The Linux Foundation Assesses a Key IT Employment Landscape
Open source is the umbrella term for any software that is, per Wikipedia, "released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose." That definition covers a lot of ground in the development world, but the most famous open source software is the Linux operating system pioneered by Linus Torvalds. It's fitting then, that the biggest microscope for examing the open source employment landscape is in the hands of The Linux Foundation, which partners with online education facilitator edX each year on the Open Source Jobs Report. The 10th such report was released this week at the Open Source Summit in Austin, Texas. Among the highlights from the report is a strong note about IT certification: An eye-opening 90 percent of employers surveyed for the report said that they would pay for employees to get open source certifications, while 81 percent of open source professionals plan to get certified in the next 12 months. That speaks well of the value of open source credentials, and is a strong sign for such open source certification providers as Red Hat and The Linux Foundation itself. The report compiles data from a survey of 1,672 open source professionals, with an additional 559 participants on the hiring/corporate side of the equation.
(ISC)2 Offers Advice About Hiring, Retaining Skilled Cybersecurity Workers
Sticking like glue to the topic of IT professional associations sizing up the IT employment landscape, we turn now to cybersecurity professional association (ISC)2, which recently cranked out a new hiring guide under the label "(ISC)2 Cybersecurity Hiring Managers Guide: Best Practices for Hiring and Developing Junior Talent." As noted by (ISC)2 itself, "Finding experienced candidates for cybersecurity positions remains a top challenge for many organizations." Hiring skilled cybersecurity professionals was rough even before the current post-Great Recession climate set it. One of the recommendations from (ISC)² is that hiring decisions needs to be more personal: Instead of weeding out potential hires at the résumé level with onerous education and certification requirements, employers need to be more willing to set aside preconceptions and consider possibilities. Maybe the junior candidate who only has four years of professional experience and a low-level certification has the potential, with guidance and support, to become the elite analyst an organization badly needs. Maybe it could happen more quickly than immediate circumstances would seem to indicate. Hiring based on potential, the same way that pro sports teams frequently choose athletes, could become a key strategy for IT workforce development.
What Will Your Online Certification Exam Be Like?
There's a great piece addressed to IT certification newcomers over at the official blog of tech industry association CompTIA. Even certification candidates who have taken exams before may not be totally prepared for the experience of taking a certification exam online. Not to worry: CompTIA blogger Emily Matzelle goes through the process step-by-step in a brand-new walkthrough that tells exam candidates exactly what to expect when they sit down to take an online certification exam. Well, to be fair, this is probably a detailed breakdown of exactly what to expect from an online certification exam for a CompTIA certification. Still, there are many aspects of the online exam experience that are essentially universal, so no what whose certification is being targeted, there's good advice here.
(ISC)2 Releases Full Agenda for Security Congress
The annual (ISC)2 Security Congress event is on the calendar for Oct. 10-12 in Las Vegas. In other words, it's going to be a while still before "Coming Soon to Security Congress" switches over to "Now Appearing at Security Congress." In the interim, however, we'll at least all have some idea of what to expect now. Earlier this week, (ISC)² announced that the full agenda for the 2022 Security Congress — to be held at Caesar's Palace — is now available online. There are still a couple of TBAs, most notably including details regarding the kickoff keynote address scheduled for 8 a.m. on Oct. 10 (bright and early on a Monday morning, just like everyone in Vegas is always ready for). There's more than enough information available, however, to start making your plans and checking them twice.
That's all for this edition of Certification Watch. Please keep your certification news and tips coming to the GoCertify News Editor.
