Educational credentials can be a powerful way to demonstrate interest in a field
By Brian Kreissl
I have probably changed my mind about the future direction of my career more often than some people change their socks. While I have really enjoyed my work for the last 11 years, a few years ago, I became extremely concerned about not having a viable, long-term career plan.
To make a long story short, I am now focused on a future career in learning and development, but the road to get here was a long and winding one with many bumps. It’s funny, but I actually kind of came to my decision by accident, although I had periodically at least considered careers in learning and development or teaching.
A few months ago, I had finally decided I was still fascinated by the world of work in some capacity and I didn’t want to give up on HR entirely (after focusing for a while on digital marketing). I felt that I was fairly knowledgeable about the workforce and realized that writing about HR issues is something I really enjoy, although I am also interested in marketing, branding and legal issues as well.
For that reason, I decided to shift direction towards corporate communications, with a special focus on employee communications. I then decided to approach our internal HR department to see if I could assist with some employee communications. While it turned out there wouldn’t be many opportunities to get involved in actual communications, it sounded like I could do some internal training and facilitation to further develop and enhance my public speaking and presentation skills.
At that point, I had an epiphany, and I began to realize there was a great opportunity here. I was really enjoying the teaching I was doing on behalf of the Canadian Payroll Association (I am again teaching their HR Fundamentals for the Payroll Professional course in Winnipeg and Calgary next month), and I could get to do some actual hands-on training for our HR department as well.
Learning and development is a great passion of mine and I remain committed to lifelong learning. I also believe that learning and development is poised to make a comeback, even if much of it will be facilitated online. Overall, I thought it would be a good fit with my HR background, writing experience and interest in business and the workforce. I would also be extremely interested in teaching part-time at some point in the future.
But I also realized I would likely need to complete more focused education in something directly relevant in order to facilitate the jump to learning and development in the future. Having completed five certificates over and above my two degrees, I questioned whether I wanted to complete yet another certificate, which employers don’t always seem to fully recognize anyway.
In the end, I decided to enrol in Brock University’s part-time Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) in Adult Education. The program can be completed in less than two years as a second degree and is relevant to adult education in basically any environment including academia and corporate learning and development departments. I may also decide to pursue a relevant master’s after that.
Education as a signal for career change
Some career counsellors and coaches these days have become less focused on formal education as a strategy for career reinvention and see other types of activities as more important such as special projects, volunteer assignments, informal learning activities and the development of online portfolios. While it is true that experience usually trumps education, employers seem to be confused by people whose academic backgrounds don’t mirror their work experience.
It can be very difficult to escape your educational and professional background and convince employers your interests lie elsewhere — particularly where your major is considered to be particularly practical and relevant to a specific career. This is especially difficult in the beginning of the reinvention process — particularly where someone has multiple interests and could go off in numerous different directions.
Because employers are most interested in specialists and see people with varied backgrounds as “Jack of all trades, master of none,” education can be a powerful signal that a person is committed to a particular career direction. This is especially true when enrolling in a full degree program. It’s almost as if you have to deliberately sabotage all other career options before people will take your commitment seriously.
