Everyone wants to stand out from their peers, especially in the presence of prospective employers.
When you’re looking for a job, you want to ensure that you can bring something unique to the table that will benefit your employer and the company.
One of the best tools you can use to stay ahead of your peers in the job market is by pursuing a certification, especially after completing your first degree. Even though pursuing a certification translates to a substantial investment of time and resources, it will help you gain recognition for your professional skill.
This can be very important as it can help you land jobs, projects, and even more clients.
Table of Contents
Why you should consider pursuing certifications?
Differentiates You from Competition
When employers are looking for someone to fill a particular position in their companies, the competition is usually stiff.
You’ll find that one job opening can attract the interest of hundreds of job seekers. This means that the chances of you getting the job end up being slimmer than you ever anticipated.
However, when you have training that your competitors don’t have in your resume, it sets you apart. Certifications tend to demonstrate a heightened level of commitment to succeeding in a particular field.
For this reason, a certification basically gives you an added advantage on top of that college degree you have. This advantage is very important, especially in today’s job market, which is very competitive and where many people have already graduated with college degrees.
If you have a hard time staying ahead of the competition every time you’re applying for a job, consider using that social platform or software to get your training as well as the certification before it becomes a household name.
Enhances Your Earning Potential
One of the best things that come with pursuing a certification in a particular field is that it increases your current earning potential. This means that the time and resources you have invested in completing that training will be compensated in not so long.
With a relevant certification in the job you’re applying for, it gives you a great bargaining chip, especially when you’re negotiating your salary.
It might interest you to know that most employers and clients understand the time and effort devoted to getting specialized training, and they’re willing to pay more to people with specialized industry certifications.
It is estimated that those with certifications in a particular field tend to earn 20% more than those without.
If you’re unsure about pursuing a certification, think about how it can easily elevate your career in the shortest time possible.
Improves Your Knowledge and Skills
By pursuing a relevant and updated certification in your field, you expand your skills, techniques, and knowledge, which can benefit your career a lot.
With the right certifications, you stand to eliminate any inefficiencies and quality issues that were previously associated with your output. This helps increase your competency in your job and even makes you more marketable than ever before.
It might interest you to know that this also opens you up to more opportunities that were previously unavailable. Achieving an accredited certification gives you confidence and the skill set you need to thrive in more sophisticated working environments regardless of the field.
For example, if you work in the health sector, you might consider becoming a Certified Professional Midwife (CPM). This certification will help improve your knowledge and midwifery skills and also help you land better and more lucrative job opportunities.
It Improves Your Adaptability
This world keeps changing by the day, and it’s important that you stay updated on the latest trends in your particular field. This is because what might have worked a few months ago could be rendered obsolete today, and you need to adapt to the new working environment as quickly as possible.
It’s very important you understand that new information is being released into the world daily, and breakthroughs in research and development are made before you even realize it.
Pursuing a certification in your field helps convince your employers and clients that you’re ahead of the curve and that they can count on you to stay up to date with the latest topics related to your field of study.
With the relevant certification, you’ll never have a problem with adapting to new happenings in your field, which can help you excel in any company.
It Helps You Find Your Specialization
One thing you might have learned by now is that a college degree covers a variety of topics that may or may not be related to your job. This means that a college degree doesn’t necessarily cover all the vital topics you’ll need to excel in your job and field in general.
On the other hand, a certification helps you gain the knowledge, skills, and techniques you need for a specific field. With a certification, you’re guaranteed that you’ll find and learn about the topics of interest to your job that will help market you even better to prospective employers.
This means that you won’t have to gamble with a variety of topics and lots of information that might not even be relevant to your field. Getting a relevant certification in your field will basically equip you with the right knowledge and skills you’ll need to succeed in your career and oversee the company’s success.
While pursuing a college degree is important, you also need to get a certification to boost your skills and establish your professional credibility.
Do not be skeptical about getting started because you’re likely to recover the time and resources you invest into it at a much quicker pace than you’d think.
For this reason, as you move up in your field, ensure that you stay up to date with the relevant certifications, and you’ll continue to reap the benefits.
How is it different from getting a master’s degree?
To put it simply, a graduate certificate is a short course study program to master a specific skill or subject area; while a master’s degree is a full-time study program that requires you to do rigorous research and projects whilst attending several courses/classes.
At the end of each program, you would acquire a certificate for the former and a diploma from the latter.
Acquiring any of the two is an admirable feat because it means that you put in your time, resources, and effort just to be great and learn about the field of study on a much deeper level.
Length of Study
The amount of time it takes to earn a graduate certificate is less than one year or so. Depending on your chosen track and given your specialized knowledge, you can acquire other professional skills or get licensure in other related fields at the same time.
