Why Is My Manager Making Us Get Certifications For Useless Things?

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Hey folks, I'm just leaving the office here. Um, get this beeping out of the way. I'm going to go to experience dev subreddit. This one is from a person asking about certifications, but specifically the point is that they're saying their manager, it's kind of weird in that they're like seemingly pushing getting certifications to a point where like it's coming up in in year-end reviews and stuff like that. And they're like kind of feels micromanagy. Um they're kind of just asking on Reddit like is this normal? Is this what everyone else's personal development plans look like? Like what's up with this? And so it's a pretty short post and there's not a ton of detail. So like I figured I wanted like I was going to talk about this, but I have to acknowledge like what I'm about to talk through is a bit of speculation for what I think could be happening.

So it's not going to be focused on certifications necessarily. video probably touch on that of course but more just like what I actually think is happening in this case and it's um it's a communication breakdown surprise right welcome to code commute where it's a channel about software engineering but that's a facade because it's always just about communication issues right that's that's what it always comes back to um no but if you're new to the channel I talk through different software engineering topics. I try to take as many uh user submitted questions as I can and make uh vlog responses to them. So, with that said, if you have questions you want answered, leave them below in the comments. Otherwise, go to codecame.com and I'll try my best. So, this one is interesting because um I think we're seeing a very specific example in this case where um it's the certifications.

It seems like, you know, to this person's point, it's like, dude, why why does my manager like like cares so specifically about certifications that it comes up on like performance reviews or year-end reviews. Like, isn't this kind of weird? Um, and then there's some other people in the comments that are like, I mean, when's the last time a company ever cared about certifications, that kind of stuff. And like to me, I like I don't think certifications are actually the point here. I think the point is that um there's probably and again full full transparency and disclaimer like I'm obviously making assumptions here but I am speculating that what's happening is that there is a push at some level of management to emphasize personal development in different ways. and whether it came out specifically like that or whether it was like training or whatever else. Um maybe it was specifically on certifications, learnings, uh conferences, whatever.

Um the guess that I have around this is that it's not that this particular manager is uh you know very much like okay certifications are the one and only thing that we must do but more that there is a push around personal development um coming from upper management leadership whatever um and that this is their way of of of trying to make that happen. Right? So if this isn't if this is true, the reality is like you know certifications are are one such way that you could go work on personal development, right? There's courses, there's just like I don't know like encouraging people to build and explore things outside of work. Like there's for some people could be going to Toast Masters to learn about public speaking and do a better job that way. Like there's so many different things that could be explored here and you know going to get a certificate and take an exam or something like that's that's one such thing.

Now, the reason I'm speculating, there's a couple reasons I'm speculating that this is uh maybe pushed by Holy. Let's get out of there. Um, the reason that I'm speculating this is more of a I don't know like a bigger a bigger kind of thing and this is one example of it is that if we think about personal development and like what's what's an easy way like if you were if you were a lazier manager or you uh maybe didn't know what to do or how to focus and uh drive people for personal development, spend the time doing it. Um what what's one way that you could check a box around like I'm doing what I need to do to promote personal development? And if we think about, you know, getting a certificate like which which certificate are you telling your team to go get? Are you, you know, working with them to make sure that they're focused on the right ones?

Are you talking to them about how they're studying and progressing through them? Like probably not. It's like probably, hey, like, you know, remember go get some training done, get so get a certificate and then checking in like once or twice a year to see if you did it. And the reality is like it's all on you, right? And I mean, we're talking about personal development. I get it. But it's easy to to as a manager to check a box saying like I worked with my team to promote personal development, right? What's the evidence? Well, I talked to everyone on the team about going to get certifications. And so, and then I gave them that feedback in their performance reviews and their year-end review, right? Like, I'm I'm doing what I have to do here. And so I I think it's kind of a lazy way out to check a box around promoting personal development.

And this is the kind of stuff that like you know in general a theme like personal development coming up. I can imagine that maybe there's, you know, there's feedback from people in the organization that's like, "Wow, I really wish we'd have more time for for personal development or um really wish we were we had some support, encouragement around this, like we had some opportunities." And so situations like this where there's like feedback and it's like, "Okay, well, how do we address this systematically?" you'll like and I'm saying this as an engineering manager who's been through some things like this. Um like how do you go solve it? Well, we need every manager in the org to make sure that they're doing a good job on this, right? And if you have a big org, it might be different levels of of management kind of like that are rallying behind this to try and say like we have to go make this, you know, go address this.

