/or measure expertise.
> (Even those that start out with the latter goal and the best of intentions
> inevitably gravitate to the former.)
>
> This is a problem particularly in the security arena because, as you
> astutely point out, HR bean counters look for them and resumes without
> are routinely roundfiled -- never mind that the senders of those resumes
> could *easily* be the most qualified applicants by a wide margin.  They
> have become a shortcut for the technically illiterate and the impatient,
> and unfortunately they're a shortcut that doesn't work.
>
> I don't have any (viable) idea how to fix this.
>
> ---rsk
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