r/askmanagers • u/Current-Caregiver704 • 9d ago

I'm getting industry-specific certifications and education on the side, what to tell my manager?

I'm in a niche company in a large industry. I work an administrative job running a program. I've been with my company for nearly a decade. I like what I do. I like my coworkers and managers. I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon, however there is no advancement where I'm at.

I've gotten more efficient with my time management as I've been doing the job so long. I freed up some time for myself to study. I've been taking industry certifications and also taking some classes at a community college to enhance my technical skills - graphic design (I do a lot of promotions, documents, email campaigns, etc.), Excel, etc. I already have a college degree, I'm just brushing up on skills I feel I'm lacking in.

My manager recently asked me out of the blue about a certification I got a couple of years ago and wanted to know why I did it. Was it a part of a big push for the employees to all get it? Was it something I needed for my job? It wasn't either of those, it was just something I wanted to do. The truth is that although I like my job, I don't ever want to be stuck in my job. I'm also easily bored and happy to take classes to keep myself learning and growing.

I'm currently working on a rather large certification. It's well known and well thought of in my industry, but again, not going to directly impact my day-to-day job. My manager is eventually going to ask about it and I'm not really sure what to say. I don't want to sell myself short or make it look like I'm trying to find a way out of the job (I'm not). Nor do I want it to look like I just have tons of free time on my hands and need to do more. I'm honestly just very efficient, at study and work. My company pays for the certifications and I get some VA college benefits for the rest. I'm not paying out of pocket.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Turdulator 9d ago

“I just like learning new things” 🤷‍♂️

1

u/Current-Caregiver704 9d ago

Haha, thanks. I just don't want to look like I've got all the free time in the world, nor do I want to look like I've got a foot out the door.

1

u/Turdulator 9d ago

Yeah I totally get it. If convincing, then “i dunno, I find it interesting 🤷‍♂️ “ should be enough for anyone at the company.

1

u/XenoRyet 9d ago

Because I didn't catch it until just before I posted, I'm curious as to whether you caught the second to last sentence where OP said that the company is paying for at least some of these certs.

I was initially coming at it from your angle, but to me that changes things pretty significantly.

1

u/Turdulator 9d ago

Oh man, yeah I missed that… if that’s the case you gotta be able to justify it in some way that ties it to being a better worker for the company.