I’ve done it. I’ve sealed my fate.
I’ve registered and paid for the April 18, 2009 CISSP exam in Los Angeles. A few observations on the registration process:
- You have to create an account with (ISC)2 to register. That’s fine and dandy, but if you don’t have your CISSP, you don’t have sufficient authorization to change your profile once you create it.
- We’re all familiar with the “read this before registering” legalese. The (ISC)2 legalese is long and involved, and you need to read it. They appear to be very protective of the intellectual content of the examination: “At no other time, before, during or after the examination, may you communicate orally, electronically or in writing with any person or entity about the content of the examination or individual examination questions.” (of course, I can quote this, as I have no idea of the specific content of the examination or questions, at the present time).
- The exam experience seems to be intentionally unpleasant: “The doors to all examination rooms will open at 8:00 a.m. Examination instructions will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m. All examinations will begin at approximately 9:00 a.m. The CISSP examination will end at approximately 3:00 p.m. Please note there will be no lunch break during the testing period of 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. However, you are permitted to bring a snack with you. You may, at your option, take a break and eat your snack at the back of the examination room. No additional time will be allotted for breaks.”
- As part of the registration process, you have to give your highest degree. Fine. I know that. But they not only want month and year (June 1985, UCLA, MS Comp Sci), but they want the day of the month. Had to ask my wife to look at the diploma on the wall for that.
- Also as part of the registration process, you need to submit a resume. That’s easy — I keep one online, which I edited. Ah, but they don’t want a standard resume–they want you to indicate which CISSP domains your experience is in, by work, and to provide contact information so they can audit things. That’s easy for where I am now (20 years, same department, same manager), but my prior company is long gone. I gave them a co-worker from there, who is now here at the ranch with me.
- They also want you to demonstrate at least 5 years of experience in two of their domains. Fine. But their online form asks for years of experiences, and then wants you to divide it by domain by months. I could have lived with that, except that (a) they don’t seem to understand that experience can overlap (i.e., you work in multiple domains), (b) if you’ve been working 23 years in this field (as I have), dividing things by months is a pain, and (c) their form only accepts months in 2 digits — which for 23 years is 276 months. Sigh.
In any case, the registration form and resume are in. I now get to wait for their admissions document, which, according to the email, “will be sent to your primary email address at these time intervals: 21, 7, and 2 days prior to your scheduled examination date.”
