I had an interesting exchange with a colleague on LinkedIn recently. He was a mid-level procurement professional and was unsure if a certification would help him at his age (mid-40’s) or if he was just relegated to plodding along at the mid-level for the rest of his career.
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To me, a procurement certification matters just as much (and possibly more) when you’re in your mid-career compared to when you’re early in your career. A procurement certification shows that you’ve met a standard for excellence in your profession and that you have a qualification that other, less capable candidates do not.
But, at the mid-career point, not having a procurement certification says something that is perhaps even more powerful.
It says that you may not be all that serious about your career. It can communicate that there is a chance that you are not competent enough to earn a procurement certification. It may cause someone to question whether you have updated your skill set at all since you started in the profession or if you still think what you were doing in the early 1990’s is all that needs to be done today.
Maybe you can overcome these obstacles. That is, if someone important would even give you the time of day to discuss them…
Recommended Reading
- Are You Chief Procurement Officer Material?
- How to Take Charge of Your Procurement Career
- Measuring The Impact of Procurement Training
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