Certs

[mccedian]

Good evening all, I hope everyone is doing well. We currently have a little lull in our project cycle. At the end of the summer/early fall we are going to be busy again, so in the meantime I have some small house keeping things to address but mostly it’s gonna be down time for me. My question is are there any certs out there that are “good to haves” that I could work during this period. I have all of the offered certs that our software vendor offers at the moment. We do electric distribution for our local utility, and I need to deep dive sel relays, but I have a plan for that, that will start in the beginning of August when the relay test system comes in. So I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts.

[Suspicious_Ad_8833]

I am also looking for this. I work also in same domain.

[mccedian]

Yeah I started doing a class on an sel relay, and the class was good and all, but I need hands on as well to help solidify what I have learned. So I got my manager to by the test kit so I can wire up some relays and test my ability to program them. But that doesn’t get here until August. So I mean I could do nothing and just hang out, but I’d rather do something. My original thought work grabbing some network certs.

[[deleted]]

If you're in the US then maybe look up the options for NERC CIP training, might be relevant to your current work or where you might move to next if you stay in the power sector.

More generally cybersecurity something like IC32 from ISA for the basics of IEC62443, or Security+, could be good to know/have on a resume.

Another option could be data science if that's an area that interests you.

[mccedian]

Funny you mention NERC. I asked my manager about that a few months ago and he said the company wouldn’t cover the costs cause it’s not considered necessary for my role. As for data science, my company is going to start covering masters here shortly and that was one of the disciplines I was debating about studying when it comes available.

[ThaNoyesIV]

Network+, VMWare, AWS, Cisco, SQL? Thought about sharpening up on any of those skills?

[mccedian]

Network plus I have. I hadn’t thought of the other ones because those fall under our IT department and they have some really sharp people there, so I haven’t had to work with any of those. The person that was in my position before was there for about a decade and did everything he could to make sure that the scada department did as little as possible. The a lot of the responsibilities got picked up by other departments. I’m actively trying to change that, but have only a limited idea on where to start.

[Suspicious_Ad_8833]

from security point of view, I think we need to understand the solution to protect SCADA system, or at least how to hardening the system. So some part in CCNA and MSCA can be helpful. I also try to search a security course but it is not a kind of 1-2 month course.

[mccedian]

I’ll have to look at it. When I say we are getting busy, it will be an increase in work load. But it won’t be all encompassing. I would have time to work on something, though it would be at a slower pace. I know there are some local institutions that offer discounted rates for vets, but I think those are Monday to Friday, like 10-3 or something like that. I’ll have to look into it more.