When Jan Anisimowicz, director of audit, risk and compliance at C&F Sp. z o. o., initially pursued the Certified Information Security Manager® (CISM®) certification, he did not know it would give him the opportunities to extensively travel around the world and discover new hobbies. In the last 5 years, Anisimowicz has shared his expertise at 100 speaking engagements all over the world, including Canada, Poland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. “This [speaking experience] has led me to take drama and voice training classes,” he says. “This is a hobby I would never have considered without an ISACA® certification.”
Though he has enjoyed the new and unexpected opportunities the CISM certification has provided him, Anisimowicz initially pursued the certification 6 years ago when he began developing a product to manage governance, risk and compliance (GRC) processes. “Developing such products is heavily dependent on finding the proper people to talk to—and certifications make it much easier to determine whether or not we ‘speak the same language,’” he says. “CISM is a rather demanding certification, one that makes you think about information security and exchange in a different way and, consequently, speak about it in completely different terms. Therefore, I needed to make sure I was able to find people operating on the same wavelength.”
For Anisimowicz, it is difficult to separate his professional goals from his personal goals and having the CISM certification helps him achieve both. “I often use the concept of balanced development when referring to my life—while pursuing professional goals, I tend to fulfill personal ambitions along the way,” he says. “When talking about information security, we speak in very broad terms—also about the values that are fundamental to what we recommend and implement. And, in my view, these values are, and always will be, the same for my private and professional life.”
Anisimowicz recommends the CISM certification for anyone looking to broaden their horizons and explore networking opportunities. And for him, the CISM certification and related speaking engagements serve as strong career motivation and bring him joy. “When I was onstage giving a speech on [security in new technologies, risk management and the interplay between organizations’ business activity and their information security and regulatory compliance], I realized how happy it makes me to be able to meet people who share these interests,” Anisimowicz says. “Delving deeper into the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, discussing how quantum computers will affect information security, shared mapping of new challenges and risk—all this creates a certain community of interest. And it becomes a foundation for inspiration as well as a source of new insight, which stimulates a person to act and then translates into their career advancement.”