Certifications

There are only two widely recognized vendor-neutral certifications for IAM professionals that frequently appear in job postings:

  1. Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) by ISC2 (exam – $749, annual fee – $125)
  2. Certified Identity and Access Manager (CIAM) by the Identity Management Institute (exam – $390, annual fee – $100)

 

(Although other IAM certifications, such as CIDPRO, can be valuable for learning, they are not commonly listed in job postings.)

Recommended Reading

A great, in-depth overview of IAM (this book helped me create this website) – Access Control and Identity Management by Mike Chapple

A simpler, more concise guide to basic IAM concepts – Understanding IAM by Okta