Are Certifications Really Just CV Add-ons with Little Long-term Benefit? What Do You Think?

I read somewhere that certification is just an add-on to your CV and not much beneficial in the long term. Is that so?

No, it is not so at all! Professional certifications are expected to see a further spurt in numbers, spurred on by industry demand. Ninety-four percent of HR personnel will make some form of professional certification mandatory for new talent in specialized areas such as digital marketing, software development, and analytics soon. Have a look here to clear your doubts about it Predictions on Credentialing: The Five Biggest Certification Trends of 2017 | Blog

Dear Megha, it is not just a question of acquiring a certification alone. A course certificate will become just a piece of paper if the knowledge gained from the course is not implemented.

Why single out certifications?

What about graduation or post-graduation degrees or professional courses like an MBA? Many members of this forum, who are also MBAs, raise very basic queries. They ask these questions because they lose touch with their textbooks. Indians are in a hurry to dispose of old books as scrap ("raddi") rather than retaining them for future use.

Leadership lies in the execution of knowledge

Leadership lies in the execution of knowledge, not in the accumulation of it. If you can convince interviewers about a particular competency, then I do not think they will raise any objections.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

To a great extent, you are right. Companies and recruiters look at the basic qualifications and consider certifications as just additional icing on the cake at best, or a meaningless gesture at worst. However, the answer depends on the industry. For example, if you are into computer networking, a CISCO certification is worth more than a degree from IITs. So it's not that you can make a blanket statement that is valid in all circumstances.

Hi,

Could you please suggest some professional courses that will help enhance a career in HR and training?

Dear Dimple, you could have given a little more information about yourself, such as your qualifications, the nature of your industry, the type of HR job you do, your age, etc. It is not just a question of certification, as stated in my previous post; you should have the opportunity to implement the knowledge you gained from the certification course.

By the way, what have you done to implement the HR knowledge in your current job? Have you used your current job to experiment with something in HR?

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar