In The Mind Of The Employer |Certificates| S2 E7

By Assandoh

I would like to first surprise you by telling you the employer is not interested in your Certificates. They don’t need your certificates or your qualifications. That’s the last thing they actually look out for.

It may sound ridiculous but that’s the truth. They look out for something else. They hardly call you for interview based on your certificates.

This may tell you why those who graduates with the best honors are not always the ones who get the best job offers.

One HR told me, “Your certificates only qualifies you to apply for jobs aside that I check out for your potentials and what you’re capable of offering”. So the best your certificate can offer you is to qualify you to apply for a post and at times, gives a legal backing to your skills.

Besides, on no account will an accountant submits an application for the position of a nurse; neither will a physiotherapist submits an application for the position of a mechanical engineer because they don’t even qualify to apply.

Notes that when the HR units pull out their dockets to shortlist, almost all the thousands of applications they are to shortlist from have a similar certificate relevant to the post. So in most cases, certificates do not become a yardstick for shortlisting.

At times when you engage young graduates about jobs, they lament about how they have certificates in this or that, but they don’t understand why employers are refusing to even grant them interview opportunities.

Some of your colleagues have ‘Same Certificate + Other Things’ which the employer is interested so your ‘Certificates + Nothing’ does not interest the employer. It’s best you stop talking about your certificate and focus on other things such as your skills that may interest the employer. Remember, it’s not the certificate that produces results for the employer, but your skills and abilities. So why market your certificates in your CV or to employers.

The writer is a Nurse, a Blogger and a Health and Career Coach. He has been a resource person at countless number of conferences and students platforms both on health and career developments.  For Health or Career Counselling and Speaking Engagements, contacts (+233)  0505167698