Discussing significance of safety certifications

Today marks 5 years of me passing my CSP exam.

I’ve learned a lot in these five years. I’ve included some of those below.

As I reflect, something’s bothered me about safety certifications…

Its my hot take for today.

Certifications undoubtedly hold significance in the safety profession, signifying expertise, commitment, and adherence to high standards. I’ve noticed, an unsettling trend that only seemed to have emerged in the last few years: the alphabet soup has turned into the dictionary soup. Letters behind peoples names have turned into an endless string of certifications a lot of people have never heard of before. While some people’s list of accomplishments is visually impressive and undoubtly shows the hard work they’ve put in to earn those, I think there is a myriad of downsides. While some strive for genuine expertise other strive to collect an abundance of letter behind their name treating certifications as mere trophies for display.

This race to accumulate a plethora of certifications often neglects the depth of knowledge and expertise that true mastery requires. It's not about the quantity of letters; it's about the quality of expertise and practical application in the field. I even have a twinge when someone recognizes me as an “expert” in anything. I can say that there are very few people I’ve ever met in this field that are truly an “expert” in their particular craft. I think I’m very good at many different things but to claim I’m an expert in anything is really just a lie.

Acquiring numerous certifications does not equate to mastery in each area. In reality, it's impossible to be an expert in every field represented by those letters. It's akin to trying to play multiple musical instruments without ever mastering any of them. But then again, maybe that’s not the goal. Maybe the goal is merely to show the rest of the world that you took the time, effort, energy, money to study for and pass these exams. That’s great too.

My chief concern here lies with the profession and its recognized credibility with all. This rampant pursuit of certifications for the sake of collecting letter believe is greatly diluting the significance of genuine certifications. It creates a noisy landscape where true expertise is camouflaged amid the clutter of excessive credentials. Owning an impressive array of certifications might make for an eye-catching resume, but it's superficial if it doesn't align with deep knowledge and practical experience. While some believe its impressive and eye-catching, others have more questions than wows.

The crux of the matter lies in valuing substance over superficiality. I think its important to ask the question of whether or not these certifications are too easy to get. I will even put myself in the hot seat. In some cases, getting certified when I did maybe is a sign of something not good. When first going down the route of professional certifications I first looked at the industrial hygiene route. To make a long story short, I needed a lot of pre-requisite classes to get me to going down the master’s route with the long term goal of sitting for the CIH exam. I guess I mean to say, for someone with some experience and little college level educational background in the sciences, the CIH was an aggressive path to take. The path of lesser resistance was that of the ASP-CSP. For some of the other ones, its even less pre-requisites needed in order to sit for the exam.

Is this a bad thing? No, not entirely. For many certifications, they exist as a lower barrier to entry for those who didn’t make this profession their career from the start. Its a gateway on the path to expertise.

On the other hand, its not a good thing. I would argue that becoming a CSP should be difficult. It should take a significant amount of rigor, time in industry, educational experience etc. Being a, [insert certification], should be highly regarded as an impressive achievement and one recognized amongst your peers as being above the rest. Currently, do the certifications in our field have that kind of alure and exclusivity? In some cases, yes. In many others no and that is evident of the number of people with list of certifications longer than is the allowed character limit in their Linkedin profile.

The spectrum of those certified in [x] is very wide. There are some people who never got certified and are truly experts in what they do. There are others who are certified and again, are regarding amongst their peers as being true representatives of what an expert is in their craft. There are others who have a number of certifications I’ve personally talked to, who studied for the test, passed it, and that’s where it ended. There will always be a spectrum but having a spectrum that wide is a problem. To have both those people in the same room, with the same certification, asked to speak on the same topic, would be an interesting thing to see.

If you’re someone reading this and getting upset, reflect for a moment. Just consider this:

Should being a [insert certification] or becoming one, be harder?

Do you think, currently, that being certified in [that] is as highly regarded as it should be or do you think the market and number of those certified as watered it down?

I highly value the work the Board of Certified Safety Professionals do, amongst other certifying bodies around the world. This is not a knock to them, nor any of my colleagues who fit in this category of having many certifications. I am just asking us as a collective to reflect on whether the standards for these certifications should be something with the rigor suitable for us to be truly recognized in our field as an “expert” and for these not to get lost in its significance.

In the end, my fear is in another 5-10 years, being certified in [x] won’t mean as much. I want to celebrate those with genuine expertise, practical knowledge and hands-on experience as the true hallmarks of mastery in our profession. Let’s embrace the depth of our expertise and in doing so, elevate the credibility and signficance of what being certified truly means (or should mean). Let’s craft the culture where expertise speaks louder than acronyms and where the depth of our knowledge outshines the breadth of certifications.