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Employment Credentials is the second presentation in the Introduction to Careers lecture. The lecture itself is the fourth in WorldOpp Orientation. Consequently, the Orientation is the first stage of WorldOpp Pipeline.

This wikipage presents its full script and those test questions that are related to that presentation.

Script

The video of the presentation is published at https://youtu.be/BktQFe9j0Jk (10:00). Here is its full text.

Overview

Welcome to Employment Credentials. In this brief presentation, we are going to take a look at what may qualify one for working in a particular occupation and/or in particular industry. Let's start-off.

Employment credential. (1) A qualification, achievement, personal quality, or aspect of a person's background used to indicate that this person is suitable for particular employment; (2) A document that ascertains that qualification, achievement, personal quality, or aspect.

• Self-declared credential. A credential that hasn't been verified yet or cannot be verified.
• Work sample. Some product of one's performance intended to show his or her capacity especially as an employment credential.

Third-party credential. A credential issued by a third party.

• Employment authorization. A government authorization of someone's eligibility to be employed. An employment authorization document is usually called a work permit.
• Criminal record. A list of a person's previous criminal convictions and, sometimes, pending charges.
• Security clearance. In the United States, an official determination that an individual may access information classified by the United States Federal Government. Security clearances are hierarchical; each level grants the holder access to information in that level and the levels below it.
• Drug test. A technical analysis of a biological specimen, for example urine, hair, blood, breath, sweat, and/or oral fluid/saliva used to determine the presence or absence of specified parent drugs or their metabolites.

Professional credential. An employment credential that specifically refers to one's professional capacity.

• Professional license. In the United States, a designation earned by a person from a state agency that allows this person to exercise some occupation. Professional licenses usually require the university title for that profession.
• Trade certificate (also known as professional certificate, professional designation, or, simply, certification). A designation earned by a person from a professional society, certification body, or, possibly, from a private certifier to assure qualification to perform a job or task. Some trade certificates must be renewed periodically, or may be valid for a specific period of time (e.g., the lifetime of the product upon which the individual is certified).
• Work experience. Any experience that a person gains while working in a specific field or occupation, but the expression is widely used to mean a type of volunteer work that is commonly intended for young people, often students, to get a feel for professional working environments.
• Work test (also work sample test or work simulation). A sample of behavior that can be used to predict future performance in similar work situations. Its result is an employment credential that provides information relating to skills that may be difficult to assess in other ways.
• Professional award. A prize or other mark of recognition given in honor of an achievement in a specific profession.
• Profession-related performance. Any performance related in a specific profession. Examples of such performances may include delivering a lecture, serving on a board, publishing a book, writing an article, especially reviewed by peers or made in well-known settings and/or verified by a reputable source.
• Professional recommendation. A suggestion or proposal to hire somebody because of his or her professional capacity. Usually, professional recommendations include testimonies of the recommended person's achievements. Letter of recommendation refers to not only professional recommendations.
• Client feedback such as clients letters or emails
• Professional association membership. Membership in a professional association.

Directory of credentials. A document that lists one's credentials, most commonly, applicable to a particular employment and is usually designed to help the reader, such as a recruiter, hiring manager, customer, or any other targeted stakeholder, of the directory to navigate them.

• Résumé. Any document that a person uses to present his or her achievements and capacities. In the industry of workforce services, a résumé usually presents credentials applicable to a particular employment.
• Professional bio. A descriptive account of a person's professional history.
• List of professional recognitions. A general list of recognitions composed for unspecified references or a list of select ones for particular employment.
• List of educational credentials. A list of all educational credentials composed for general references or select ones for particular employment.
• List of worked projects. A list of all projects that one has worked on composed for general references or select ones for particular employment.
• List of key accomplishments. A general list of accomplishments composed for unspecified references or a list of select ones for particular employment.

Professional portfolio. An organized presentation of those individual's credentials that demonstrate his or her professional achievements and capacities. The portfolios may contain educational credentials, work samples, and other employment credentials offered by a professional and/or employment candidate especially when considered for being hired.

• Working portfolio. Any professional portfolio that consists of works in progress. When those works are finished, they may be moved to more permanent assessment and/or display portfolios.
• Showcase portfolio. Any professional portfolio that is any collection of credentials that are both demonstrations of the one's abilities and platforms for self-expression.
• Electronic portfolio (eportfolio, e-portfolio, digital portfolio, or online portfolio) is a showcase portfolio accomplished in a digital form. The credentials may include input text, electronic files, images, multimedia, blog entries, and hyperlinks.
• Credentialing portfolio. Any professional portfolio that provides its viewer with one's credentials.

