Who Gets the Call?
Posted by TestOut Staff on
Fall is just around the corner, meaning that it's almost college football season. Some people question why that matters to anyone. Other people spend hours driving and walking to and from large outdoor stadiums so that they can sit cheek-by-jowl with strangers for up to three hours and yell at slightly-more-than-teenaged young men who are running around on grass plowing into each other at full speed.
Does it matter? Should it matter? Who can say? What's undeniable is that a lot of people, as Dr. Seuss' Lorax might have put it, care "a whole awful lot" about the dudes in knee pants attempting to run, pass, or kick a little brown ball from one end of the field to the other. Even before the games have started, there can be quite a lot of cow-having and foofaraw about the local team and its prospects.
One way this manifests is in quarterback battles. Most teams have more than one player who would probably do a good job as the starting quarterback. During fall practice, coaches often face the dilemma of picking which of two strong candidates should be in charge of the on-field action. The final decision can be held up for weeks, or even months, causing fans to hotly debate the issue until the coach settles things.
Quarterback battles, of course, don't only happen in football. It's quite common for a potential employer, say, to choose which of two qualified candidates is the best one to fill an open job. Two members of the same department may have similar strengths, but sometimes only one is needed to tackle a particular assignment. When "quarterback battles" happen in the IT realm, you can bolster your case with a certification.
Getting a certification helps you keep your skills current. It's also a demonstration of patience, commitment, and the ability to follow through, all qualities that employers typically look for. Sometimes the certification itself is a deciding factor: clients often request a particular skill set when setting expectations for a project. Don't be the one relegated to a backup role the next time you're caught up in an IT quarterback battle. Get certified and give yourself an edge!