CISSP associate or SSCP member?

[naymyatmin]

Hello, I have passed CISSP yesterday but I don't have enough experience to become certified yet, so I am applying as an associate. However, there is one thing I am not very clear about. The question is that if I am already a member of ISCx2 as I am a SSCP certified, do I need to apply separately as an Associate member of CISSP? 

[AlecTrevelyan]

Congrats on passing the CISSP exam, naymyatmin!

How much experience do you have? You needed a year's experience to qualify for your SSCP, and holding the SSCP allows you to waive a year of experience for the CISSP, so you should only need 3 years now.

You get 9 months from the day you passed the CISSP to go through the endorsement process. Will that be enough time for you to complete the experience requirements?

If not, then yes, you will need to apply for Associate status even though you're already an ISC2 member. You will then be both SSCP certified and hold the Associate designation. (Theoretically you can hold multiple Associate designations, one for each exam you've passed but don't yet meet the experience requirements to pass the endorsement process). Being an Associate will then give you 6 years to earn the required experience for the associated certification.

The other option is to pay for and pass the exam again after you have earned the experience if you don't want to go down the Associate route or can't pass endorsement within the 9 months.

[rick3]

Hi Alec,

Nice post! I found it interesting and helpful since I'm a newcomer. I wanted to clarify what you stated in your post regarding the SSCP. Having a SSCP cert will waive one year of work experience for the CISSP thus reducing the required work experience from 5 years to 4 years (not 3 years as mentioned in your post).

Overall, I found your post very informative. Thanks for sharing.

Rick

[AlecTrevelyan]

Hi Rick,

Yes, holding the SSCP reduces the experience requirement down to 4 years. However, he already has at least 1 year of experience as this is needed to earn the SSCP in the first place, so his requirement is now down to a maximum of 3 years - wouldn't be much of a waiver if they were just counting the year he's already worked to earn the SSCP!

[rick3]

Hi Alec,

You have a good point. I think this one needs more clarification since the (ISC)2 website (https://www.isc2.org/Certifications/CISSP/Prerequisite-Pathway) only counts the SSCP cert for one year. I know it takes one year of work experience or a 4 year college degree to get the SSCP Cert. However, the (ISC)2 website doesn't go in much detail about adding the one year it took to get the SSCP cert. I will have to look at this issue deeper since I will be in the same situation when I pass my CISSP. I currently hold an Assoc. of (ISC)2 SSCP that I will soon change to a SSCP cert based on my recent degree. You brought up a good point that I will have to research further. Thanks.

Rick

[AlecTrevelyan]

You get 1 year waived for holding the SSCP certification, just as you do for the others on the list (some of which have no associated experience requirements), taking the experience requirement down from 5 years to 4 years for the CISSP.

You would then also count the year you worked to qualify for the SSCP as 1 of the 4 remaining years you require taking you down to 3 years. Just because you've counted this towards the SSCP doesn't stop it from being eligible for the CISSP. It's just considered a year of work at this point. (If you qualified for the SSCP using a 4-year degree then this would not be applicable.)

If you qualified for the SSCP by doing 1 year of work, like I said before, it wouldn't be a waiver at all if you weren't allowed to also count the year of experience you used to qualify for the SSCP. You would just be reducing the required 5 years of experience down to 4 years by working for 1 year!

[naymyatmin]

Thank you for all the replies in this thread. I have less than 1 year experience but I waived off 1 year of SSCP with my 4 years degree. So, I have only waived off 1 year of CISSP as the result of being the SSCP certified. Now, I have requested to become the Associate of CISSP. Thus, I will be becoming the SSCP certified and CISSP associate member. I can't wait for the endorsement after 4 years to become an official CISSP certified. Looking forward to it.

[rick3]

Naymyatmin,
Congratulations on passing the CISSP and becoming SSCP certified. My goal is to pass the CISSP next year. I tried this year but didn't make the min score to pass. I have a better understanding of the test and what is needed to pass. I am more confident now that I will pass. BTW, in 4 years there is still time to get a few more certs under your belt. Have you considered CEH or another cert as your next goal? There are a lot of good certs available. Good luck on whichever one you choose next.
Rick

[naymyatmin]

Appreciate your best wishes.. I am already a CEH certified since version 8. As for this CISSP, having had the CCNA (cyber ops) scholarship from Cisco this year helped me alot. I started with it and got really interested in Security so I continued with Security+ and then SSCP. After 5 months later, I challenged myself to CISSP and luckily I passed. My goal in 2019 is to get OSCP and thus I am polishing up my linux skills with Linux+ and RHCSA for now even though KALI is based on Debian. At least they're both Linux. Best of lucks to you too. The continuous studies and work experience will definitely help in your CISSP exam.

[rick3]

Your background is impressive. You are moving along very well. It is good you completed the CEH exam. I'm preparing to take the CEH next year. BTW, have you picked you any coding skills like Perl, Ruby, etc.? Learning some coding will be a plus as you move up the ladder. Right now, I know some HTML/CSS and Javascript, but my intentions are to learn several coding languages in the near term.
Rick