Originally Posted by
Shawnlock
Thank you, sir, for breaking down these certificates and sharing your valuable personal experience and thoughts! A follow-up question: Do you consider USAW to be the most reputable and widely-recognized certificate of all mentioned above?
Additionally, I'd like to attempt an analogy to higher education here. Having a bachelor's degree doesn't necessarily mean you are any smarter or more useful than a person without it. Your skills and knowledge cannot be truly attested by a certificate or a degree. However, sadly and unfortunately, we are living in this huge organism that measures people through the certifications and degrees as a mainstream custom. The reality kind of requires a young professional, in almost any field, to knock open a few doors at the start of their careers with these arbitrary measurements that are almost a waste of time to obtain. I completely believe that real skills and knowledge are more often than not obtained from a great mentor and/or tons of real experience in the field, and most importantly your own willingness to learn the right things. On the other hand, in a more cynical way, would you agree that being certified with all these acronyms has helped smoothen your professional development in terms of gaining more access to different employment choices? If you want to spread your true knowledge to a wider crowd than those who have no business coaching the general public, I'd imagine having a reputable and widely-recognized certificate would help get you there faster and easier. Or maybe in the strength training world, performance records like your placements in competitions and meets speak more volume than certifications?