Badge -Tomorrow's Diploma? Week 4 Post 1


I switched careers this past Dec, fulfilling a goal to leave librarianship behind and embark on a new career.  I’d been trying for this change, directly to an instructional design job, for about 4 years.   Multiple applications over the years, never got in the door.   Resume updated along the way incrementally, but I can’t say it was with any big changes. 

In the spring of 2018, I began the certificate program.    I applied again, this time getting a call back.   Was that the difference, that I was enrolled in school?

I don’t know.  I bring this up because I read about the rise of badging and I wonder how far it’s going to go.  But when I really about it, isn’t a diploma or certificate from a university a badge?  For a badge, you prove you have some sort of competency and they award you one, gatekeeped behind the blockchain cryptography, and it says to the world “This person can do this, whatever this is!”    For a diploma, you attend higher education, take a certain amount of credits in a given formation to merit a degree of some kind, safeguarded behind a transcript paywall, that says “This student has learned this, whatever this is!”

So is that what my certificate (still in process) signified to my current employers?  A “badge” that I was serious about this, enough to warrant their time to at least an interview? 

So often I’ve heard about different jobs that an employer will care more about what you know and are able to demonstrate that you can do, especially in tech fields.  I don’t know how true that is.   But I’m sure every employer wants some more confidence and security when they hire someone above just a line on a resume.    It’s not enough to say you know how to program whatever language is en vogue, now an employer can request a badge to prove it. 

It doesn’t seem like they are, yet, though:
https://www.chronicle.com/article/With-Employers-in-the-Mix-Can/244322

The idea that badges are offered by universities seems backwards to me.   Isn’t that what the degree is for?  And what’s the point of badges in general if employers don’t put any value on them?   But I suspect, if badges last, that they’ll be like any new technology that will be integrated and required as a facet of living competitively in our society.




Comments

  1. OliverJune 7, 2019 at 6:41 AM

    I like 'whatever this is.' I just feel motivated, try to embrace the moment along with the difficulties when I have a badge. Just for myself! :-) It sounds like a treat, like a chocolate...

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    Replies
    1. Charles RoigJune 7, 2019 at 6:49 AM

      That's totally valid. Sometime I think I'm too goal or function orientated. Perhaps a badge's worth doesn't have to be anymore important than a personal achievement, whether or not it has a marketable value to educational/professional communities.

      Delete
  2. EME2040 BlogJune 7, 2019 at 10:53 AM

    When I think of badges, I think of 2 different applications: earning a badge in an LMS or elearning platform that shows your colleagues and employer that you have accomplished an assigned task and I also think of badges in the sense that we are using Badge List which mirrors your thoughts of professional accomplishments that are listed on LinkedIn.

    I can see your point that a badge is similar to a degree because it is a stamp of accomplishment. Also, I find it interesting that you did not get any hits and then you did after you listed the degree. I imagine it could be a fluke, but maybe that is all it took. I wonder if you could ask your hiring manager what it was and report back to us. I think so many times today, people are hired or given the chance to interview either by who you know and getting yourself in the door, or having the right keyword on a resume that will flag your resume to be looked at. I wonder if your employer used a keyword screening tool as did others and that keyword of the certificate is what made them actually look at your resume, but they did not in the past.

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    Replies
    1. Charles RoigJune 7, 2019 at 11:16 AM

      That's another good take on it, a badge as more of an internal barometer of accomplishment within an organization/setting, be it a class or place of employment.

      I mentioned it at the time during my onboarding process, but no one I talked to had any really conclusive idea if that was the difference. I suspect my incremental changes to my resume and cover letters, plus the certificate, finally got me through the resume scanners.

      Delete
  3. VanessaJune 9, 2019 at 1:07 PM

    I've been watching the badge phenomenon run hot and cold and hot again over the last decade. I mean, badging is actually a really old concept (scouts!) but digital badges are a shiny new thing, as is the thought that we could have some sort of official-ish credential attached to things learned outside of classrooms (higher ed doesn't know what to do with badges but doesn't want to miss the train!).

    Culturally, I think that when encountering someone new the "official" credentials (degrees, certificates) are what "count" but in situations where someone is known and thus their skills are known, too, the skills are what really matter. And of course credentialed people sneak through the cracks and lack skills and skilled people may lack credentials so the whole thing is really imperfect.

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