RE: University Degree or CISSP

[Mark Teicher <mht3 () earthlink net>]

Actually this is a very interesting topic to discuss, one factor to 
add is particular location in the country and some times other 
countries.  If one were to poll different places of the US, HR 
sometimes are not involved until the director or person that is 
interested in hiring the candidate has made up their mind of the 
particular candidate without considering if the potential candidate 
has a degree or CISSP certificate.

Some potential companies don't even care if they hire a CSO without a 
college degree as long as they have the right credentials or list 
that they have 25 years experience in network security and around the 
age of 40 .
The math should go without saying, that should eliminate the 
potential candidate with HR.  Hmm, candidate can't add, but yet 
claims all this experience, possibly this potential candidate 
believes there is 8 layers to the TCP/OSI stack..

It is even more interesting when the potential candidate's resume 
list products and when questioned about them, they state: "That was a 
long time ago, haven't touched in a long time."  Unless they know the 
product inside, outside, backwards and forwards, don't list it.

If the potential candidates submits that they have a CISSP, it is 
very easy to look it up, if the CISSP is expired, the number is no 
longer valid.

/mht

At 12:55 PM 8/30/2005, David Gillett wrote:
>   CISSP is likely to be necessary to get to some of the places
> you might want to go.  But you can't get it without experience,
> so it's not a good answer to your question.
>
>   At this point, I'd say the degree is most critical.  There
> are too many employers where the HR bureaucracy never heard of
> any of these certifications -- all they know is that a great
> way to trim the candidate pool is to chuck out any resume that
> doesn't include a degree.  So without it, you risk never getting
> to the interviewer who knows the field and the certs and can
> decide whether you can do the job.
>
> David Gillett
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: soumyadipta_das () yahoo com [mailto:soumyadipta_das () yahoo com]
> > Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005 2:30 AM
> > To: security-basics () securityfocus com
> > Subject: University Degree or CISSP
> >
> >
> > Is it better (in terms of technology and industry
> > acceptablity) to get a university degree on information
> > security than certifications such as
> > ccna/ccsp, ceh (or security+) and cissp?
> >
> > Soum
> >