Is Credentialing Necessary For a Successful Career

Is Credentialing Necessary For a Successful Career I recently received an e-mail from one of my clients, a piano teacher, who asked my opinion on the value of certifications. She was prompted to ask the question because she was feeling a bit uneasy about her lack of specialized credentials. Her insecurities surfaced after reading some mean-spirited comments posted by other piano teachers  on her LinkedIn group. Evidently, a new teacher had asked a question about setting rates and another member answered by referring to “part-time pseudo-teachers who think they’re qualified because they took a few piano lessons in their youth.” By way of background, my client most definitely does not fall into the pseudo-teacher category. Although she does not hold an advanced degree in music, she studied classical music for 16 years and  attended college as a Fine Arts major with a concentration in music.  She has earned a great reputation among the parents in town and now has a backlog of students waiting to work with her.  She takes her job very seriously and her efforts have paid off nicely. Nonetheless, without clear guidelines or regulations defining what constitutes being a professional in her field, my client is left to wonder if she should invest in training strictly to beef-up her resume, or if she would be better served to take classes more for enrichment, without a credential being the driving motivator. Its a great question; one that many professionals who work in unregulated professions (my own included) grapple with.  There is no shortage of schools and programs willing to take your money in exchange for an alphabet soup of credentials, but the question remains, is it a nice-to-have or a neccessity? If you, like my client, find yourself wondering what type of training is really needed, these questions should help you to gain some clarity.  The first three address the rules, regulations and norms of your professions, so make sure you know the answers to those at a minimum: What are the legal requirements of my professions?:  This is a must-answer question. In certain fields, like medicine or law, you are legally required to obtain and maintain a professional license in order to practice. If you dont have the license, you cant practice, plain and simple. Know the licensing requirements and meet them, plain and simple. Where will you practice?  Requirements for licensing and certification vary depending upon State, specialty and workplace setting. Check your local state professional association to ensure you meet the appropriate standard for your locale. What are the professional regulations?: Different professions have different regulations regarding the use of occupational titles. In many fields, you must pass rigorous training and testing before you have the right to call yourself a specific title. For example, in my profession, anyone can call themselves a career coach (much to my dismay) but the use of the title career counselor is more tightly regulated.  In the financial world, anyone can call themselves a financial coach, but only people who meet specific requirements, can call themselves a certified financial planner.  From a career planning standpoint, you should first investigate the rules, and then decide which certifications are best for your situation. What is the accepted professional norm? Here is where things get interesting. In many fields, an advanced degree is not officially mandated, but it is the norm.  For example, in corporate America, many  top executives have an MBA or other advanced degree, even though it is not mandated by law. If the norm in your field is to hold a certain degree or certification, then youll likely need to invest in  furthering your education. What type of credentials do your  clients want you to have? If you intend to go  into private practice, its important  to think about whether or not your clients place a value on  credentials.  For example, a mom  looking to hire  a piano teacher for her  young child is  probably going to prefer  a teacher with reasonable rates who relates well to children  over an expensive teacher with  a stern personality, who has an advanced degree.  On the other hand, a parent looking to hire a piano teacher to help their child gain entrance to The Julliard School will be more concerned with the teachers pedigree and training. At the end of the day,after youve met the legal, professional and unofficial requirements of your profession, you want to invest in the training that distinguishes you from the competition in a meaningful way and provides you with the skills that enable you to deliver superior service. Get to know your market and their needs first, and then decide which credentials are most important to your target clientele.  Investing in education and credentials that matter to your clients (or employer) is the best way to get a strong return on your training dollars. Related articles that you might also enjoy: 5 Ways to Earn Income as a Teacher (Without Getting a Teaching Degree) 10 Lessons Ive Learned About Career Reinvention (In Celebration of My 15th Anniversary as a Career Coach!) 5 Tips for A Successful Midlife Career Reinvention Career Reinvention: Focus on the Who, Not on the What How to Overcome the Fear of Career Change

Creating a High School Writing Resume

Creating a High School Writing ResumeIf you are in high school and planning to apply for college or take a job after graduating, a good way to begin preparing is with a high school writing resume. This can be a major part of your success when you finally go to college or into the workplace. A good writing resume can make all the difference in your career development. While it may seem easy enough to write a good resume, you should also consider some of the benefits of creating one that will stand out from others on the same page.A good high school writing resume should be created to meet the expectations of the company that is looking to hire you. This means that you need to consider the kind of professional image that you want to project. When you learn about creating your own high school writing resume, you will be able to customize it to fit in with the kind of professional image that you are trying to project.Creating a high school writing resume can be very intimidating if you h ave never done this before. However, this is the only way that you will be able to see how well you know what you are doing and how well your resume really stands out. One way to create a professional-looking resume is to use a form letter. This means that you use the template of a high school writing resume but you fill in the details yourself instead of using one of the templates that you find online. You will be able to have all of the important information included in your resume on your own.A successful resume will include information about yourself and that you are indeed a person who has what it takes to succeed in the work place. Your resume should not only show that you are the right person for the job but it should show that you are also well-prepared for the job. Some people choose to just write a cover letter before they even get started on their resume. This can be a good idea if you feel that it will help your resume to stand out above other resumes on the same page.Yo u also want to have your resume organized in a way that makes it easy for your to find the information that you need quickly. For example, you will probably need to be able to find a job history section, a list of your accomplishments and references. You will also need to be able to format your information in a way that makes it easy for you to read.You will need to be able to make your resume as short as possible without putting a long list of information on it. In addition, you will want to ensure that you have all of the information that you need up front. If you get an interview and the employer want to check more information, you need to be able to include all of the necessary pieces of information that you needed.There are many things that you can do to create a good high school writing resume. Learning how to make yours unique can give you the advantage of being noticed when it comes to a potential job interview. You will be able to show that you are knowledgeable about a spe cific field of work or a certain type of job when you come up with a well-written resume.Creating a high school writing resume is an excellent way to get your resume noticed. You can tailor it to fit the job that you are applying for as well as being ready to answer the kinds of questions that are likely to be asked during an interview. Take the time to learn about making a high school writing resume before you send it out.

