Wednesday, March 5 - "Should I Get A Certification?"

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s what’s on the job description for today:

1. New roles from a giant peer to peer review platform.

2. Today’s Question: “the jobs I’m applying for aren’t hiring much at the moment. I’m thinking of moving into project management and getting a PMP certification. What do you think?”

IN HIRING

G2

• Helping many millions of people make purchase decisions based on peer to peer reviews, G2 has a massive reach.

• There are currently ~50 positions, mostly in product and business development.

• Here are a few of the most interesting roles available

  • Account Manager, Mid-market - Click here for full details

  • Business Analyst, GTM Analytics - Click here for full details

  • Team Lead, Business Development - Click here for full details

Click here for the company’s career page

TODAY’S QUESTION

Today’s Question: “the jobs I’m applying for aren’t hiring much at the moment. I’m thinking of moving into project management and getting a PMP certification. What do you think?”

Recommendation: I can see the logic in thinking project management and a PMP certification would be the right next step. Here’s what I’ve seen in this regard:

• First, having worked with many experienced professionals looking for roles in project management, the one thing I’ve realized is that it’s ultra competitive.

  • This is because you have everyone who has project experience applying, along with all those who have tons of project management specific experience. This sums up about 90% of the corporate workforce!

• Second, certifications are rarely the answer to your problems. There are two specific cases I think they make a ton of sense:

  1. You are currently working and the company will pay for it.

  2. During your networking, you constantly hear about an important certification that is required. After hearing about it, you find that it’s also in the JD of most jobs you’re looking at. This is not true for PMP and Project Management in my experience.

• Finally, you may ask, what should you learn? If not PMP or a certification, then what?

  • First, I’d think about skills that are useful in your job search. I find skills that are interesting in interviews helps a lot.

  • The best ones are those that you can show a project you’re working on like a website, app, data analysis or something else. You can mention it in your introduction and stories to show you’re constantly learning, even when interviewing for new roles.

Conclusion:

I’m not a big fan of new certifications for job seekers but you need to do what’s right for your specific situation.