Building upon the article I published in January 2022 titled Be restlessly patient & take control of your career journey, and based on the feedback and interest I received on the topic, I've initiated a series of follow-on articles to extend details on the different career aspects I've introduced in the first article. The aim is to make the career aspects as clear as possible; providing pointers and examples where applicable, in order to make them actionable, allowing you to plan and track the different activities against them easily going forward.
In this article I'll introduce the Certifications & credentials career aspect. In my first article titled Be restlessly patient & take control of your career journey, I've briefly introduced this career aspect as follows:
To further clarify what this aspect is all about, these are the professional certifications, degrees, digital credentials and badges you purposefully acquire throughout your career journey to assert your expertise. Not just formal education/higher degrees and credentials, but also, and often more importantly in certain domains, the specialized skills certifications and credentials in your industry or domain of choice.
Moving next into how to engage in this career aspect.
- If you identify a certain skill you need to learn, favor the programs that offer digital credentials (badges) or certifications that are well recognized in the market.
- Do your homework scouting for the best certifications and credentials to pursue, as well as preparing for them; reach out to people in your network, talk to your mentors and sponsors, do a bit of market research, read online sentiments and feedback, find relevant guides and tutorials, connect with experts...
- Of course there are other aspect you may need to weigh (such as cost and time commitment), but in a general sense, it's more impactful to show a certification or a credential for a certain skill than just indicating you have the skill.
- It's an ongoing activity, for as long as you are learning new skills, which is an essential trait in today's world, and it's always good to show credentials for it.
A few additional tips for the Certifications & credentials career aspects:
- Pursing certifications and credentials is an investment, both in time and often in money, be selective in the ones you pursue. Choose ones from reputable, well recognized and established entities where possible. Ones who are best recognized in the domain of the certification or credential.
- Show diversity and breadth in different domains, it adds flare to your profile. For instance, focus on both technical and non-technical type of credentials.
- If your current employer offers badges and certification programs, which usually come at no or subsidized cost, make the most of it. Similarly, if they can fund some of those certifications cost for you. Check your internal policies and with you direct manager if it's a possibility.
- Think through the certifications and credentials alongside the Programs & training career aspect; as you plan for education and learning, consider the credentials they offer as well.
- Promote your certifications and credentials through professional social media platforms, this directly promotes your Networking & visibility as well as boosts your Social eminence.
As to why it's important to acquire certifications and credentials throughout your career journey, I personally always thought about them on multiple levels:
- They serve as a testament of your skills and experience; you assert your level of expertise in a certain domain. In most cases, this is based on an internationally recognized and global scale. So besides indicating on your resume that you have x years of experience in the y domain, here's the credential to show for it. This directly bumps up your Domain of expertise (technical eminence) career aspect.
- They help you venture new domains that you have recently re-skilled in and are interested in pursuing, potentially increasing your odds to find further Opportunities to excel. So even though you don't yet have the hands-on practical experience in the y domain, however, having the credential indicates that you have reached a certain level not to be underrated.
- They open up opportunities for give back as you attain them; guide others and help them prepare as well. This directly impacts the Give-back career aspect.?You may even take it a step further and publish articles or blogs around the topics you got certified in, which then helps with the IP, IC, publications career aspect as well.
With that, it should be clearer now what the Certifications & credentials career aspect is all about, how you can engage in it, and why it's important for your career.
This concludes the seventh article in the Restless patience in career journeys series - more to come as I unfurl the rest of the aspects, so stay tuned.
