Mary Maroon in her office. Photo by Porter Skouson
In professional circles, getting a certification is a big deal, it can lead to raises or even a higher standing in the community, but for Mary Maroon a professor at Brigham Young University Idaho, she does not recommend the certification she got.
The Senior Professional in Human Resources certification is offered by the Human Resource Standards Institute. The certification is to show others that you have the degree, time, and knowledge to be considered a senior professional.
The certification is not for everyone, according to HRCI’s website only those meeting their prerequisites can apply. One must have either, a Master’s degree and at least four years of experience, a Bachelor’s degree and five years of experience or seven years in a professional level HR position.
Maroon chose this certification to test the HR classes on campus and see if they are teaching what this test expects a professional to know. The answer she got was, yes, the school is teaching what this test says professionals should know.
“I don’t recommend it for everyone,” Maroon said, “you can only take this test after working in the field for a couple of years. By then, it would just be for bragging rights.” The test can only be taken by people after they already have multiple years of experience under their belt, Maroon says she doubts if anyone would highlight this on their resume and that the real-world experience is worth more to employers.
Maroon, who has been working for BYU-Idaho for seven years, took the certification for her faculty leave fellowship. Teachers at BYU-Idaho are expected to, every five years or so, take a short leave similar to what other colleges refer to as a sabbatical.
Maroon used Chat GPT to help her with studying. She input the study material and had the program make quizzes for practice. “For this it was helpful, but I do not recommend it for everything,” Maroon explained.
Apart from verifying that the universities curriculum was in line with this test, Maroon also discovered a weakness in her knowledge. She discovered her knowledge of information systems was lacking, “luckily,” she said, “those are covered in the higher-level courses, I normally teach the lower-level ones.”
For what Maroon was using it for, it was helpful, but unless your employer is paying for it, she does not recommend it. To take the test costs $595, $100 for the application fee and $495 for the test.