Certification Magazine - October 2007 - (Page 22)

Plan your IT career using CertScope, which lists more than 100 CertMag articles on career planning, as well as more than 142 Web sites. certifications than someone who wants to become a technical project manager. The most important part of this development process is to make sure the educational path you take is appropriate for your current role or one you would like to take on in the future, Beliveau-Dunn said. “It’s really important to understand the specific role that you have in the function of your company, to know whether you’re on the planning side, the design side or the implementation side and then make sure that your training and certification maps up to that appropriately,” she said. Although certification’s role in successful career development has sparked robust debate in the recent past, most experts still think it is a useful development tool. Much of the dispute revolves around how certifications should be used and how much of their value depends on relative experience. Beliveau-Dunn said certifications are useful because they provide a valuable educational experience and help individuals gauge how well they understand their technology of choice. “If you look out on the job boards, people do require certifications to get jobs — that hasn’t changed,” she said. “However, what is changing is the way we look at certification. It’s not just a thing you check off a checklist, but it really is a way to help you understand and develop your capabilities as you try to set your own personal goals. It helps you understand where you really are in your knowledge base of a particular applied technology.” Moran, on the other hand, said that as a development tool, certifications are only as valuable as the experience that comes with them. Because so many people have become “paper tigers,” IT pros now have to distinguish their certification experience from that of their peers, he said. “People have to be very careful to not flaunt that they have a certification but flaunt how their certification was put to use,” Moran said. “So, if they’re a Cisco Certified Engineer, [putting] that on their resume means nothing. But if they can follow it up and say, ‘Here’s where those skills have been applied to provide some value,’ then it’s a great feather in their cap.” 8 –Tegan Jones, tjones@certmag.com With the assistance of an experienced mentor and a broader view of company objectives, inexperienced IT professionals generally will find it much easier to set obtainable goals and outline a longterm career path. Yet, because circumstances surrounding an individual’s career plans are constantly changing, Moran suggests people remember the adage “Set your goals in concrete and your plans in sand.” Although you need to have a strong sense of where you would like to go, it’s important to remain flexible about your route, he explained. “You can have a five-year goal to be in a given position, but you might get two and a half years into something and find that you have a radically different interest,” he said. “So, you have to have some flexibility on how you are going to maneuver around.” To avoid getting stuck in a career that might be a bad fit, it’s best for IT pros to keep their goals broad, focused on learning skills or job roles rather than filling specific positions, Moran said. Setting your sights on several small goals, such as leading a team or implementing a specific technology, can guide you naturally toward the next step in your career path in a way that large-scale goals (such as becoming the CIO of a company) can’t. Reviewing goals frequently, preferably with a supervisor or mentor, also helps people keep their goals aligned with their interests and skills, Flynn said. “As you learn more about the industry, your goals are likely to change,” Flynn said. “So, it’s a good idea to set a certain time of year, every six months or every year, when you review your goals and see if what you’re interested in pursuing, what you’d like to learn or the types of projects that you’d like to take on have changed at all.” How you develop your technological skills — including the certifications, study techniques and training courses you pursue — will vary greatly, depending on how these goals change. It will be much more important for someone hoping to become a company’s top security specialist to stay on top of industry 22 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE October 2007 http://www.CertMag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Certification Magazine - October 2007

Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Tech Careers Dear Techie Academic Connection Virtual Village Rebooting Your Career Development Inside Certification Forensics Investigators: Cybercrime Fighters Interface Building Your Skills Through Security Tools Ad Index Endtag

Certification Magazine - October 2007

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