Disclaimer: I'm in HR. This is not how I hire, but it is what I'm dealing with, trying to get hired. I wish I could find a company that's not like this, so I don't have to go in and change the culture, but the kids need shoes and mama needs a job, ya know?
OK – I have degrees. In my field. Which means I have spent several months learning, researching, and writing about the different topics in my field. Why do I ALSO need to have a certification just to get past the recruiting software?
For example, I spent an entire semester learning about change management theory and wrote a 40-page paper on it. Then I spent an entire semester learning change management practice and completed a huge project on it. I have spent hundreds of hours learning change management. But, in order to get a job doing change management (even entry level), I have to have a certification (which requires that I have 5 years of on the job change management experience that I would get….where exactly?).
Luckily, I do have work experience. Like, lots. And also the degrees. But I still need the certification. So I have to take my 10+ years of experience, and my degrees, and take a 3-day course that will not teach me anything I don't already know, to show employers that I know the stuff I've been doing. As if a 3-day course is somehow magical and I'll be the king of all things change management. No, I'll just be poorer by at least FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. The course is $4,500, and that will get me something to put on my resume showing I've taken their fancy course. Then I have to take another exam that's like $600 to get the exam that will give me the credentials with the initials I can put behind my name to show employers that I, in fact, do have enough expendable cash to attend the course.
Don't even get me started on the sex/race/diversity in this course (hint: it's all white, with a two white women desperately trying to climb the ladder and make better money).
I swear to god, it's an extension of the class division. Now that the underclass have been able to go to college thanks to online, cheaper degrees, they have to make up ways to create financial barriers to employment. Before, it was college degrees. Now, since 4 year degrees are so prevalent, they require a masters, and I've even seen job ads for a PhD in BUSINESS. In BUSINESS.
That's a 4 year undergrad, a 1-2 year masters, and a 3-4 year PhD program. What the fuck is someone with a PhD in business going to bring to your plumbing supply store, Bonnie? Because she sure as fuck isn't going to do it for $23.84 an hour.
On top of the change management certification, I'm also getting the international version of a certification that I already have – because the global jobs that I'm applying for (that I'm qualified for and have experience with) are now requiring a certification showing that I know international HR practices. So, I pay the money to schedule the exam. Then I email the test prep people and ask them if I can just buy the international version of the test prep because I already bought $1,000 of test prep stuff years ago when I got my certification that is non-international.
You know what they said? The fancy-pants “international” version of the certification is the SAME certification as I've already got, except it doesn't include US law. So, in order to be “qualified” for the global-level positions I have already had, I have to pay the like $600 to take another exam, that covers less material than the exam for a qualification that I already have. So the new exam will get me the right letters behind my name to show prospective employers that I have the time and money to waste on a specific exam just for them.
Just so employers don't have to understand the qualifications they're putting in their job ads. Who is letting hiring managers put this shit in their job ads? Where are the HR controls, fellow HR people? You have got to push back. And, hiring managers: ffs listen to your hr people because you're so very, very bad at this. Give HR a seat at the big girl table, integrate your hr/people into strategic planning with full value, not with an asterick next to their seat.
To recap: I have degrees in my field, I have senior certifications in my field, I have 10+ years of quality experience with a transnational company (big, big company), and I have to pay almost $6,000 to get worthless certifications to put on my LinkedIn to get past the recruiting software, to get an interview for a job that's likely beneath my capacity, and with interviewers that will ghost me.
And, I can't get a 'lesser' job because I'm rejected for being overqualified due to my experience and degrees, without even putting the certifications on there. So, too qualified for the jobs I had 5 years ago and not qualified for the jobs I had two months ago without $6,000+ of certifications.
Oh, and, I'm broke, so those certifications are going on a credit card that I don't know how I'm going to pay.
I hate this system so much.
**I do know that I am extremely privileged to even have the luxury of getting student loans and dedicating time to college, and to having the opportunity to go into debt to get these certifications. My point is that the gatekeeping BS and insanity in the job market exists at every level of the underclass.