What's in a credential?
Seems to me like there are a lot of people out there who are endlessly chasing credentials around, completing a long series of degrees, taking seemingly endless courses and continuing education, all for the purpose of adding a few more initials after their name.
Half the time, I feel like I'm drowning in credential soup!
At the same time, I have often found myself on the opposite side of the table... not being able to document that I actually knew what I was talking about because I lacked a series of initials after my name.
I suppose the real irony in that is that I have never actually used the credentials I do have, and I don't have the credentials I have often found myself needing!
But does it really matter?
What do credentials say?
I managed to get a very fine Bachelors degree in Finance — with "high honors," even — from one of the nation's major business schools, but it's a credential I've never actually used for anything. In fact, I don't think I've ever worked in a finance related position, or any position where a Finance degree might be an appropriate qualification.
The only time that degree has done me any good was once when applying for a contractor gig with an IT company where one of the requirements was to have a bachelors degree. And it wasn't a bachelors degree in Finance, it was just any bachelors degree. The job I was applying for actually related to writing in English!
In the general sense of the word though, mostly my life situation has been that I'm "undercredentialed" for a number of things I wanted to do, particularly in the self-development field.
What's really irritating ironic about that is that I have periodically found myself losing out on getting into an opportunity... to someone who was actually ill suited to do the job but had the proper on-paper credentials; thereby illustrating the ridiculousness of placing so much emphasis on educational merits rather than practice.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Denmarkguy works as a counselor, guide and therapist, Aside from her ministerial degree in Theology, she's not very highly credentialed. However, due to a massive body of successful field practice, many of her clients are actuually doctors of psychology and doctors of psychiatry, often attached to major hospitals. More evidence, I suppose, of the fact that it's more important — at least in the practical sense — whether you can actually do the job as opposed to whether you're "qualified" for the job.
Now, I'm not suggesting we throw people's educational credentials out the window... especially in the case of those who are freshly baked out of college. But if you're 50 years old, who cares what you did in high school and college?
Evidently, there are still those who do...
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
How about YOU? Do you have credentials? Have you had to USE them, to get jobs and to get ahead in life? Have you found them to be useful? Or do you think credentials are overemphasized? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220209 22:29 PST
0495/1741
I used to think credentials are a must but I realized it is only a must in my country :) When I worked offshore, I found out that uncredentialed individuals were getting hired because they can actually do the job, not because their records say they finished this or that :) I think credentials are necessary to a certain extent but not in all cases :)
Hey @demarkguy, I'm with you on this one. I have a Bachelor's Degree (completed with really high marks also) that I too have barely used. Meanwhile my work in the "personal development" arena sees me with very few recongised credentials but more than enough experience to do a better job than many of the tertiary qualified, formally recognised psych's and similar.
I find it an ongoing messy space to exist in. It's sometimes frustrating and sometimes fascinating, and as much as I can, I try to find loopholes to just do what I want so I can continue to support people in useful ways. It's not an ideal space for the consumer when you have those in coaches, mentoring or therapeutic type roles who aren't actively reflecting on their own behaviours, beliefs and ways of being.
There is so much power that is afford to those of us who are in guiding roles of any kind that I think it is our responsibility, one I take very seriously, to make sure we continue to be masterful with our people skills and evermore kind and conscious in the way we do our work.
I have a BA in Education, earned in 1978. I taught in public schools for 3 years and discovered I did not enjoy teaching at all. Then I got married, and we started a family, and in 1990 began what turned out to be a 20-year career home schooling our three children. It was more like tutoring, rather than dealing with a room full of 20 children who didn't want to be there, and I liked it a lot better. Nothing I learned in college applied to home schooling. But the state where we lived at the time required a BA degree in order to administer the required standardized achievement tests to one's children. So the credentials came in handy for that, even though it was a truly silly requirement.