It’s that time of year again. You are at a BBQ and a niece or nephew asks you, “Are there courses I could take that would really help me get a job? …in six months?”
Well, you are the professional workforce development expert, right? And this extended family member will appear throughout your life. What will you say?
And it’s not just nieces and nephews anymore.
I always saw David (alias) at BBQs and potlucks. David is midlife, mid-mortgage and mid-career so when he got laid off as international manufacturing equipment salesman due to ‘downsizing’ it was not good timing. To compound matters, he developed a speech-related condition that caused his voice to go suddenly silent mid-word or mid-sentence. He has kids in college as well even though he had not completed college himself. With only one household income the well would soon run dry.
I did not think I was prepared to be the ‘expert’ career technical advisor at an evening gathering of friends, but when pressed I asked David to look over the skills pathway identified in the Business Information Worker and tell me where he was on that path. Quickly he said he had been using QuickBooks and Salesforce for years, but he had no Certification in them to prove it.
Proving an old dog can learn new tricks is one very positive aspect of today’s industry certifications. They are independently verified, available as digital badges to place on LinkedIn profiles and become a virtual beacon to employers. I advised David to get a cert for those reasons.
Two weeks later David had completed 75% of the Salesforce Trailhead Certification program and called to tell me that the HR folks he had contacted at several prospective companies were ‘very impressed’ that he was taking the Certification training to establish his competency. He got the Certification, and the job, and all is well. Crisis averted.
We also have the IT Technician – Cybersecurity Pathways detailed as well.
As I have summarized in a 20-min video “The State of ICT Sector” the most effective job strategy a student can follow today -2021- is to get an in-demand industry certification (see presentation) and add the digital badge to their updated LinkedIn profile. From there they can search for jobs, or be found.
The ICT market is expanding. Remote and hybrid jobs are the new normal. Skills verified through industry certs on LinkedIn are your resume…and there is no reason to wait!
Now go and enjoy that BBQ.
Steve