Last year, I earned my CMMC CCA (Certified CMMC Assessor) credential. A decision that came at an unexpected time, when I found myself affected by the DOGE driven changes moving through the federal contracting world. It wasn’t the plan I’d originally mapped out, but it turned out to be the right pivot. I sat for the CCP and CCA on my own terms, paid for the mandatory classes and added it to a credential stack I’d already been building for years: CISSP, CISM, CISA, CEH, PMP, PSM, and ITIL
Before this latest move, I was an IT Systems Auditor with BMA supporting the Defense Logistics Agency, and I was genuinely happy there. That’s worth saying plainly. I wasn’t running from something. The work was solid, the mission mattered, and I liked the team. But I felt the pull to close that chapter and open the next one. Sometimes the right move isn’t about escaping a bad situation; it’s about honoring the fact that you’ve grown into something new and it’s time to use it.
So here I am, one week into life as a CMMC Assessor — putting the CCA to work for real, in the room, doing assessments rather than studying for them. It’s a strange and good feeling to have spent months preparing for a role and then simply… start doing it.
More to come as this chapter unfolds.
— Doug Was Built Not Born