Problem:
Your company doesn’t support getting professional society certifications.
Solution:
So what? First, get a group together and start studying for one of those certification exams. For example, the Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification, or the Business Analyst (BA) Certification, or the TOCICO Certification (Theory of Constraints International Certification Organization), or the Six Sigma Black Belt, or Quality, or whatever you’re interested in that might be somewhat relevant to your industry. There are a myriad of them out there that I don’t even know about.
All you have to do is raise your hand (or notify people by email, blog, or otherwise) and let people know that you’re studying for this exam and that you’d like a few friends to study with you.
Once you have a group, and you’ve arranged to take the test on a certain day, then maybe you can ask the company if they would foot the bill, but don’t count on it. You may have to pay the fees yourself to start, but once you get some momentum and more and more people want to take the exam, then you might have a case for more company support.
But don’t do it just to see what you can get out the company. Do it because you really want to know more about that topic and you want to spread those ideas to others.
What other certifications do you know about that would be useful?
Don’t let anyone stop you from learning.
grootship 