CERTIFICATIONS TO SET YOU APART

Education and upskilling comes in many shapes and forms, and as Jim Stovall puts it, “Education is a lifelong journey whose destination expands as you travel.” It also expands the more you actively pursue it. These days, people are expected to possess skills and capabilities outside of just the ones that are learned in schools and tertiary education, as while these set a great and very important foundation – the real world applicability require so much more. With the rapid pace of technology and AI development, it also helps to try and keep up with these so that you can take advantage of the automated functionalities to save time and effort. Certifications are also a great way to set yourself apart in the job market and make it easier for you to pivot across different roles and industries.

When choosing a certification to upskill yourself and your resume with, it’s important for you to consider whether it is relevant to what you currently do or want to do, and whether or not it will actually add value. Both of these factors will hopefully assist in motivating you to get it done. Cohesion in a resume both in terms of studies, skillsets and work experience paint an appealing picture for prospective employers, and will also showcase other characteristics such as commitment, discipline and decisiveness, which add to this. If you have career aspirations that extend beyond local borders, then there are a number of internationally recognised certifications that you can complete from anywhere.

Google certifications are a great place to start considering the frequency with which Google is utilised on a daily basis globally. Google also offers a wide variety of certifications – some of which are quite specific. Google’s certifications include: Digital Marketing, Data Analytics and Cyber-security. You can also get certified on Google-specific skills and functions that are particularly handy if you company or prospective company likes to analyse web-traffic data, advertising efforts or SEO. Microsoft certifications can also be extremely valuable depending on your role or career aspirations. On a basic level, Office 365 can be useful in ensuring that you have competency in using the full Microsoft Office tech-suite. Outside of these, more skilled certifications include Power BI and Microsoft Azure which is their cloud based computing system.

For those who work in sales or customer relationship management, a Salesforce certification can be a great way to showcase your experience and expertise in this space. It is one of the most widely utilised CRM systems globally, especially in large corporates. Other career specific certifications include PMPs or Project Management Professional certification. This is often a sought after certification for management and leadership roles too. For the aspiring IT professionals, Cyber-security, ITIL and CISSP Certifications can be useful additions, however some of them, like the CISSP require a certain level of work experience and studying capacity too.