There seems to be a debate in the industry about cybersecurity certifications – whether or not they’re worthwhile. It’s something I’m going to cover in my upcoming book – the pros and cons of each. However, I came across an article which sums up nicely three reasons why they are essential.

Cybersecurity Certifications

Cybersecurity Certifications Prove Your Worth

There are of course plenty of ways to do this, but cybersecurity certifications give employers a benchmark against which you can be measured, and against which they can compare you with other candidates. They also require maintenance, which means that when you have them and keep them it shows you are remaining current in your field.

Cybersecurity Certifications Give You Instant Street Cred

All certs require effort, study, and mastery of a subject. This shows employers that you have drive, determination, and follow-through.

Cybersecurity Certifications Catapult Your Career

This shows in people’s earnings – when I earned my CISSP, my salary jumped by $30,000 in one single year. (I did switch jobs, but it meant I could ask for much more in that switch.) I have a very unique skillset, and very niche, and it puts me in high demand. The certifications I have (CISSP, CCFP, and GREM) are all keywords that recruiters and employers search for, and I often have three to five recruiters contacting me every week. It’s a nice problem to have!

The really cool thing about this is it allows you to design your lifestyle.

The Counter-Argument

The counter-argument is of course the “paper tiger” argument – that people can get certifications so easily that they don’t mean anything. This is valid to a certain extent, and I think was much more so back in the day of the easy-to-get-MCSE for instant. Yet these days certifiers have incentives to make their certifications more difficult to get and maintain, so they have become more difficult over time and the paper tiger argument I think is less relevant.

What are your thoughts on certifications?