New Goal: BS IT-Security at WGU.

[dfrecore]

At least most of the certifications are desirable. The software development program has awful certifications: three CIW certifications related to web development and we already know how worthless those are, COMPTIA A+ and it doesn't seem relevant to the goals of the program, and COMPTIA Project +.

Yeah, my husband is not at all impressed with the certs for WGU's Cybersecurity degree, even though he likes the degree. All of the CompTIA certs are worthless, CIW ones are worthless as well - and none screams "cybersecurity expert." He won't even put those on his resume. He's actually interested in the CCSP and SSCP, but really, they should have included the CISSP, which is very highly regarded.

[jsd]

At least most of the certifications are desirable. The software development program has awful certifications: three CIW certifications related to web development and we already know how worthless those are, COMPTIA A+ and it doesn't seem relevant to the goals of the program, and COMPTIA Project +.

Yeah there is only one CIW certification in my program, and it is pointless. A+ is at least relevant to my degree path in theory (but like you said obviously not so much in software dev), but Program+ is kind of pointless -- I don't think anyone directly involved in project management would ever care about P+, they want PMP or CAPM. But everything else seem somewhat worthwhile for me.

[jsd]

All of the CompTIA certs are worthless

Useless maybe as far as proving your knowledge to your peers, but very useful when it comes to HR checkboxes. CompTIA is what they love to see for whatever reason, and Security+ can meet required DoD hiring security qualifications.

He's actually interested in the CCSP and SSCP, but really, they should have included the CISSP, which is very highly regarded.

CCSP/SSCP are good, EC CIH is... okay. ITIL Foundations isn't bad to have (though obviously not cybersec specific).

CISSP requires 5 years professional industry experience (consecutive I believe), which is a hard sell for a bachelors program where many people will be new to the field professionally (or not yet in the field at all). It'd make more sense to see that in the MS program, but they don't have any plans for that last I saw.

[dfrecore]

Useless maybe as far as proving your knowledge to your peers, but very useful when it comes to HR checkboxes. CompTIA is what they love to see for whatever reason, Since every new job he's gotten for the last 10+ years has been through a recruiter or a friend, he hasn't had to apply and go through that hiring process like normal, so I didn't think about it from that perspective. Also, it depends on the position you're going for, and how high level it is - he hasn't had to meet any HR checkboxes yet. He's in IT sales (sales engineer) so they're not looking for CompTIA certs at his level. They're looking at his relationships with customers and things like that. And, as someone who worked in HR for a long time, I did not tell the hiring manager what I thought was important, he/she told me what they wanted to see, so I guess I still don't see it from that perspective. But I believe you if you say so.

and Security+ can meet required DoD hiring security qualifications. Not applicable to him, but good to know.

CCSP/SSCP are good, EC CIH is... okay. ITIL Foundations isn't bad to have (though obviously not cybersec specific). CCSP and SSCP are applicable to his job, so his company will pay for them. And it will be useful to have on his resume. I will have him look more into the EC-CIH and ITIL.

CISSP requires 5 years professional industry experience (consecutive I believe), which is a hard sell for a bachelors program where many people will be new to the field professionally (or not yet in the field at all). I forgot about that part. He's had it before, and it's one of the certs that helped get his foot in the door at the beginning (obviously at least 5 years into his career). I forget that some people going for this degree won't have the experience necessary.

Always good to get other people's perspective jsd, thanks.

[jsd]

Quick Q, JSD, have you been through the C170 (Database Applications) course yet?

It's one of the ten or so I'll certainly have left to complete and I've heard some frightening things, so I was hoping for a trusted perspective.

I'm actually on c175, which despite its numbering is the precursor to c170. If this was my first intro to data management, I would be horrified. The course material is terrible and completely unengaging. Everything through uCertify has been bad, but usually they're for cert exams so it's easy to find better material. This course is an in house exam, so there's no real other options.

I'll be traveling until the first week of July, and my term ends at the end of July, so this will probably be my last course for my term, and I'll start c170 in August. I don't like spending so much time on a course, but traveling means I've barely looked at it. Oh well.

I took the principles of management pre-assessment and got "exemplary" in all categories, but my mentor told me to save the actual final for next term with some other finals I have lined up so we can knock out OTP in a couple weeks and have all the time in the world for CCENT/CCNA/CCNA Sec next term.

[jsd]

As I said in my previous post, I was travelling for a few weeks so I was a bit useless. But I'm back home now, and I passed my Data Management Foundations course today.

My term ends at the end of this month, so my mentor probably won't bring in another course (just to be on the safe side if I run out of time), and it'd be nice to relax for a few weeks anyway. I passed the pre-assessment "principles of management" and would easily be able to knock that out before the end of the term, but like I stated in my previous post I think we're just going to save it for next month so i hit OTP very quickly.

I'll probably spend the next month casually studying for the Cisco CCENT certification since it's a bit of down time and I'm worried about how I'll do on the cisco stuff.

32 CUs in 5 months. Not bad

[jsd]

Now that my mentor trusts me, he's opened my OA for me as soon as I started my last few courses. For my first few courses before i "proved" myself, he'd wait until I got 10 percentage points above the cut score on the pre-assessment. I'd send him a note when I passed and he'd open it up within a day for me to schedule it with Examity.

Same with certs. After I asked the mentor to open it up I could schedule with Pearson VUE within a day.

If your mentor is lazy about checking messages I guess it could take longer. But you have their number too so I guess you could call and bug them. It's never been an issue for me though. My mentor responds late in the evening sometimes too, so he seems pretty available.

[jsd]

Speaking of cut scores, they're changing them so you don't really see a percentage anymore, just if you're "not competent, competent, or exemplary" now. so I'm not sure how the practice thing will work. It's a dumb change.

[rowan555]

Speaking of cut scores, they're changing them so you don't really see a percentage anymore, just if you're "not competent, competent, or exemplary" now. so I'm not sure how the practice thing will work. It's a dumb change.

Yep, now mentors want you to master each content area before they unlock the OA. It's stressing my son out a bit, as he isn't good with change and this changed just as he got used to the cut score system. His mentor unlocks the OA within an hour of my son completing the pre-assessment, but he has to schedule OAs 3 days out (in the business school, not sure how it is with other schools). He's been timing classes such that he does the pre-assessment on Friday then schedules the OA for Monday.

[Thorne]

Speaking of cut scores, they're changing them so you don't really see a percentage anymore, just if you're "not competent, competent, or exemplary" now. so I'm not sure how the practice thing will work. It's a dumb change.

Hopefully it won't stick long-term. If it's as bad as some people make it seem, I may not want to go through the MSCSIA after all.

Yep, now mentors want you to master each content area before they unlock the OA. It's stressing my son out a bit, as he isn't good with change and this changed just as he got used to the cut score system. His mentor unlocks the OA within an hour of my son completing the pre-assessment, but he has to schedule OAs 3 days out

I'll be crossing my fingers. That wait structure is going to get in the way of the schedule, too. At least with Cert tests, I should be able to take most of them through ProctorU instead of driving 45 minutes to my nearest testing center.