Certification had been the last thing on my mind—a throwback to school days with thick textbooks and exams. Yet while initially daunting, I’ve found my certification opened doors and helped me stand out from the crowd. Becoming certified was an extremely fulfilling process through in the knowledge gained, the friendships made, and the satisfaction of being able to prove that “I know this.”
I had always thought that recruiters reaching out on LinkedIn was a marketing myth limited to high-demand jobs like programmers and executives. But after undertaking the Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD) in 2019 and the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) in 2020, I gained additional responsibilities at work, recruiters reached out to me on LinkedIn, and I landed a fantastic new job at the end of the year.
The Path to Certification
Like so many of us, I fell into training by accident—I delivered mandatory privacy compliance training sessions then worked with colleagues to upgrade those sessions into something that several thousand staff from all levels wouldn’t fall asleep during and would remember once they left the room.After a few unexpected twists and turns, I ended up working for the United Nations in a training role. Following the advice of a mentor, I started upskilling myself to tackle the challenges of developing and delivering training on diverse topics, with learners ranging from women in rural towns in Afghanistan to senior government officials from around the world. Yet for all those “years of experience,” how do you make your CV stand out to hiring managers? In so many industries, I realized that certification helps to show you can talk the talk and walk the walk.
APTD and CPTD
You may have picked up that I obtained the APTD and CPTD in quick succession. This was a little unconventional because I had enough experience to do the CPTD outright. So why did I do both? Undertaking a certification felt like a big commitment, and I wasn’t sure that I would be able to dedicate enough time to study. I decided to take a staged approach by first taking the APTD to test the water. Successfully undertaking the APTD boosted my confidence and made me realize I knew more than I thought, so a few months later I signed up for the CPTD.Time and Teams
When preparing for the exam, don’t underestimate the amount of time you need to dedicate. The Talent Development Capability Model is broad, so even if you are an expert in one or a few areas, you need to give yourself enough time to cover the entire model. You’ll also need support from a wide range of people. It might be your office with options for study or certification leave or grants, it may be professional peers to ask questions of and bounce ideas off, and it will definitely be your family.Preparation Tools
I used several tools to prepare:- The Talent Development Body of Knowledge (TDBoK)
- The online ATD CPTD preparation course
- An ATD Chapter study group
Each element was useful, yet each by itself wouldn’t have been enough.
Reading the TDBoK from cover to cover is a great place to start; however, it is critical that you don’t rely solely on it. The exam is not like a school exam where only material from the book is covered. The online CPTD prep course and the TDBoK provide a solid basis of the key concepts, but you’ll need to read more widely and draw upon the many other resources out there—books, articles, podcasts, videos, and more. I found it helpful to structure my study and reading around the exam capability statements.
I also found joining the ATD Ann Arbor Chapter study group to be one of the most enjoyable and useful experiences of the process. The study group was a group of like-minded, CPTD prep-focused professionals—people you can bounce ideas off, discuss and deep dive into topics, and help liven up and split up the burden of studying through doing teach-backs and sharing notes. The study group helped me through the process emotionally and knowledge-wise.
