The TestOut Skills Guarantee

Ten years ago, when I was in college, jobs were pretty thin. I was in a rural area, and the “Great Recession” had just kicked in. I went through some tough days searching for jobs that could give me, a desperate student, work experience to put on my resume and get me on a career path. I grappled with just about every tough interview question and disappointing phone call or e-mail imaginable, all of them telling me I didn’t get the job.

Eventually I did get a job, however, and have since progressed through other jobs, getting me to where I am today. Looking back, I’m glad I went through what I did, because it helps me empathize with our customers. I also have experience as a technical recruiter, so I have a pretty good idea what employers look for in candidates they are interviewing.

Currently I work for TestOut, the parent company of TestOut Continuing Education. TestOut is an IT training and certification provider, and we're passionate about helping students stay the course and get on a career path. IT certification is a tool that assists in accomplishing this. There are many benefits to being certified, including:

• Improved self-confidence (How often do we second guess ourselves and question if we can be good at a job or not?)
• Verification to employers of job-ready skills
• Credit toward a college degree
• Increased earning power

Resumes, work experience, degrees, and certifications are all great things, of course, but as a recruiter I can verify that the process of scanning resumes and interviewing can be mind-numbingly monotonous. In the end, all a potential employer really wants to know is whether you can actually do the job they want to hire you to do.

The TestOut team has devoted a great deal of consideration, research, and thought toward how we could better help our customers as they make their way through the job prospecting, application, and interviewing process. We think we've come up with something both unique and meaningful: a guarantee to employers that individuals who successfully complete our training are ready to work.

The Skills Guarantee

When you’re applying for jobs and talking to employers, sometimes you want to just say, “Look, everything aside, I guarantee to you that I have the technical skills to do this job.” The Skills Guarantee gives any TestOut-certified individual a golden opportunity to do this very thing. The TestOut Skills Guarantee is a message to all potential employers that TestOut guarantees that anyone who completes a TestOut course and earns its accompanying Pro certification has job-ready skills.

You might be thinking, “Big deal. Besides, what if the individual doesn’t end up having the skills promised?" Plain and simple: TestOut will pay that company up to $1,000. Guaranteed!

What’s the catch? There is no catch. We here at TestOut are so confident in our training methodology and certifications, centered around high-fidelity IT simulations that train and assess real-world skills, that we will back up our students with an ironclad guarantee.

We’re really excited to offer the Skills Guarantee. Students can be more confident going into interviews, and employers get an added nudge to consider them for a job. Our hope is that more job offers are made and more students stay the course and get themselves on a career path.

Looking back at my experience as a desperate student, having a company back up my skills with a guarantee would have been empowering. And as a recruiter, getting a Skills Guarantee from a candidate — not just a resume or certification — would have left an impression. We're ready to leave that impression for you. Get started today and your next job interview will include a cash-backed guarantee to any potential employer that you have the skills they need!

About the Author — Dave Alexander is certification product manager for TestOut. Dave once won an office Halloween costume contest by tying a sweater around his neck and throwing on some roller skates.