Wednesday, October 6, 2010

How Developing Knowledge and Skills Can Impact Career Success

By Brett Cooley

Continually working to increase knowledge and skill sets is crucial to being successful in todays highly competitive professional environment. This means that it is not enough to be well informed about the latest advances in a professionals field, the professional must attain acknowledgment, recognition, or peer-respected credentials about the knowledge learned or skill acquired. Gaining acknowledgment and recognition could be simply applying the knowledge or skill while performing tasks on the job. The application of knowledge and skills used while on-the-job will be recognized by an employer or clients as experience gained. This experience is an important credential along with acquiring respected educational degrees and professional certifications.

One of the best methods of discovering what knowledge and skills are important and recognized by experts in a specific field would be to review current job boards. Another method of obtaining information about a specific career would be to review journals and articles from respected organizations. Often a job listing will mention credentials provided by some of these respected organizations. For example, I am interested in the field of Information Security. A credential valued and respected by peers in the field of Information Security is known as the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) Certification. This was made know to me by speaking with friends who work in the Security Information field and by reviewing job boards for positions in Information Security. The CISSP certification was developed and maintained by an organization called (ISC)2 (or ISC squared - Information Security Certification Consortium). A description of what (ISC)2 is can best be explained in their own words "We provide vendor-neutral education products, career services, and Gold Standard credentials to professionals in more than 135 countries. (ISC)2 develops and maintains the (ISC)2 CBK, a compendium of information security topics. The CBK is a critical body of knowledge that defines global industry standards, serving as a common framework of terms and principles that our credentials are based upon and allows professionals worldwide to discuss, debate, and resolve matters pertaining to the field. Subject matter experts continually review and update the CBK." The mission of (ISC)2 is: "We make society safer by improving productivity, efficiency and resilience of information-dependent economies through information security education and certification." The preceding information can be found on the About (ISC)2 Internet web page.

Besides providing the valued and peer-respected CISSP technical certification, (ISC)2 also has news and forums regarding the industry. It is also important to mention that the organization has the respect of industry leaders world wide. Viewing news and information from the (ISC)2 organization will enable me to gain insights into how different countries and cultures view the implementation of information security.

With any task done in life, the more an individual knows or experience that individual has acquired, the easier the task will be. This is especially true when working toward acquiring success in a career, because each successful task is a stepping-stone in an individuals career. Gathering knowledge from such organizations such as (ISC)2 can assist me in knowing the best tools available or possible do's and don'ts when implementing information security. Acquiring knowledge is the first step to acquiring more skills than a competitor, and attaining more skills than a competitor can make all the difference between success and failure in a career.

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