Is the era of certificates over? – E13

Has the time of the certificate come to an end? Maybe, now it’s time to demonstrate your skills rather than simply show your papers? Welcome to my next episode of “8 Minutes to Success”.

Listen to “13 – Is the era of certificates over?” on Spreaker.

Transcript

Has the time of the certificate come to an end? Maybe, now it’s time to demonstrate your skills rather than simply show your papers? Welcome to my next episode of “8 Minutes to Success”.

Welcome to my next episode.

This is the podcast 8 Minutes to Success. I’m Kinga Panufnik and I invite you to spend the next 8 minutes with me.

On my way to success I’ve learnt a lot from others. That is why I’d like to share my personal experience with you.

Welcome.

I started working quite early in my life. When I was at university studying economics, I wanted to gain some experience working in companies. I wanted to face the real life of business, not only learn theoretical issues. As you may also remember from my previous podcasts, I had already graduated from a high school, specializing in economics, which apart from my high school diploma in economics, gave me also a bench of practical skills.

One day I found a job ad and I applied for it writing very professional resume as my education had prepared me well for this kind of things and later I was invited for an interview. It was a financial audit company. The owner of the company had a very short chat with me and on looking at my CV he asked me one question about it.

I’d written that I knew how to use Excel spread sheet. And in Poland, at that time that was not a very common skill.  For me that wasn’t a big deal because I’d spent many hours training to use it at school, not only the Excel spread sheet, but also Lotus-1-2-3, a different one. But in the Polish job market this skill was quite unique. The owner of the company asked me to show him my computer competence in Excel on his computer. I did it well and I got the job.

However, this surprised me a lot because at that time, during the recruitment process, applicant’s skills were hardly ever checked on the spot. They believed in documents. Certificates, diplomas and other papers as confirmation. I started thinking about it and since then I’ve observed how the world has changed in this matter.

I think that we are witnesses of huge world change. The diploma era is coming to an end and the era of skills is beginning. As we can see, it takes time for a paradigm to change. Sometimes it can take decades. And it is like that right now. In the past, to get a job, it was necessary to show evidence of qualification. The more you had the better your situation was. It didn’t matter how good your skills were. But nowadays the world is moving toward competences and skills, rather than documents.

There are many rich and famous business people, who didn’t graduate from university. However this wasn’t a drawback for them or didn’t hinder their success because they had developed a variety of very unique skills. If I am looking for a computer designer I ask around and I get some recommendations. If I am looking for a photographer, I look at their portfolio. I don’t really care which schools, universities or courses they completed. This may look like the era of recommendation has come but what makes you recommend someone? Do you do it because they have very prestigious qualifications or because you know how good theirs skills and results are.

Nowadays, I am not interested in paper qualifications, I am more interested in practical skills and this sometimes allows me to work with very young people, perhaps on-line. I appreciate and understand the amazing work they do.

Sometimes it’s good to take exams, not only to get a certificate, but it also provides a goal that we can work toward on our way to success. It is also a good way of checking your progress. For some people it’s also an excellent motivational tool. Sometimes the certificate is still needed though.

When you look ahead into your future and you feel like learning new skills, who do you want to learn them from? From someone who can give you certificate or from someone who is regarded as an expert in their field. Nowadays I prefer to learn from an expert even if they are not particularly well known or widely accepted in their area.

Sometimes having certificates is still necessary. I’m not saying that you should completely disregard them but the world is changing. You have to decide for yourself which way you want to go. Maybe you’ll decide to go both ways.

And a challenge for you for next week.

Take a piece of paper (that’s for the old schoolers) or use a note app on your device (that’s for geeks) or make a note however you like. But please, make a note, this won’t work as well when you only do it mentally. When you write it down you will be able to see later what you wrote.

Write which skills you feel an expert in. You feel you are good at. Write how many you want, think and write. Take as much time as you need. I recommend that you give yourself enough time to do this. Carefully think what your competences and skills are.

You can pause the podcast now if you need more time before you move to the next step.

And the next step now. For every single skill you wrote, see if you can identify at least 3 people who would be able to verify this. Because they have experienced your competence in it. They are your referees.

If you want to make a pause before the next step do it now.

The third step is to write those new skills that you are thinking about learning in the future, which you are interested in or which they can be useful or even necessary for you. You want to be an expert in this area no matter how old you are or what your present profession is.

You can now make another pause.

And finally, write down if it’s time to switch from a desire to a plan. Then in big or small steps move forward to achieve them.

I hope that this task not only gave you a pleasure, but also gave you a lot to think about and inspired you.

That’s all for today, see you next time.

Bye, bye.

This was 8 Minutes to Success. If I’ve left you wanting more that’s great. It’s much healthier to stay a little hungry rather than eat too much and feel sick. I hope you will listen to my next episode. To avoid missing any I recommend that you sign up for the newsletter on my website www.8minutestosuccess.com and the next episode will be sent to your email straight from the production line. Don’t be afraid I won’t be bringing this out every day. Don’t forget to subscribe. Would also be nice to get some comments from you and if you feel it’s worthy you can share it with your friends.

Take care. Bye, bye.