The Path to Become a Certified Professional
This article is aimed at people who are not yet certified in any field but are interested in pursuing the achievement of becoming certified. Here, I detail, from my experience, some key aspects of that journey so that the things which were my pain, are now your gain!
Okay, to be honest, it is not painful to get certified, I was just being cheeky up there. What it is, is a process. A process in which you have to be disciplined and study to get 110% of the knowledge you need to have so that you can score at least the 70%–80% of correct answers that most certification exams require.
I’ll review some of what I consider key points, exploring them in short paragraphs. This will be a mix of “what you should do”, “what you should avoid” and everything in between, aiming to guide you through the challenge of passing on a certification exam.
Reading the documentation/resources and taking notes are not enough
You can’t just read the resources you have access to and take notes. If you are certifying on a ‘hands-on’ subject, you have to get your hands dirty and practice whatever you need to be on top of.
For instance, if are you certifying on specific software, you have to use the software, do exercises, and know the small and hidden details within the software… practice brings the knowledge you’ll need to have.
Reading the documentation/resources and taking notes is REALLY not enough
Still, on the same subject, it is also NOT ENOUGH to just read the documentation and take notes while you prepare for certification on some sort of more theoretical knowledge.
What you need to do after taking those notes is to read them, go through them, not once, not twice, but enough times for you to, just from hearing any given keyword, have immediately present everything revolving around it, as if you are an expert on the subject… which is what you want to be seen as after all.
Don’t be fooled by “Basics” and “Fundamentals” certifications
A basics/fundamentals certification has to be easy right? WRONG!
Those things are not easy to pass, they are named “basics” or “fundamentals” because they focus on the “bread and butter” subjects of whatever is the broader context you are certifying on, but the exams are held to the same standard as those focusing on more “complex” subjects.
You’ll find the same tricky questions designed to throw you off, and the same confusing options for you to choose from… the game is exactly the same, don’t let your guard down. Study hard!
The devil is in the details
You know when you are going through subjects and thinking: “Yeah, this small detail here is just too far-fetched to be in the exam”?
You need to focus exactly on those details you were set to dismiss because just as you came to that thought, the exam creators did as well. As such, at least some of those details WILL BE ON THE EXAM.
Make use of Practice Exams
You often get to the exam, and something as “simple” as the phrasing of the questions throws you off.
Questions can be confusing, especially if not in your native language, and sometimes they are confusing by design: If you know your craft, you’ll eventually figure it out, otherwise, you’ll be stuck.
This is where practice exams can be very helpful. Often, organizations make practice exams available for candidates to practice and test their knowledge before the exam. Those are usually smaller versions of the actual certification exam, but the questions are very close to the real deal, and it can be very helpful for you to get comfortable with the process.
Apart from the “formal” practice exams, it is usually easy to get “question dumps”, or practice exams created by specialists… those are helpful as well. Make use of everything you can get in this regard. If you can score well in a bunch of practice exams, most likely you would score well in the actual certification exam.
Persevere
It is easy to fall into the “you are ready, go for it” lie, either from ourselves or coming from others.
Ego and over-confidence should be ignored when you are preparing for a certification exam because nothing hurts more than to go there, be wrongly convinced you are ready, and then fail miserably!
There is also the monetary hit that comes with that failure: Certifications tend to not be cheap! If you fail, you need to try again — which is not negotiable — and that means paying twice!
When you think you are ready, when you start to feel “comfortable”, go the extra mile and prepare more.
There is no price tag for the feeling of going to the certification exam with a clear head, at peace, feeling so prepared that you don’t feel ready… you feel “something” above ready.
Bottom-line
At the end of the day, you don’t need to be certified to be a good professional, so don’t make it more important than it is.
Being certified is useful as an external signal to the market, it opens a few doors, but you’ll still need to prove that you know what you claim to know just like any other people would.
The process to become certified can be long and is not something that you should rush. It is okay for a given certification to be your goal for the year, but, if you don’t feel ready, don’t schedule the exam trying to wing it… most likely, it’s going to go wrong.
Nowadays, there are loads of resources to prepare for certification exams: from practice exams to specialists on the subjects, to public and free documentation that the companies themselves make available for certification candidates. Use it all!
You are ready when, just from hearing about a subject, you have it all in your head: how it works, what it can do, what it can’t do, the hidden details, everything. You are ready not when you “are kinda knowledgeable about it”, you are ready when you are an expert on the certification’s subject… which is the goal of being certified anyway!
