The school of hard knocks and the university of life may be a couple of clichés but don’t scoff too much. Ponder for a moment your own experience and career. Subtract the lessons and what do you have left? Nothing much. Maybe that degree that had nothing to do with your career path? A smattering of work related training? The odd vocational qualification from the O.U.?
The reality, or your career success as it is commonly known, like many others of a similar ilk, is built mainly on hard work and a keen mind. You have to ensure this translates onto your CV as it is amongst the first impressions that the recruiter and employer have when reading your CV. Written correctly, it will speak volumes about your character.
Is this where qualification(s) stops? No. I’m going to have to give a you little bit of a heads up here and use an old adage to paint a picture; Be careful not to fall into the trap of saying out loud “I have xx years of experience at xxxxxxx level” without first taking stock of how the experience might come across. You would not want to intimate that you have repeated your first 10 or 20 years.
According to a survey commissioned by Croner and carried out by YouGov, management competence is being questioned and is of concern to your peers in the ivory towers of HR. To read the article click on the link at the bottom of the page. If we ignore my cynical observations that Croner are providers of HR solutions, that the sample size was a paltry 139 HR Managers and that we do not know the sizes of the organisations other than to say that they were companies of more than 100 employees what can we learn (< no pun intended)?
Our advice would be to look at qualifications that endorse your success and bolster your career prospects. Join professional organisations. Ask your business to sponsor your learning using the argument that it will help you improve and help the business; make sure that last part can be delivered! If they will not sponsor you then do it yourself. Finally do not become a cliché and not look at self improvement. It might just be the difference between you and the next person.
More reading:
Management CV
Croner
CMI
CIPD
Cranfield University