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Anyone else here write the CISSP exam ever?

PostPosted:Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:56 pm
by Oracle
I was informed that I was going to attend an exam seminar to prepare for writing the CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) in late December. I kinda freaked out, because I heard people saying you need at least 3 months to study for this thing.


After reading a massive prep-guide during January (around 1100 pages), we attended the seminar. It was Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm with the 6 hour exam on the Saturday immediately after.

Got the news today that I passed, I really couldn't believe it. Now I just have to prove that I have 5 years experience to attain full certification.

This is one of the top certifications for my field, so I'm pretty pumped. Just curious if anyone else had written it here, and if it fucked your head as bad as it did mine when I wrote it.

PostPosted:Thu Feb 19, 2009 1:57 pm
by bovine
Yay! congrats!

PostPosted:Thu Feb 19, 2009 2:39 pm
by Zeus
Congrats, man. Getting a top-end certification or designation is always a great thing

PostPosted:Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:04 pm
by SineSwiper
That's one of the highest Cisco certs, right? If not, I'm thinking of the one where you build a full scale network in a lab, go to lunch, and fix what they broke in your lab to pass the exam. (I guess yours doesn't have 'Network' in the label...)

I remember a story about one guy who failed to figure out what went wrong. The Cisco techs had put a EMF-heavy device near the network. He didn't think it was fair, but they commented "you have to be aware of your surroundings".

(Also reminds me if my father-in-law's story of replacing all of the ethernet with fiber optics at a Ford plant because of all of the welding going on.)

PostPosted:Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:20 pm
by Tessian
Damn man I'm jealous... I need to get that this year!

CISSP is THE certification for Information Security professionals (and no Sine, it has nothing to do with Cisco). I have the experience, I just need to spend the ~$2200 for a similar 5 day course to get it :\. I'm pretty sure I'm the only other person in ISS here so you're the only one with that cert. All I got so far is Security+

Congrats!

PostPosted:Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:31 pm
by Blotus
You're kinda like Jesus to me.

PostPosted:Thu Feb 19, 2009 10:40 pm
by SineSwiper
Ahh, I was thinking of the CCIE. That is the only cert when you have the right to be called a Network God. Only 20K of them in the entire planet.

PostPosted:Thu Feb 19, 2009 11:07 pm
by Oracle
Tessian wrote:Damn man I'm jealous... I need to get that this year!

CISSP is THE certification for Information Security professionals (and no Sine, it has nothing to do with Cisco). I have the experience, I just need to spend the ~$2200 for a similar 5 day course to get it :\. I'm pretty sure I'm the only other person in ISS here so you're the only one with that cert. All I got so far is Security+

Congrats!
I took the 5 day prep seminar through Deloitte. John Berti was the instructor. I can definitely say I would have failed the test if not for his course.

I was lucky, my work paid my way through it. Our IT Security Department just got 3 CISSPs :) Think we're up to 5 or 6 now.

And I was going to do Security+ first, but this came up so fast, and I couldnt say no.

PostPosted:Fri Feb 20, 2009 7:58 am
by Tessian
Security+ is good entry level but that's it. I read a book for a few weeks and passed that one. I'm supposed to be trying for CCNA right now (Cisco Certified Network Associate) but it's a lot of material and I've never worked directly with network equipment before... I want to just forget it but I don't think I can now that my boss knows I'm going for it.

I'm 1 of 2.5 Information Security professionals in my company (we get half time from a 3rd person) and only one of us, my boss, has CISSP. I plan to go for it the first half of this year but the way my company's going I'd be lucky if they re-imbursed me for the cost of the exam, forget the class. It's expensive but necessary I guess. Those 5 day cram sessions seem to be the most popular way to go and would definitely work for me, just a lot of time at once to be away.