Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Thoughts on Industry Certifications
Many folks are aware that I am leading a project for OWASP to create a software security certification and have been doing research on making it more credible than CISSP, MCSE, SCJP and CCIE combined...
My preliminary take on the marketplace is that the folks who make the effort to take certification exams tend to be located in North America, Western Europe or Japan. I cannot find much evidence of folks studying for exams in India, China, South America or Eastern European countries. It can be assumed that many folks in India, China and Brazil are highly credentialed but otherwise junior in their experience and ability. Maybe their participation will increase once the masses improve. What is more curious is the fact that females aren't studying either.
In my own network, I started to noodle how many female software security professionals I personally know and could only come up with Holly, Diane, Melissa and Sherry. I would like to think I am connected, but when I can't count on two hands, I know something has gone horribly wrong. The real question is what actions need to be taken to make this better...
| | View blog reactionsMy preliminary take on the marketplace is that the folks who make the effort to take certification exams tend to be located in North America, Western Europe or Japan. I cannot find much evidence of folks studying for exams in India, China, South America or Eastern European countries. It can be assumed that many folks in India, China and Brazil are highly credentialed but otherwise junior in their experience and ability. Maybe their participation will increase once the masses improve. What is more curious is the fact that females aren't studying either.
In my own network, I started to noodle how many female software security professionals I personally know and could only come up with Holly, Diane, Melissa and Sherry. I would like to think I am connected, but when I can't count on two hands, I know something has gone horribly wrong. The real question is what actions need to be taken to make this better...
