From our friend the “rabbott” she writes about her experiences getting certified:
Finally. That’s the first word that jumped to my mind when I received the Email from ISACA telling me whether or not I passed the CISM Exam. This one Email was about to tell me if I was going to have a good or bad day.
See, I’ve been in Info Sec for several years now and used goals, client feedback, and performance reviews to measure my success as a professional in this field. Certification never really crossed my mind until after a transfer into a new position. A position where my creds would carry a bit more weight with the department I was tasked to work with. The fear inducing department known as Internal Audit [queue thunder]. So, off I went. I ordered a couple exams books, hounded the auditors for information on IA best practices and used what I knew to study up for the CISA exam. My goal was to eat, drink and breathe all things audit for the next six months. I was determined to pass this exam. And I did. I found myself holding my head a bit higher after that. Everyone took notice and success was mine. That’s when I knew that I had to keep going.
Onto the next one. Because I’ve been in Security for so many years now, I assumed that studying for my CISM would be cake. Well, I was only partially right. I found domains that required more exploration and practices that weren’t necessarily what I was accustomed to in my working environment. I gave myself two months and one exam book to get this information down. On the day of the exam, I remember telling myself that the most important thing was to pay attention to how the question was phrased. That, if anything, would be what would trip me up. You get four hours for the exam. The first person was done in well under two hours. Good for him. Me, I needed that time. I read and re-read each question and some were read multiple times. There was no way I was going to fail because I didn’t read the question right. It took just over three hours. I walked out of the exam room feeling pretty good about my performance. Now the wait. Two entire months of wondering whether or not I can add the CISM designation to my little collection of certs. The results hit my inbox… It was a good day!