As for a master’s degree, you need to take all of the required course credit before you can even graduate. Earning an advanced degree would mean attending all the required graduate-level courses. The average year to complete a master’s degree is 2 years. However, this can be extended depending on your chosen field and areas of study.
Specialize in a Niche
Professionals often take a few certificate coursework whilst working. As we have mentioned earlier, a graduate certificate would definitely give you an edge and make you a competitive job applicant.
Given the sudden changes as well as the current climate in the job market, getting certification or specializing in a niche would make you are more viable job candidate.
That said, here a some of the most popular niches that offer several subspecialties or certifications.
Computer Science
With today’s technology, anyone can now learn how to code in different coding languages. Several online learning platforms and even accredited universities have been making coding and programming more accessible for everyone.
That said, computer science has now become an all-encompassing that requires expertise and knowledge in other areas as well. So to help your application stand out, here are a few certifications that you can choose from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Legal Tech in the Digital Era
- Real Estate Finance & Development
- Design & Manufacturing
- Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
- Biotechnology & Life Sciences
Business Communication
If you have worked in a corporate setting long enough, then you can upskill every now and then to stay competitive.
That said, we found these amazing certificate courses from the Harvard Division of Continuing Education. What’s great about these graduate certificates is once you acquire all the certificates under this program, you can then receive the professional graduate certificate in business communication.
- Business Rhetoric
- Principles of Legal Writing
- Leadership Communications
- The Art of Communication
- Enterprise Social Media and Organizational Collaboration
- Negotiation and Organizational Conflict Resolution
- Advanced Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Strategies: Mastering the Science and Art
Financial Technology
FinTech is one of the most promising fields that offer a lot of work opportunities for professionals from different educational backgrounds and industries.
Through these graduate certificate program that we found by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, you would be able to understand and strategize the nuanced world of FinTech.
- Fintech: Overview, Payments, and Regulation
- Cryptocurrency and Blockchain: an Introduction to Digital Currencies
- Lending, Crowdfunding, and Modern Investing
- Application of AI, Insurtech, and Real Estate Technology
Get Certified and Licensed
Other than the ones above, there are other types of certification that now offer licensure. Apart from getting certified, you can also become a licensed practitioner in that field.
However, keep in mind that certification and licensure in these areas tend to be longer and much more extensive than those of the graduate certification that we mentioned before.
Medical Billing and Coding Certification
Aspiring medical codes can achieve American Academy of Professional Coders certification through specialized education, experience in an area of specialty, and a qualifying exam(s).
Once you passed the exam, you can now work at any health service provider and agency that you like. What’s great about this program is that only those who are licensed or certified can practice.
Emergency Medical Responder Certificate
To become a state-licensed EMR, you need to have an EMR license/certification and then apply for the National Registry EMR certification.
The national component to becoming an EMR is to complete 8 hours’ worth of training. The training generally involves
- Airway/Respiration/Ventilation – 1 hr
- Trauma – 0.5 hrs
- Medical – 3 hrs
- Operations – 1 hr
- Cardiovascular – 2.5 hrs
Critical-Care Nurse Certification
This certification is specially catered for nurses who wish to go into a more specialized field.
A Certified Critical Care Nurse is a nurse who provides direct care to crucially ill patients, regardless of their state or location. Nurses who hold a CCRN certification can now work in critical areas such as intensive care units, trauma units, critical care transport, cardiac care units, and so on.
However, getting a CCRN certification is not that easy because their certain clinical practice hour requirement you have to meet before you can even apply.
It is worth mentioning that apart from CCRN, there are other types of critical nurses certification that you can still apply to as well such as the CCRN-E, PCCN, CMC, CSC, ACNPC-AG, and others.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, pursuing a graduate certificate can be worth it. It not be only advance your career and polish your skills, but it also proves that you are serious about your line of work and you are always willing to learn and update yourself with current trends and information.
Hopefully, we managed to impart a few helpful insights to you. To briefly recap, here are some of the things we talked about:
- Why you should consider pursuing certifications?
- How is it different from getting a master’s degree?
- Specialize in a Niche
- Get Certified and Licensed
Todd VanDuzer
Latest posts by Todd VanDuzer (see all)
- Why Finding the Right Thing to Study Matters: Setting the Foundation for Success - July 26, 2023
- How USA Staff Onboarding Benefits From Innovative Software - July 26, 2023
- Top 7 Best Reasons to Get an MBA - June 7, 2023
- How to Support Your Child When They Go to College - April 29, 2023
- How to Maximize Your Job Search with Expert Resume Writers Experienced in Your Field - April 20, 2023