I provisionally passed the exam a long time ago, but there are endorsement requirements for this certification — so today, after much waiting on paperwork from the organizing body, I am fully and officially a Certified Information Systems Security Professional.

Due to NDA, I can’t say too much about the test, but I will say it’s extremely difficult. This is one of the few tests I had to study a great deal for and though I passed the first time, it was not a cakewalk. (I am used to tests being cakewalks.) Don’t get me wrong, it’s a three hour test and I still finished in 42 minutes with the minimum number of questions*. But I usually finish three hour tests in 10 minutes.

I like this certification because it is vendor neutral and only requires ongoing education to renew, not the vast amount of studying required to do it all over again.

But glad that’s on the ol’ résumé.

*It’s adaptive, so the algo will ask more questions if it’s not certain of your knowledge.