Using Design To Extend And Safeguard Your Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Using Design To Extend And Safeguard Your Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Authors should use design to extend and safeguard their brand beyond the cover of the book they wrote to build their visibility, attract new business, and establish a personal brand. The book cover is the starting point; its the most immediately obvious visible symbol of an authors personal brand. And, in many cases, a book cover is enough; many successful careers and highly-profitable businesses have been built on the branding power of a single book cover. Yet, authors have to think ahead to protect themselves and their personal brand. Reasons not to build your personal brand on a book cover Complacency can be a killer! There are several reasons authors should avoid building their visual brand around the cover of their book. Here are some reasons why: Lack of ownership. Except when books are self-published, copyright ownership is usually shared by authors and publishers. This means the publisher has a say in how the book title and cover can be used in the future. You may not be able to leverage the title and front cover of your book into back-end profits because your publisher doesnt want your audios, e-books, or seminars to compete with what they sellor may sell. Wasting time, waiting for answers. Even if your publisher doesnt come out and say no!, you may waste valuable time and expensive resources trying to pin down a definite answer from the publishers legal department. Indeed, in this day of takeovers and transfers, your publisher may be purchased by another firm, forcing you back to square one. Out-of-print. Another problem occurs if your first book doesnt do as well as anticipated. In this case, the publisher may not go back for a second printing, even if it is a consistently selling back list title. (Theres always more glamor and incentive to invest in a new book that might be tomorrows big hit.) Having your brand based on the cover of an out-of-print book will seriously undermine your career. New books. Lets look at the problem from a different perspective; suppose your first book does so well that youre approached by other publishers to do a follow-up book. (And, lets face it, one of the reasons you wanted to learn how to write a book was so that you could continue to write!) If your entire visual brand is based on your first book cover, which you dont have total control, youll have to start your visual brand-building from scratch with your next book. This undermines your personal brand, sacrificing the personal branding equity you gained from from your first book. Bad things can happen to good books. Protecting your visual brand One of the easiest ways you can avoid branding obsolescence based entirely on a book cover is to create an icon, or visual, that reflects your book, but can live on beyond the life of your book. Build on the colors and typefaces used on your book cover. Ask your graphic designer, or a design-aware friend,   to identify the specific color values and typefaces used on your book cover. Use these colors on your blog and website, as well as the marketing materials for your back-end products and services. Dont include your book cover in your website banner. Dont create your banner around your book cover, unless its a website for just that book. Instead, place the book cover in the sidebar of your blog or in the text area of your home page. Create a graphic that tells your story but wont go out of date. Your graphic can be very simple, indeed, it should be very simple. It has to communicate at a glance. Your graphic should reflect your core ideas, reduced to their essence. Yet, it has to be based on evergreen ideas that are common to all of your activities. Idea: Look for the underlying process In many cases, your image can be based on the step-by-step process youve identified to help your market and your readers achieve their goals or solve their problems. Not only is the process an excellent way to organize the information in your book, the basic process can become your visual brand, one that will continue to live beyond the life of any book, product, or service. Best of all, when you create a graphic tells a story you tell, your story!, it becomes far more powerful than a logo. Logos, especially in this age of 6 logos for $99, are often empty symbols that may be distinct, but arent necessarily relevant to the story you want to tell or the image you want to communicate. For example, I could take my initials, RCP, and have a graphic designer fiddle with them for several months, andhopefullycreate a memorable image out of them. Given enough exposure, people might begin to associate the letters with my name. But, the letters will never tell a story! In my case, for example, I reverse-engineered everything Ive learned about writing and publishing to 4 words: Plan, Write, Promote, and Profit. These, when placed in a cycle, became the unifying element for website, downloadable PDFs, presentation visuals, and marketing materials. Conclusion I encourage you to do the same. Look to the future. Invest in your future. You must control the visual representation of your personal brand and it must tell a timeless story! Use design as a tool to extend and safeguard your brand by creating a visual identify based on a graphic related to the cover of your first book, but independent enough to have a life of its own. And, you must own all rights associated with the image. Look beyond the cover of your first book to your core values and messages, so your personal brand will outlive todays strategies and tactics. A little extra effort now will save you lots of effort and costs later. Author: Best-selling author and book coach Roger C. Parker helps business professionals plan, write, promote, profit from a brand-building book at his daily writing tips blog. He’s currently waiting for copies of his next book, #BOOK TITLE Tweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Compelling Article, Book, Event Titles.