This is feedback we're getting. And so in this example, we're you know it's personal development. Um I've seen other things where it's like we don't have uh you know uh work life balance is an issue, right? Okay. So you know we we're going to have some initiatives like orwide where people are driving this. What's going on here? Come on highway. Oh, come on. We got to get A couple more lanes over, please. Thank you. One more to go. Nice. Okay. Um, so yeah, like it it could be any number of things, right? personal development. It could be work life balance. could be um you know like uh big thing for us is like AI usage right so like getting to use uh different AI tools getting support that way workshops learning like it it could be you you name it right there's feedback that comes

from an organization as in like the direct reports in an org and bubbles up and it's like okay well you know we're listening we want to do something about is and I'm I'm in my opinion this is all good stuff right like people are expressing opinions or things have been observed and it's like hey as leaders in an organization we need to do the right thing right we need to listen to what people are saying and and do good by them so come up with some plans and this is where like maybe it falls apart right like the intentions I would say are good does this person really want to pass me. I don't know where they they're going, but Okay, you you go ahead, sir. You go pass on the right. There's literally two cars in front of me going at the exact same speed.

So, good luck. Um, so yeah, I think it's like when it comes to the implementation of this is where it can fall down. And so, you know, how do you systematic like in a big org, how do you systematically address that like everyone is getting proper um you know, personal development plans and like support like that? Like it's it's in it's very individual. So, how do you do that? Well, okay, we have to have some level of trust at some point, right? So, like trust that the managers are doing it. You know, you could have uh you know, managers are are telling their their managers. Yep. Yes. Like within my team, I'm doing this. Cool. Like, so it's all like in my opinion in the right spirit of things. But when it comes to implementation, I I do think it can fall apart.

And I see this as one such example where it's like if this is all motivated by personal development and it's like just feels like my manager is kind of forcing me to get certificates. Um to me this seems like this is a manager who's not doing it for you. They're not doing it to help and support you. Uh this is what again this is what it seems like to me. It seems like this is a manager doing something to check a box because it's in their best interest. That's a police officer behind me. Let's make sure we move over for them cuz I don't I don't like that. It's funny that person that was speeding like crazy is nowhere to be found. H suspicious. So yeah, if uh in a situation like this, the the manager, right, and I'm not I'm not I don't want to say this about a manager because I'm saying like, oh, it's because they're lazy or it's because they're incompetent or whatever else.

They I don't know, they might be inexperienced. they they might feel overwhelmed with other things and they're not sure how to address this one more thing. Um it could be it could be any number of things, right? There's the police. He just saw them go past. Um so yeah, my my intention here is not to be like, you know, on someone for for doing this, but this is my speculation as to what's happening. And so when I was saying kind of joking about the miscommunication part, it's like, and this is where it just feels so ridiculous when this kind of thing happens, that you have someone who's trying to check a box to be like, "Hey, look, I'm helping with personal development." And the the people that they're trying to help this way don't even realize that's what it's for. So when it comes time for like providing feedback again, it's like do you really think that the the bar has moved for these individuals that were like I'm not getting supportive for personal development?

It's like from the manager's perspective, it's like what do you mean I encourage you to get certificates? And from the individuals, they're like actually this was worse. like you kind of made it seem like I was forced to go get certificates and I don't know why I'm doing that and that's not actually helping address the thing that I wanted support with. So it's just misaligned expectations, right? You knew it was coming. You knew the level setting expectations or something about expectations was coming. But I think that's exactly what this kind of thing is, right? You have different levels of goals and communication for different individuals and then this uh totally misaligned set of expectations. So you have a manager who's like telling their manager, "Yep, I'm doing the right thing, supporting the team with their personal development." Uh, and I assume that they've convinced themselves like this is the way to do it.

It's a way to do it. It's a way. I don't think it's the way. Um, and then you have individuals who are like, you know, getting confused by this. It feels like some weird artificial pressure. Um, and they probably still don't feel very supported in their personal development. So, like what at the end of all of this effort, what did you achieve? Right? Like probably not the goal you wanted. And so I don't know like you know even one thing that could help in situations like this is this is how little of a a change you could make in a conversation like this if you were a manager and and you were kind of in in this situation where you're like I'm trying to help with personal development. I don't really know what to do. So I'm going to just lean into like telling people to go gets because you know that seems like a I can make it their problem kind of thing.

