If you are a serious professional focused on rapid career growth and an immediate value addition to take the jump to that next dream job, then in all likelihood you have already considered a professional certification for your dream career. In fact, you’re not alone- more than 63% of all professionals today either already have a certification in their fields and even among them, more than 70% are already considering their next certification in the coming year!
The number of professionals choosing to pursue the professional credentials way is growing at an even more accelerated rate than anticipated by progressive industry experts. However, not all of them are getting through to that dream job with a six figure tag. The reason for this, of course, is a lack of awareness on some major aspects. Here are some of the critical questions that any serious professional should pose when choosing on a certification that will actually add tangible value to their career.
- Investment Factors- The cost involved in getting a professional IT certification is very important, course, but it needs careful consideration. Mainly because some of the most sought after certifications that add value to a CV are also some of the most expensive ones in the world. However, it is usually considered well worth the investment, because they pay back their respective IT careers many times over in terms of more salaries, within a comparatively short period of time, usually within three to four years of getting certified. While similar in nature to college degrees, the key difference here is in the value that employers place on the profiles when they are screening a potential hire on social media.
- Minimum Assured Competency- Quite often, a professional certification is an assurance of a minimum level of assured competency in a domain or function, for an individual. More and more employers are waking up to the fact that IT professionals undergo stringent tests, screenings and require a certain degree of commitment to earn a certification. This is the reason why some technology sensitive jobs require certain IT certifications as absolute must-haves or others place preferences on candidates having specific professional credentials.
- Standardized Rating System- A standardized rating system of a certification is probably the biggest advantage and convenience of screening and recruiting an employee from the employer’s point of view. This is important for several reasons, since the recent rapid evolution and integration of technologies in all business functions an assured and standardized level of proficiency and knowledge for every company’s workforce. Placing an emphasis on Credentialed candidates and workforce standardization by certification are becoming increasingly popular among large corporations for this very reason.
- Difficulty Levels and Correlation with Upgradation- Another important thing to keep in mind when choosing a professional IT certification of your choice is the scope of upgradation that it offers. Most certifications provide some options for medium to expert level upgradation, and this adds the much needed extra value to IT careers when applying to coveted jobs in sought after companies.