What's Trending: Certifications for Better Jobs

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Proof of proficiency for a skill or know-how is often sought to demonstrate levels of expertise. Both certificates and certifications showcase various strengths desirable to potential employers, current managers, peers, and clients within your profession or industry.

Credentials can be valuable assets while prepping for a career change, negotiating salaries, or making moves in your organization, and there’s no doubt that investing in and pursuing professional development is an active step toward achieving your career goals. But are they necessary?

Here’s what leading publications are saying about certificates for hiring purposes.

Indeed

The Indeed editorial team explores the idea of whether obtaining a certificate is worth the hype when applying for an open position. The main stance is that certifications are valuable to employers because they demonstrate invested time and effort to gain additional skills and knowledge, and can give applicants a competitive edge.

“When multiple applicants have the same credentials, employers can have a difficult time deciding who would be a better fit for their company. In this instance, having the right certifications could help you edge out your competition.”

Their article points out that many employers are willing to pay more for employees with certifications and highlights that they’re a more cost-effective alternative to a 4-year degree. However, it’s important to evaluate whether certain certifications are actually necessary for the position professionals are applying to so that they’re intentional rather than fluff.

The Undercover Recruiter

Larry Alton, a guest writer with Undercover Recruiter poses the question of whether or not certificates actually lead to better jobs. And what’s important to note is the sustainability of everchanging information in a given industry.

“Oftentimes, certifications are only good for about five years because the fundamentals of the industry change as software advances. By the time you get the job, the knowledge gained from your certification may have already become outdated.”

Alton goes on to examine an employer’s view on the value of certifications from particular institutions, stating that “certifications aren’t created equally.” With this in mind, even if a certificate isn’t up to par with industry standards or from a prestigious university, how you pair knowledge gained with the open role at hand will be what impresses employers when it really matters.

Forbes

This article from Forbes written by Jamie Flinchbaugh, takes a hard pivot from the previous publications in suggesting that hires should be grounded in skills rather than certifications. This belief is due to the lack of the transferability of certificate expertise from one company to another.

“Tools and templates, which are often the core of certifications, are useful in organizations because they provide a common approach that makes it easy to collaborate. However, move from one organization to another and those benefits no longer exist.”

There’s a strong urge for boiling down what the purpose of a certificate is and leading with in-house evaluations while hiring rather than a proficiency checklist. Certifications are secondary to a job seeker’s ability to interpret the needs of an organization and adapt to the requirements of a position. Determining an applicant’s value should be done during the interview process, not a piece of paper with the stamp of approval from an institution that knows nothing of the company’s operations.

The takeaway

Overall, a certificate isn’t the only way you can display your professional capabilities. If it’s a debate between which are more important, skills or certification, it’s impossible to decide at face value across the scope of industries and positions. 

Though certificates are attention grabbers for promotions and on professional networking sites, there’s still the question of how important they are and how useful they prove to be from one role or company to the next. And the upkeep of information gained will always be in the rearview mirror.

Certification is nothing without the right person behind it. It’s how you put that certificate to work that’ll make the difference.