by Donald Post, Today Magazine
05-01-2006
Are you one of the tens of millions of people who have watched at least one television episode of “Survivor” or “The Apprentice”?
The premise is the same on all three: contestants are on equal footing at the start of the season. Their shared optimism and each individual’s confidence that he or she is the best almost grabs you through your television screen. This is when the audience begins choosing their favorites, and predicting who will be successful…and who will not.
As the weeks progress contestants are increasingly challenged to do their best to “outwit, outlast, outplay” (or out-sing) each other as one by one they are eliminated from competition until the last one standing emerges victorious – an adult version of Musical Chairs. Talk about stress!
Those “reality” shows are fun to watch and popular in part because they are easy to relate to. Who among us has not found himself in the all-too-real venue of the workplace, eager to get ahead, to outwit, outlast, and outplay our competition?
But what about you? You are someone else’s competition. Are you doing what you can to ensure you are outwitting, outlasting, and outplaying them?
“Ok, I get it. But what can I do?
One of the best ways to overcome your competition, and help ensure your long-term success has nothing to do with anything as scary as eating bugs on a remote tropical island or having Donald Trump pointedly announcing, “You’re fired!”
It does have everything to do with enhancing your industry knowledge and increasing your competence in demonstrable ways. You need to take advantage of career advancing education and recognition opportunities. This will help you overcome the competition.
Here are three outstanding career development opportunities I strongly recommend:
1. The ICP (Image Capture Professional) certification from TAWPI (http://www.tawpi.org/icp.html). This is the best credential for professionals who manage or provide services in data capture, forms processing, imaging, and payment/remittance processing. There are now more than 180 ICPs who are consequently widely regarded as outstanding professionals A study handbook is available to help prepare for the ICP exam, which is given on the last day of the TAWPI Conference. Exams can be taken at testing centers for a one week period across North America.The next one-day ICP prep workshop will be June 11 in Chicago just before the TAWPI conference. It does not get more convenient! Register on the TAWPI website.
2. AIIM Education Certificates in ECM (Enterprise Content Management) and ERM (Electronic Records Management). AIIM (www.aiim.org) has invested in development of online and live training in response to worldwide demand for better education resources for content and records management. There are five-day (Master certificate) and two-day workshops (Practitioner, Specialist) for both ECM and ERM. The AIIM Certificate Programs are designed from global best practices among AIIM's 50,000 members. No other program offers actionable content with such a broad industry endorsement. Each courses cover over 1200 slides in five days in an extremely comprehensive way. Over 50 days of live workshops are scheduled through early summer across North America. The material is optionally available online as well.
3. The CDIA+ (Certified Document Imaging Architech™) Certification by CompTIA. CDIA+ certification was the first global standard of competency and professionalism in the document management industry. It validates a professional's level of expertise in the technologies and best practices used to plan, design, and specify document management, scanning and archiving systems. To date worldwide, more than 6,900 professionals have achieved the CDIA+ designation, widely accepted as evidence of expertise. For more information, refer to CompTIA (www.comptia.org/certification/cdia).
The marketplace we compete in is getting more crowded and complicated every year. Outwit, outlast and outplay your competition: invest in your career by earning one or more of these outstanding designations. Remember what Irving Berlin said: “The toughest thing about success is that you’ve got to keep on being a success.”
Here’s to your continued future success!
Don Post is a partner of IMERGE Consulting (www.imergeconsult.com), which conducts training workshops to prepare for AIIM ERM, AIIM ECM, ICP and CDIA+ certifications. He may be contacted at 815-398-0344 or dpost@imergeconsult.com
tawpi today may 2006 article don post bod.doc
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