How can you showcase your data governance expertise to potential employers?

In my experience, showcasing certification could help in early contact/ discussion. As soon as the connection is established, certificates are not so relevant; experience, structured approach, and knowing the complications/ pitfalls of a Data Governance program clearly reveal the expertise.

Certification are good to have but no must! Data Governance is niche skill with unique combination of Business Knowledge and Data Skills. Data Governance requirements of each Project and Organization varies depending of their Data Maturity. Understanding the job requirements are essential to know where is Client focusing and then know why ... Once these basic inputs are available, one can start highlighting experience and certifications (Internal or External), relevant to Clients' need. Detail explanation of one's contribution and value addition explain his/her involvement in the project. Showcase additional contributions you might be involved, apart of from your primary responsibility. It shows willingness to go beyond!

Showcasing the experiences and achievements would be mandatory to impress potential employer. How the roadmap was developed, what were the political and technical challenges, how the challenges were overcome, what improvements were achieved and what kind of value add did the data governance make for the organization, all these things would be mentioned. It is also best to highlight that areas of improvement which will get transparency.

Here are some ways to demonstrate your data governance skills via projects during an interview: 1. Discuss specific data governance projects you've led or contributed to. 2. Provide examples of how you've improved data quality in a previous role. 3. Explain your approach to handling data security and privacy in a data governance context. 4. Describe your experience with creating and implementing data governance policies. 5. Share instances where you collaborated with cross-functional teams on data governance initiatives. 6. Demonstrate your understanding of regulatory compliance in relation to data governance. 7. Discuss challenges you've encountered in data governance and how you addressed them.

One of the most important skills for the data governance practitioner would be to have soft skills. The communication should be crystal clear that executives through team member could understand. Both writing and presentation skills should be good. Having empathy during communications and switching between technical and non-technical should be very important.

The data governance depth or expertise can be shown by exemplifying experience on the core tenets such as 1. Security controls- both on the platform and the data at row and column level, 2. Data lineage- an important but usually the less spoken one, 3. Metadata management and tagging- how the data assets are being tagged appropriately, 4. Overall sensitive data identification and masking strategies!

In my experience you need to --> Sell the relationship building opportunities that the Data Governance Professional will create between the Business and Data/Tech teams. --> Discuss the fact that DG is not a one and done type of role but matures as the organization data asset matures. --> Discuss data related regulations and how are they being currently addressed. --> Discuss the current state of Data Quality at the company and how it can improve based on the strategies that you know.

Position your profile as a professional who is the bridge between the business and IT worlds. You should learn to speak both languages - tech and business. You should be able to grasp the complexities of the tools and platforms and also decode the unique challenges and expectations of different business domains. The role demands understanding data technologies, regulations, and industry-specific needs.

Contribute to articles on LinkedIn of course ;-) On a serious note, it does help to read a lot about the topic, and then occasionally try to write something about it. There's no better way to get familiar with a topic and become comfortable than reading, then writing, and then discussing. When you write publicly this will obviously showcase your ability, but also your mastery of the topic will become evident as soon as you start discussing it with potential clients, colleagues, or employers.