Is it worth taking vendor certifications?
In general it is advantageous to hold vendor certifications, but to what degree depends on which vendors they are from and if they are relevant to the areas of information security in which you are currently or plan to specialise in. If you hold certifications from the market leading vendors in the areas of security in which you operate, they are likely to improve your chances of securing a new role. Equally, holding vendor certifications for other products you have spent time working with, even if they are not as commonly used, demonstrates to a new employer that you have the capacity to become an expert in the technologies that you work with. The only word of warning would be to avoid paying for certifications from obscure or poorly regarded vendors. Holding vendor certifications is sometimes a prerequisite for technical security roles, the most frequent being the Check Point CCSA and CCSE. As Check Point has such a high market share, there are a high number of security professionals
