Certification is About Clearing the Hurdles, Not Proving Knowledge

I'm a CISSP, I used to be a CCNA, and soon I'll have the GIAC-GSNA (System and Network Auditor) certification... I don't think certificates are useless, but too many people have the wrong expectations of their usefulness, especially entry level certs. If you use certifications as a gauge of the effort a professional has put into their career advancement, you'll find them useful. But if you're trying to use them as a benchmark of knowledge, expect the lowest common denominator necessary to pass the test. To paraphrase and old joke, what do they call a CISSP who barely passed his test? A CISSP.

Read this weblog post by Martin McKeay.