CISSP vs. CISM Certification – Which is best for me?

Now is a perfect time to be certified, and why not choose to be CISM or CISSP certified? With so many people working from home, you may have some extra time on your hands to study for a certification exam instead of being stuck in a long commute, so why not select a cybersecurity certification to study for in 2021. Recent reports indicate with a near zero unemployment rate for cybersecurity professionals there may be more open positions than qualified candidates.

CISM and CISSP are two of the most highly requested certifications for cybersecurity practitioners, but the requirements for certification aren’t insignificant. They both require a significant investment of time to learn everything covered in the exam, and over $700 just to sit for the exam. Let’s take a look at the requirements for both certifications to help you make the correct decision on which exam you should take in 2021.

How To Find Satisfying Work

I was invited to write an article for LinkedIn, and I selected the subject of How To Find Satisfying Work. We all hope that we will find a career that we find rewarding and that makes us happy.

Do you know what it takes to find a job that makes you happy?

Here is how to do it well, at any age:

Get yourself accustomed to trying new things. To find work you love, you have to try working at lots of different jobs, maybe 10 or even 100 different jobs. You are limited only by the ideas you have for what to try. Sometimes it starts as a child, when you try different things like painting, music, playing soccer, summer jobs, etc. Each job or task involves different skills, and you will have to learn which skills feel best to you. Knowing what you like to do is essential because, as studies show, satisfying work is the intersection of what what you like to do, what you are good at, and what an organization values. For many people, knowing the intersection of these three areas is the hardest part of their adult life.
Don’t think you’re above valuing prestige. We would like to think that we are above choosing careers based on how people think of us. But sometimes what other people think about our career matters more than the money earned from that career. This makes sense to me because when was the last time you heard someone brag about their job and you felt impressed, or when you tell people about your job you wonder if they will approve or even be impressed by your career choices. Many a parent has raised kids hoping they won’t make the same career choices they made, not because of low pay or how hard they will have to work, but because they don’t feel proud of the work.
Understand your impact. There is a lot of research about how the most important things we need for job satisfaction are meaningful work, responsibility, and knowledge of the outcome. Sometimes just knowing what you are doing is important to the business is enough to make you feel proud or needed. If you don’t feel your work matters, it just has no meaning or purpose (maybe you feel it is busy work) and you won’t feel the same way as when you know what you are doing is essential.

I hope you read the entire article and take action today to start doing what makes you happy.

How important are you to your company?

I was invited to write an article for LinkedIn, and I selected the subject of just how important are you to your company. We all hope we are considered important to our employer, and we also hope they continue to value that relationship so that the paychecks keep coming. But have you really thought about that relationship and considered not just how you feel, but do they feel the same way?

Like a romantic relationship in your personal life, a business relationship can end with disinterest or even anger. You have to work hard to keep a romantic relationship working, but both sides of that relationship have to be willing to fight hard to keep everything together. In your business relationship with your employer, are both sides fighting hard to keep that relationship on happy terms?

As unsettling as the prospect of an honest answer might be, the answer you get from the company might be that you are not the right fit for the company and it’s time to move on to greener pastures. In an article by Roger Philby, founder and chief executive of The Chemistry Group, he says he asked a group of Human Resource Directors that type of question and almost 70% said they would start all over again with new people at almost all levels.

The reason for this answer is found the idea of finding the perfect employee. The person that is the elite employee, what Roger calls a “Linchpin”. Linchpins are people that the company can rely on and whose discretionary work is always of high quality, regardless of their salary or position. They understand the value of the organization’s brand and are on message every time.

Linchpins are the top 20-25% of all employees. Are you in the top 25% of all employees at your company? If you walked into your company today for a job interview, what would your chances be of landing your target position? Would your company hire you again today?

I hope you read the entire article and take action today to either improve a stale relationship, or find a new place for a rewarding career.