Certify when you can

In my last post, I took a week off work to recollect myself. I go into this with my last post, but I wanted to mention one thing I did accomplish. I tried to not get involved with any work-related activities, but there was one thing I wanted to dip my toe in.

RingCentral Certification

There is a product I was exposed to a few years ago. The service was called RingCentral. In my opinion, it’s a top-quality VOIP phone system. A few months ago, I was looking to get familiar with the technologies I use for my job. I stumbled across RingCentral University. It’s their site for tutorials and instructions on how to use their system regardless of user type (admin, call center tech, or standard user). Within their catalog they had an Associate RingCentral Admin Certification. I started to go over the material a month ago, but took the opportunity to complete it this week. Once I passed the exam, I decided to post my achievement to LinkedIn.

This certification isn’t exactly a significant certification that promotes huge job opportunity, but it became a goal for me to learn something new I use everyday. Being aware of how it works will only help me solve future problems. At a personal level, it forced me to be in this learning mindset. I could use that energy and momentum to learn additional topics.

Takeaway

A question I asked myself was, “Do you really need to put a certification such as this on your resume or LinkedIn”. At first, I didn’t think it would do much. What changed my mind is what getting this certification means. To elaborate, if someone were to ask me in a job interview, “what certifications or accomplishments have you acquired?”, I would consider to mention it. What this proves is that I’m willing to be a team player at work to learn a technology to be a better employee. Also, if this technology is widely used, any future IT job might have you support it so you’re prepared. More importantly, this shows to my bosses and company that i’m adaptable in learning, and willing to train to provide a better experience to our clients. From the perspective of my boss, I would want someone on my staff who is willing to learn new things while at their job and be flexible.

The point i’m trying to make is if you have the opportunity to get a certification for something you use at work, go for it. It can only make you look better and, of course, smarter. I was truly happy to finally accomplish this. It made me think of other things to learn more about such as Cisco Meraki ( I use that as well). Now if you excuse, I’m going to enjoy the rest of my time off.