In my last article, I made us understand the concept of professionalism, its numerous advantages and why everyone should strive to become a professional.

(Kindly read up if you miss the article https://www.nairaland.com/6518025/why-should-professional

How, then, can you become a professional?

No matter the field or career you find yourself, whether formal or informal, you can as well become a pro in your own field. You can become a professional artisan, footballer, designer, engineer and so on in TWO major interdependent ways:

1. Through years of hard work and experience:

There is a general old adage which says “practice makes perfection”. This age-long axiom has always remained true. You can become a pro in your field through hard work and dedication, backed by conscious effort towards growth and development.

By spending a number of years in your job and paying close attention to your growth, you can improve your expertise and become so good in your field to be regarded as a professional. Experience can only be gathered by spending enough time in a particular assignment, learning, unlearning and relearning.

In our world today, however, and especially for formal careers and jobs, expertise gained through long years of work and experience only is greatly recognized but not USUALLY acknowledged and celebrated. I mean such expertise could take you places and give you recognition, but it could also undermine you if you rely SOLELY on it.

This is the harsh reality with formal jobs – accountants, engineers, surveyors, mid-wives etc. A friend of mine has an uncle who is a quantity surveyor. The man is really sound and good in his field and he has handled many high-profile projects for his company. He is someone who should be regarded as a pro.

However, when the MD of his company stepped down, he as the assistant should rightfully take over right? But no, it didn’t happen. To our surprise the company brought in another surveyor who is rather less experienced than him to become the MD and my friend’s uncle remains the assistant.

Why? Why would the company make such harsh decision? This is not right! What is even the difference between the new MD and my friend’s uncle? – Certification.

2. Through Professional Certification:

Certificates, as most people agree, is a mere paper which shows that – in most cases – you have sat down in a classroom, receive lectures, memorize what is mostly a theoretical aspect of a particular field and deliver those in an exam hall. In Nigeria today, there are lots of disagreements on the use of certificates as a basis of evaluation and assessment of a person’s ability.
There are so many valid points to this outcry – especially when considering the dilapidated state of education system in our country.

However, my dear, I am going to break the sad news to you: certificates are still as important as they have ever been. Expertise and experience is very invaluable tool one can have, they serve great use to their owners; however certificates serve as spring board through which the owner could achieve much greater success.

Expertise and experience are like a perfectly constructed mansion with several rooms, beautiful in-house painting and several gadgets, but in which the exterior part of the house wasn’t painted. Passer-by and the public only see the exterior and not the interior of the house.
They might never get to appreciate the beauty of the house because of its lack of painting – except those who are opportune to enter the mansion. We can all agree that the house needed just one thing to stand out and be fully appreciated – that is painting.

Certificates are the painting that attracts and open several doors of opportunities. In the corporate world, certificates, professional certificates precisely, serve as a launch pad and give their owners the platform to achieve great success in their career.
Professional certificate is what will give you the platform to showcase your expertise and experience. It is what will attract the world to your competence and knowledge. It is what will push you to that high place in your career where you can be fully recognized.


My dear students, engineers, accountants, economist, H.R personnel, builders, are you still in the belief that certificates are of no use? Discard these thoughts and quickly prepare for an insurmountable rise in your career by getting professionally certified.

Take the steps today, become a professional and thank me later.