Certification – July 2019

OVERALL QUALITY OF THE

EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Excellent: 25.7 percent

Very Good: 30.5 percent

Good: 26 percent

Fair: 5.2 percent

Poor: 1.5 percent

Does Not Apply: 11.1 percent

Certification Report Card

Many individuals looking to enter a new field, or expand the scope of their expertise, turn to certification. A certain

amount of what exam candidates do to prepare is beyond the scope of a typical certification program, but the sponsoring

organization is directly responsible for some aspects of the overall experience, and involved in many others. Are informa-

tion security certification programs meeting the needs of aspiring IT professionals? We asked survey respondents to assess

their most recent certification experience and tell us how certification providers are doing in a variety of areas.

QUALITY OF THE LEARNING

MATERIALS

Excellent: 27.1 percent

Very Good: 35.7 percent

Good: 24.2 percent

Fair: 4.8 percent

Poor: 3 percent

Does Not Apply: 5.2 percent

VALUE FOR THE PRICE PAID

Excellent: 21.9 percent

Very Good: 25.7 percent

Good: 27.1 percent

Fair: 11.2 percent

Poor: 5.2 percent

Does Not Apply: 8.9 percent

QUALITY OF YOUR TEST/EXAM

Excellent: 25.7 percent

Very Good: 35.3 percent

Good: 27.9 percent

Fair: 7 percent

Poor: 1.5 percent

Does Not Apply: 2.6 percent

COMPREHENSIVENESS

OF THE PROGRAM

Excellent: 23 percent

Very Good: 30.5 percent

Good: 22.7 percent

Fair: 5.9 percent

Poor: 1.9 percent

Does Not Apply: 16 percent

QUALITY OF YOUR INSTRUCTORS

Excellent: 23.4 percent

Very Good: 20.1 percent

Good: 9.7 percent

Fair: 4.5 percent

Poor: 2.2 percent

Does Not Apply: 40.1 percent

CERTIFICATION SURVEY

SECURITY

Three of the top four responses
are directly employment-related. The
most popular choice is “Gain qualifi-
cations for a future job,” followed by
“Improve or confirm qualifications for
my current job.” “Gain greater con-
fidence in my own skills,” narrowly
edged ahead of “Become eligible for
positions of greater responsibility with
my current employer.”

Workplace and education

Every business or organization has
to grapple with information securi-

ty-related challenges in 2019. To judge

by our survey audience, however,

a sizeable chunk of the information

security jobs available are focused in

three workplace sectors: government

(17 percent of those surveyed), com-

puter or network consulting (13.1

percent), and financial services (11

percent).

Other popular employment sec-

tors include education (7.4 percent of

respondents), software (6.4 percent),

aerospace (6 percent), and health or

medical services (also 6 percent).

For teens and young adults who are

considering information security as a

potential career, definitely don’t rule

out higher education. Among survey

respondents, 34.9 percent pursued

their formal education far enough to

hold a bachelor’s degree, while 34.6

percent went one step further and

claimed a master’s degree.

There’s more information to come

from our survey. Over the coming

months, we’ll be posting addition-

al findings online at CertMag.com,

where you can also find ongoing dis-

patches from our 2019 Salary Survey.