I recently had an interesting discussion on certification program, which looking at the current landscape, does feel a strong need for a deeper look into it and where it is needed.
Hi Koo Ping, I have been the head of data science at my last company before starting a nonprofit and did quite a bit of interviewing and looking at degrees, certifications, etc... I think the industry has been maturing rapidly and experience has been much more important than the certificates, even a short 6 months hands-on project weighs more. That's just been my experience, it's not to say that certificates don't have their uses.
Certificates have served almost like an anti-signal for me. In general, if all you have to show is a *insert big tech* short course, then I almost always assume you are not very proficient.
Well put that the different kinds of certification send different signals to the marketplace / employer, ranging from knowledge to skills to competencies. The more a practice can be standardised – e.g. accounting, the more the certification can be geared towards competencies because you can test on well-defined use cases. In that regards, as a practice becomes standardised / codified, certifications around knowledge and skills would be deemed as less useful. With regards to data science, there are part of the practice that has become standardised, e.g. ML-based predictive modelling. However, there are still many areas like Gen AI which are non-standard (and will not be for some time), the certification on knowledge and skills (which are more broad-based) will be the way to go.
I kind of feel the current skills that are needed by the Knowledge Economy, like Data Science and AI or even at the moment using GenAI are challenging to standardised thus for sure certification on knowledge and skills will be the way to go. However, talent management also need to realise that certification while it is an essential factor to determine competencies but it is not the sufficient factor to determine accurately the competencies. Perhaps it is also time to re-look at job probation period and what assessment needs to be done during the job probation to ensure the skills proficiencies are competent enough for the tasks. :)
Hi Koo Ping, I have been the head of data science at my last company before starting a nonprofit and did quite a bit of interviewing and looking at degrees, certifications, etc... I think the industry has been maturing rapidly and experience has been much more important than the certificates, even a short 6 months hands-on project weighs more. That's just been my experience, it's not to say that certificates don't have their uses.
Certificates have served almost like an anti-signal for me. In general, if all you have to show is a *insert big tech* short course, then I almost always assume you are not very proficient.
Well not only that. I think going forward we also have to be skeptical of book authors.
Solution: just trust Koo
Well put that the different kinds of certification send different signals to the marketplace / employer, ranging from knowledge to skills to competencies. The more a practice can be standardised – e.g. accounting, the more the certification can be geared towards competencies because you can test on well-defined use cases. In that regards, as a practice becomes standardised / codified, certifications around knowledge and skills would be deemed as less useful. With regards to data science, there are part of the practice that has become standardised, e.g. ML-based predictive modelling. However, there are still many areas like Gen AI which are non-standard (and will not be for some time), the certification on knowledge and skills (which are more broad-based) will be the way to go.
I kind of feel the current skills that are needed by the Knowledge Economy, like Data Science and AI or even at the moment using GenAI are challenging to standardised thus for sure certification on knowledge and skills will be the way to go. However, talent management also need to realise that certification while it is an essential factor to determine competencies but it is not the sufficient factor to determine accurately the competencies. Perhaps it is also time to re-look at job probation period and what assessment needs to be done during the job probation to ensure the skills proficiencies are competent enough for the tasks. :)