If anyone is interested in my thoughts vis a vis the CRM and the CIP, I refer you to my blog at http://cunninghamabovetherim.blogspot.com/

The CIP is still too fresh out of the oven to pass full critical judgement and the CRM has had some stale moments, although it appears to be on the right track to be refreshed. The exams have entirely different approaches. One is broad and the other deep. One has prerequisites; the other requires your credit card.

A lot here depends upon what your role calls for. The CIPP (double P) is highly recommended for people dealing in large part with privacy. PMP is a very rigorous examination, but you need passion for project management. The CA really limits you to archives. The certification in e-discovery is suspect in my mind because it is not run by a legal professional organization or any other known professional organization. Nonetheless, each has its own set of benefits and limitations. Each will assist the holder to have a leg up on competition from time to time, but often it is simply to get past the automated resume readers when a certification is a requirement. Certification guarantees nothing. It says that you met the qualifications, passed a set of questions in your professional field, and paid your money.

And lets not mix in certificates here. I've seen reference to the plethora of certificates that AIIM throws around. That leads to all sorts of alphabet soup after someone's name. It might be nice to have those things, but as a hiring manager, I'm going to want to cut through the alphabet and see what the person really knows from actual experience and practice. Most senior hiring managers are not easily impressed by a long list of certificates and certifications that have marginal relevance to the job being offered. I will ask a candidate who paid for the string of letters. I'm much more impressed when the candidate says that they took all those exams on their own dime and time.

At the end of the day, you need to look at the certification offerings across the profession and even into other related professions to determine what your best mix is. In my role, I'm leaning more towards the place that Angie Fares is, although that is one seriously crazy person to go for all those security, audit and risk certifications. I have several people in my organization with CISM and CISSP and CRISC and I doubt that I could pass any of those yet, much less CISA. But as someone who is new to the information security and risk management role, at some point, I may need to show some sort of certification in that field to demonstrate that I have both experience and certified basic knowledge in the profession. And sometimes that is what the alphabet soup is all about -- you're showing a basic professional competency and interest in your field as a professional and not simply as a journeyman.

To join a little debate about the CA, as a fallen-away archivist (although I have often played one in my day job), I find little value to the CA. Most archives jobs require a MLS and specific archival coursework. since there is a generally accepted body of coursework, the CA seems redundant. Furthermore, because few organizations will hire a MA with a CA over an ALA-accredited MLS, it seems worthless to this lowly MA in Public History. But that is a separate debate. Besides, records management pays better and we have cookies. (But yes, every records manager should have grounding in archival appraisal because every records manager, sooner or later, will have to make decisions about the historical value of some record.)


All that said, I would further throw into the mix one more thing -- education. I will place much more stock in someone with an advanced degree than someone with a string of letters after their name. Formal education, regardless of major, is the real differentiator. Yes, some relevance in major field is nice, but getting that degree is the important thing. This said by a guy who took almost 20 years to complete his Master's. That lack of completion likely cost me some jobs along the way.

 
Patrick Cunningham, CRM, FAI (and yes, also a CIP)
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