Should I take certification?
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The omnipotent Facebook is no longer just a place for making friends, but may also be a multi-faceted information exchange and social platform, such as career counseling or love counselors, etc. One day, I suddenly received a message.
“Would you recommend this digital marketing certification exam? Because I want to take it, but I feel like I don’t have enough time.” A young girl who I had met several times sent me a message about a certification exam held by a certain organization, hoping that I could give her some advice.
“What is your motivation?” After reading the unit’s website, I asked her why she wanted to take this certification.
“Oh, because I am not an undergraduate, I feel a little anxious. I always feel that I have insufficient experience and I don’t know how to respond to the needs of future society?” From the girl’s Facebook, we can know that she studied at a top university in Taiwan during her college years, but from these questions, it seems that we can understand her hesitation about future development.
In the past, I often traveled between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait due to work, and I also met many entrepreneurs from the other side of the Taiwan Strait. Strictly speaking, Taiwanese college students are not bad at competitiveness, but local college students often lack confidence. Therefore, in addition to pursuing academic qualifications, many young friends also hope to embellish themselves and even arm themselves with one certificate after another.
Passing certification can indeed increase your confidence. I will not deny the value of certificates. Certificates may be useful in some fields, but if it is digital marketing like this girl asked about, I feel that even if I pass the exam, it may not mean anything. Don’t rely too much on certificates, as they are not a talisman that ensures smooth access to the workplace.
Having a certificate may enrich your resume, but your supervisor may not necessarily pay for it and will still assess your practical ability. If you are confused immediately, no matter how many certificates you have, it will be in vain.
According to my past experience, many people who have performed well in the workplace did not necessarily study related subjects in college or junior college. Instead, they relied on their own interests and continued to study and practice after graduation, and gradually achieved good results.
When many people talk about marketing, they only remember 4P and 4C. However, today’s society is no longer the ancient times. Although theoretical foundation is important, the industry often pays more attention to practical capabilities.
Nowadays, it is not so important what major you study, because the corporate world needs cross-field talents. If you want to break through the destiny of 22K, you must first strengthen yourself. Only with practical ability can you survive in this competitive society.
The girl asked another question, “Well, but how should I practice actual combat? What I am doing in the company now seems to have nothing to do with these?”
Practical experience is indeed very important. Just like I often encourage young friends around me to confirm their ambitions early and then try to practice relevant skills. If you want to do product planning in the future, you must study user experience (UX), product development and other related aspects; if you want to do marketing, you must be familiar with the use of various marketing tools and media.
Nowadays, when many people talk about marketing, they talk about the number of fans and advertising costs. In fact, digital marketing covers a wide range and is definitely not limited to the management of Facebook fan pages.
“If there is no (implementation) environment, then create your own environment!” This is my advice to girls.
Taking the familiar fan page management as an example, in addition to encouraging you to observe more fan pages of each company, we can also “think from others’ perspective” - imagine that you are the social manager of a certain brand and try to analyze their social media strategy. Or, if this was a task assigned to you by your supervisor, how would you go about running the community and planning the content?
In addition to observing several successful fan pages, you can also open a fan page of your own to practice. Thinking about theme setting and fan interaction, how to run a unique social media? Only by doing it yourself can you know the secret. Next, you can also write your own blog, set up a website, and then try to operate search engine optimization (SEO), and then test the business results and conversion rate.
What I mentioned above costs almost nothing. You can start practicing at any time and invest a little time every day. I keep in mind “ten thousand hours” of practice. As long as you do anything with the right method and long-term accumulation, you will make progress and grow.
“Okay, I understand. I think maybe I am too accustomed to exams or certifications of certain expertise. When I feel that I don’t have enough information, I will look for information or related information, but I should be able to learn more by doing it myself.”
I think girls already understand this truth: Whether or not to take the certification test is not actually the key point, but after passing it, other aspects of assistance are needed to maximize the benefits of the certificate.
“Then, my fan page… do you want to come and practice?”
“Can I? Haha!” The conversation ended with each other’s laughter. I hope to help her build confidence and find the right direction for her studies.
If you also want to chat with me, you don’t need to add friends in advance, you can directly message to me on Facebook (please remember to briefly introduce yourself first), or you are also welcome to mail.
♪ This article was originally published in “Vesta View” of Kool Youth @Cheers.
♪ Image source: [pixabay](https://pixabay.com/zh/%E4%BF%A1-%E8%9C%A1-%E5%AF%86%E5%B0%81-%E8%AF%B7%E6%B3%A8%E6%84%8F-%E5%A4%8 7%E5%BF%98%E5%BD%95-%E7%BA%B8-%E5%8F%91%E5%B8%83-%E4%BF%9D%E8%AF%81-%E8%AF%81%E4%B9%A6-%E4%BF%A1%E5%A4%B4-576461/)
