Certification for Structured Learning

Seven and a half years ago I wrote a short blog about the value of certification. In the years that followed, I gained a bit of a reputation for taking certifications and advocating a learning culture. There were a few reasons for this;

• Mandatory. At Microsoft, each year you needed to fulfil a certification from a list according to your role. Through this process, I saw a lot of people absolutely hate it. It reminded them of being at school, needing to take and pass a test. For me, it didn’t really make much difference. I embraced the growth mindset philosophy and went into the exams with the attitude that the retake was free and the feel of failure was short lived.
• Freedom. Because we didn’t need any form of approval to take an exam (again, they were all free) - it meant you could take the exam for one that was a little bit outside of your wheelhouse just to see.
• Competitiveness. In the Microsoft bi-annual internal conferences there was always an exam classroom on hand for candidates to pop into. For myself and a few others, this bred competitiveness. On one occasion, 2 of us went to see how quickly we could pass one of the Office Fundamentals exams just because we were there and had a gap in our schedule. I won, with a time of 12 minutes.

As a result, I’ve conditioned myself to really focus on the certification as part of the learning process.

In the time since leaving Microsoft in 2023, I’ve found myself needing to learn new tools or procedures, I try to structure my learning with identifying a certification up front.

Here’s the structure I follow;

• Research the tool, the training and certification landscape
• Consider the value.
  • How much will I use this knowledge.
  • Am I asking my team to take this - should I role model the behaviour.
  • To what regard is the certification held by the community.
  • Align with management on the relevancy.
• Bake in the real world, there’s little point in preparing solely just to pass and exam. Look to how the tool/tech is being used in your org and seperate the good, bad and ugly.
• Set a date and book the exam. It’s incredibly easy to procrastinate, and for the day job to take over. Before you know it, a year will have passed.
• Set aside learning time, this is doubly important when the tool is new.
• Collaborate. Take people with you. Don’t just learn in isolation, help others who have the same goal.