RE: Certification (was Re:Vulnerability Response)

[Gwendolynn ferch Elydyr <gwen () reptiles org>]

On Sat, 12 Jun 2004, Laura Taylor wrote:
> Certification is only a qualifier of technical skills. From my experience,
> there is always an obvious solution for the technical problems. The people
> problems are much more difficult to solve, and only years of experience
> polishes up a person's people skills. Typically what separates junior level
> folks from senior level, or executive level, folks is more often not their
> technical skills, but their people skills -- at least in my opinion.

That's an interesting assertion.  I don't believe that certification is
in any respect a predictor of technical skills.

The only thing that certification is a predictor of is your ability to
pass the testing requirements at the time that you were tested. Nothing
else.

Further, many certifications are based on soft-skills[0], not the
ability to recall which flags a command requires.

The critical skill difference that I see between junior and senior level
people is the ability to see a broader picture, and apply plans and
decisions appropriately, rather than acting reactively.

A junior person will say "You need netmeeting? Okay! Let me open the
ports in the firewall".

A senior person will say "You have a need for video conferencing and
ip telephony? Let's see how we can do this securely, while still meeting
your needs".

The CXX will say "We want to be able to talk to our London office from
New York with live video cheaply".

That's planning and vision, not people skills[1].

cheers!
[0] Take a look at the CISSP curiculum
[1] Having people skills doesn't hurt, but I think we can all come up
with a number of senior and CXX folk that have -terrible- people
skills, and a vast number that have mediocre people skills.
==========================================================================
"A cat spends her life conflicted between a deep, passionate and profound
desire for fish and an equally deep, passionate and profound desire to
avoid getting wet.  This is the defining metaphor of my life right now."

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