GateKeeping In IT
Let’s discuss something that I believe is a massive problem in the industry of Information Technology and Cyber, Gatekeeping.
There are hundreds of thousands of jobs in the IT field yet someway somehow there is nobody to fill these jobs? But, do we not find it odd that to get into the field you need certifications and years of experience?
What point is there to tell a young broke person (or older let’s not be Agists here lol) “hey if you want to join this field go spend $350 on a Comptia A+ certification. Oh and if you really want to be marketable for an entry level job either get the Net+ ($350) or Security+ ($380) as well”. Does that actually make sense to anybody? In order to get your foot in the door you need to spend at minimum a couple hundred dollars for a help desk job? Unfortunately, I have had this discussion with others and everybody concedes to this notion and prefers it.
I believe there needs to be a shift in the industry from collecting certifications to the willingness to learn. Most of the jobs we deal with can be taught, and most of those jobs require the ability to learn that is all.
Do not get me wrong I still think having certifications is great but that only says that you’re familiar with a topic not that you have mastered a topic. In my opinion at most a person should need to get an entry level help desk job should be the A+ exam. If a person walks in and is hungry to learn and get their hands dirty that should be what gets them through the door. In the idea of that it would make sense to buy a course from something like Udemy for $10 on A+ and understand the fundamentals but not have to purchase the exam, just simply learn. Once hired that individual should then go on to purchase the exam at some point or have the company pay for it and they complete it.
Now, I know I said that a company should pay for the exam and companies often have the question “well what happens if we pay for these exams and the person leaves. Now we are out a person and we are out of money for the exam.” To this I have an even better question. What happens if you do not pay for a persons continuous improvement in their education and they stay? Now you’re stuck with a person who does not know best practices nor do they care to get better so your network is always full of vulnerabilities that could have better mitigated.
We can go in circles all day about this topic but the fact is the mindset has to change for all companies and that starts with who is hiring. Just because you took a million different exams and have the whole alphabet behind your name does not mean it was a good idea. You were probably “over qualified” for the job you actually got and only heightened the bar for what should be looked for in a candidate increasing the odds of looking for a unicorn.
I am not one to throw out problems though without a solution. What if we had exams that required users to prove their knowledge. No, I am not talking about some crappy LinkedIn multiple choice exam. I am talking real deal hands on PBQ’s you would get from something like a CompTIA exam to assess base knowledge and what a person knows. With that information you can create a baseline of what the minimum is you want in a candidate, and navigate from there.