What an employment credential is

These are qualification, achievement, personal quality or aspect of a person`s background used to indicate a person`s suitability for employment. It can also be a document like a diploma or a good work sample so later we will talk about many credentials. For now, we look at self-declared credential, it`s a credential that has not been verified yet. Another good employment credential can be a work sample, which is some product of one’s performance intended to show his/her capacity especially as employment credential. I need to that in designer`s world, it`s often people use someone`s work samples. It makes sense to check whether this person really did this work or not.

Professional portfolios is organized presentations of those individual credentials that demonstrate his/her professional achievements and capacities and usually professional portfolios are created for some particular job so someone can take or keep this portfolio just in case put in all the works but for a particular employment it, it makes sense to create specialized portfolio. Especially if this employment is very new because working with portfolios takes time and effort and technically time is money so it can be expensive too.

There are many types of portfolios, for instance working portfolio is the portfolio of work which you already are doing, for me, my working portfolio is wiki side. If someone asks me what I am doing right now, I will direct them to the wiki pages and view my contributions.

Another type of portfolio is showcase and usually it`s good in both demonstration of ones` abilities and a platform for self-expression. Designers very often use showcase portfolio. An electronic or digital form of showcase portfolio is called electronic portfolio or e-portfolio, digital portfolio, line portfolio. You can name them. Credential portfolio. This is a more strict type of portfolio. It provides it`s viewers with ones’ credentials in one place. So if someone say`s in your resume I have this certificate or this diploma, someone can go there and take a look at this with the details for this certificate. Credential, some credentials are self-declared, some credentials are discovered during their screening, so let`s say your good performance at the interview can be a credential itself and this is assessed by your employer. But in some cases third party credentials come into the play. Third party credentials are credentials issued by a third party, not your employer but someone else. Some of them are government regulator, employment organizations, or work permit or criminal records. For some jobs, criminal records are very important.

Some credentials are professional credentials; professional credential is employment credential that specifically refers to one’s professional capacity. Let`s start with the professional license, if you want to be a teacher in a public school in the United States or in Virginia, you most likely need to have a professional license which you are given by a specified government body. They will assess your education, your special classes and they will issue you with a professional license. Trade certificates are a little bit different, personally I am PMP certified, PMP stands for project management professional and this credential is issued by project management institute incorporated its headquarters are located in Pennsylvania. So they assessed my education, I passed their exam, they check my professional experience ant they issued this certificate. Work experience itself can be a professional credential as well as work test, or work sample test or work simulation, professional related performance, professional commendation and client feedback in some cases professional association membership. If you are a psychologist, make effort to be part of an American Psychology Association (APA).

Because of many credentials, many employers are looking for some directory of credentials, the most popular directory is resume. This is any document a person uses to present his/her achievements and capacities in the industry of work force services. Resume usually presents credentials applicable to a particular employment. Here, I need to say that your resume is not a story of your life. It is basically a summary of what you did in your previous life. Your credentials but only those credentials which are applicable to an employment which you are looking for.

Another example it could be a professional bio, it`s a descriptive account of a person`s professional history, it could be a list of professional recognitions, or education credentials. It could be a list of worked projects, list of key accomplishments. Once again, every of these directories can be both. It can list everything you have, maybe for your own reference like a master resume or a master bio. At the same time, it could be more specified to your employment where for instance from the list of all your professional recognitions or all worked projects you just choose those which are applicable to a particular employment which you are looking for. With this, we are ready to end this lecture with work force service providers.

Summary

This concludes the Employment Credentials presentation. We have defined employment credentials and taken a look at some of them including self-declared credentials and third-party credentials. Special considerations were given to professional credentials such as professional licenses, trade certificates, work experiences, work sample tests, and others. Quick stops were made by directories of credentials such as résumés, professional bios, and portfolios. If you haven't done yet so, you are now welcome to move to Workforce Service Providers.

Quiz questions

Every statement below is split into one true and one false question in the actual exam.

See also

• Workforce Service Providers. The last presentation in Introduction to Careers.
• Employment Credentials. The second presentation in Introduction to Careers.