My thoughts on certifications
I recently saw someone post on LinkedIn that people shouldn't bother with taking certificate courses (IIRC, this was in relation to #ProductManagement), since recruiters do not care about these compared to "real" experience on projects, and other examples of more concrete experience. I have seen this advice in many different places, and know there's a continuing debate of the necessity or value of taking certification courses. You may have your own opinion in this debate. Mine is this: Why discourage someone from taking the time to learn something new and improve themselves?
Sure, there are some considerations when deciding whether it's the right thing for you to take a course to help you get into a new role: Is it really going to teach me what I need to know to be successful? How much does it cost? How much time will it take? Can I balance it among the other things I'm already doing (working, family stuff, etc.)? How do recruiters and hiring managers really look at certifications like this in the field I’m targeting? Maybe it's possible for someone to learn what they need from reading, or watching a ton of YouTube videos and doing a bunch of other things instead of taking classes. Different people approach things differently. Being prescriptive in a way that discourages learning from certification classes or any other source seems detrimental and closed-minded.
Even if it's true that many recruiters don't put much stock in certifications, a person still took time and effort to improve themselves by learning more about a given topic. They made a commitment to go down this career path. This is something to celebrate and encourage, not discriminate against or look down upon.
Of course, I know that there are some certification classes out there that don't really provide useful learnings, potentially preying on people's hopes that having such a certification would make them more desirable in the job market. In that case, it would be more helpful advise people on how to know whether a particular certification class is actually worth taking, vs dissing certifications altogether. And sometimes people only take classes and never really apply their knowledge in a meaningful way. If that's their intention, to learn for learning's sake, then that's their intention. But taking multiple certification classes in the hope that that's all one has to do to impress a recruiter is not the right approach, either.
TL, DR: If you take a certification course that taught you something useful and would be useful to other people following the same path as you are, proudly post about it! One shouldn't be ashamed of taking steps to improve oneself, regardless of whether recruiters or other people involved in hiring appreciate or recognize it.
My certificate of completion for “Becoming a Product Manager: A Complete Guide” from LinkedIn Learning
If you're still reading, again, I appreciate you choosing to stick around. I already posted a little bit on LinkedIn about my thoughts on the “Becoming a Product Manager: A Complete Guide”. If you're interested in (software) product management at all, I recommend this course. I was skeptical because other courses I took previously (not just about product management) were frustratingly shallow in scope. This one delved a lot into different aspects of product management -- what a typical day looks like, how to design and run experiments, what level of project management PMs may need to do, what is wireframing and how to use it to communicate with designers and engineers, and many, many other topics. It's a dense course, but the two instructors, Cole Mercer and Evan Kimbrell were good at explaining concepts simply and injected humor here and there. There were also a couple interviews with current PMs, but I found one of them more helpful than the other. This course is part of a longer learning path called Explore a Career in Product Management, which I'm still working my way through.
When I first started the "Becoming a Product Manager" course, I wasn't sure if I really wanted to go full steam ahead along this path since I worried it would make my job search even harder. But learning about the role from this course, and the fact that many PMs come from varying backgrounds and previous roles, including ones similar to mine, helped me feel more comfortable in my choice, as well as reinforce that I do have transferable skills and experience, more than I thought I did. So whether or not a recruiter or hiring manager cares that I took this certification course and proclaim it on my LinkedIn profile and elsewhere, its benefits to me outweigh whatever negatives might be floating about. Remember to take in and consider differing viewpoints, but do what's right for you. I'm glad I did.
