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Hello everyone. Welcome to the 5 Minutes Podcast. Today talking about a very important thing. Don't be trapped by the easy certification route. Let me start by saying I love certification. For me, it's something super cool, super nice. I truly believe it's a very good way to improve your career, to fulfill the requirements for a job. My only issue with certification is the word easy, easy route. You know what is my trouble with that? Many people are looking for, I would say, a shortcut. Something like, oh, I want to pass on the PMP, but I want to pass in 5 hours. And some organizations and I respect anyone's business. So I'm not saying illegal, I'm not discussing that. But they say pass the PMP exam in one day or get your money back. And when I see this kind of ad, it worries me. And why? Because why do we want people to get a PMP or an ice cream master or a safe certification? Because we want people to demonstrate knowledge plus experience understanding of something. I'm not hiring someone just because this person is smart enough when he or she needs to pick a question, or they will always prefer B because statistically, B is usually better than C, you know, I don't care about that. I care about knowledge and experience. And the best way to explain this to you, it's like comparing certification with a driver's license. The driver's license is a material plastic or something in your phone that allows you to drive. And it has a basic assumption, you know how to drive, right? However, I can do something for you.
I can train you in such a repetitive way that you become like a machine, a test machine. You know exactly how to do a driving test. You know exactly how to do a written test. It doesn't necessarily reflect your real ability to drive. I have an aunt that took a driver's license maybe 50 years ago, and she never drove, but she was very lucky at that time to pass the exam. So this is what we need to avoid. What is important for me and I have advice for the aspiring credential holders and the credential holders. First, to the aspiring credential holders, learn. Look how to learn. Learning is not a memory test. Try to understand how things connect in the project environment. What are the challenges? Why you should care about risks? Why you should care about communication? Why does this matter? Why this is important? Which kind of tools can you use to overcome the change in your toolbox? This is exactly what we need. Try to practice that. It's unacceptable that someone gets a CSM or Scrum Master credential with zero experience in Scrum zero. I'm not saying a vast no, no zero. And this is my advice for the credential holders because when you get the credential, you need to protect that credential, because if that credential becomes something irrelevant that anyone you know with an illegal damp set of questions or something like that could pass, then it becomes worthless. And this is why, for example, I don't work in the certification market, and this is because I want people to understand, to really understand.
I want people to be functional drivers and not holders of a driver's license. And even I know many of you will say, oh, but this credential requires experience. Even the experience is subjective when you feel a piece of paper put in the name of your supervisor and what you did. Okay, I'm not saying you were lying, but people can read that statement in different ways. Is it truly a relevant experience to fulfill those hours or it's not? Maybe you can come in and audit or something. They can inspect, but it's impossible for you to do all of that. So every single certification has this weakness because it's not when you try to pacify something, you need to simplify things. And when you simplify things, you need to understand that answering a multiple-choice exam will provide to you and to the others. I would say that knowledge and not for you to get a pimp credential or a safe speak credential. So you. You need just one person. But it's so important that you really care not about the piece of paper, the certificate, or something that you will put on your LinkedIn profile. But the knowledge, because what will happen is that you may get a job, but it will not be a good job because reality is tough. The reality of the projects is tough if you don't learn and there is no way that a piece of paper with your credential will solve the real problems. Real problems are solved by knowledge and experience.
So it's very important that we understand that in real life there is no shortcut, everything. It's hard work. It's hard work. You know, it's not something like, you know, a quick win and then a big reward because these will not come. Maybe your CV will move from one pile to another because you have a credential. But when people interview you, I would say in a brutal way, trying to understand your real knowledge about the subject, it will not work out. It will not. It will not. Even if you are the best actor or actress on the whole planet, it will not work out. And just to wrap up, I am releasing this week something that was on my mind for a long time. It's a free online course about career and project management because after this topic of this podcast is one sample of that. But there is a lot of misunderstanding about what is to be a project manager. So I will be releasing in this course is free. This is not business, this is not an advertisement. This course is free and will be free forever. And I want just to give this contribution and give this eye-opening to all of those that are trying to figure out what a project management career looks like. So stay tuned. It will be released very soon. I hope you enjoy this podcast. Be mindful when you put your credential after your name. Understand that this credential means a lot of things and not just the exam. Okay. And see you next week with another 5 Minutes Podcast.