Um, you could literally just communicate like, "Hey, you know, there's been feedback that uh, you're trying to help with personal development more, want to make sure people are supported." Maybe it wasn't even feedback. Maybe it's just literally an organization initiative or whatever. And let's go one step further. Let's pretend it's not even an organization initiative. Let's pretend it's this manager, right? This manager is like, "I want to support you with personal development." So like if you're the manager just say what you're trying to do, right? You don't have to like make it a facade and then you know so you introduce this as like there was feedback or there's an organizational effort or this is something I'm I'm trying to do to you know get people helped out with personal development and so um and you kind of then introduce like you know if it's your perspective that are the way to do it then sure like pitch it that way.

Um, again, not how I would recommend doing it, but I would personally say something like, you know, maybe you could consider uh certifications, maybe, you know, these ones or whatever for this person's level, and then explaining why. But giving them the the the background like this is where this is coming from. here are some options to me at least invites an opportunity for someone to say oh like hm actually I don't really see this certificate thing being that useful or maybe these other searchs instead but whatever but giving this opportunity inviting people to be like hm I don't know and like let me think about that oh you actually said personal development well I've been thinking for personal development there's like this workshop I really want to go to or there's a conference that host these workshops and I'd actually really like to go do that.

Like I think that would be much more aligned um in terms of budget. Here's what that would look like or let me follow up and try to get a budget. But to me like opening up the conversation instead of prescribing what the personal development is, I think is is a better way. Now if we flip this around a little bit. Okay. So, I've been talking kind of about this from one direction. I want to change it all up. So, you're the employee in this situation. Okay? And I am the manager and I believe I believe that getting cert uh certifications are, you know, got to get a few certs a year. That's the way to, you know, develop. Personally, that's the strategy. Um, sure there are other things, but like if you're not doing this, like you know, you're already you're already falling off. So, I tell you like, hey, like it's our check-in point, right?

We check uh we we do one-on- ones regularly, but we check in twice a year and really do a more formal one. Tell me, how's uh how's it looking for getting your your uh certifications done this year? Right. I know before we might have talked about a couple of these. I gave you a couple of examples. So, did you did you go get those done? And so, in a situation like this, if you're like, man, like this manager, why does he keep bringing up the certifications? Um, might sound kind of crazy, but maybe you could ask them why. You could say, actually, like, um, you know, I know we talked about that and I went and go went to go look them up, but I'm not actually sure sure that I see like value in these, right? Like so there's a lot a bunch of studying and I can understand like in in theory that should be helping me kind of practice.

Um but like um and then bring your own opinion to it, right? You could say things like I actually you know I don't see that certifications add a lot of value um to me because uh it can you can kind of really game the system when you're going to study for the exams and I just feel like that's not a good representation of how I should be spending my time to improve. um come come up with whatever you want, right? This is your opinion. My point is that if you disagree with what's being put in front of you, like ask, right? So, bring your opinion and then say like, so I was just curious like I know you brought up certifications. I'm not I'm not sure that I I fully understood why, but when I was doing some reflection, like I don't I don't actually see it offering a lot of value for me.

So could we like could we talk about that more? Right? And my point is like bring your perspective, invite conversation um versus kind of do do nothing and be frustrated by it and confused. And I'm I'm saying this because like I know sometimes it doesn't sound like it. Like I get it. If you you're getting some weird request from your manager that you're not aligned with, uh you might just be like, "This is a weird thing." It doesn't happen so frequently that it's top of mind for you all the time, but it's enough that you're going to go write a Reddit post about it. So, like, it does bother you. It does make you kind of wonder what's going on. And so, it's it's easier for us quite literally because this is a perfect example of it. It's easier for us to not talk to the person and to go write about it online.

And I'm not I'm not saying that facitiously. I mean I I mean like literally for most of us that's way less discomfort, right? You would rather kind of tolerate the infrequency of this kind of weird interaction, this thing. You don't really understand why it's happening. You'd rather tolerate that, avoid a conversation about getting clarification or expressing your opinion and then going to the internet to write about it. And I think a lot of us are like that. And I'm sure like for myself included. We're just avoiding what seems like it's conflict, right? Like I disagree with you or I think this is weird. I don't like it. And so like I'll kind of avoid it and then you know talk about it with friends or my my spouse or talk about it online in sort of a more anonymous way. It's just it's less uncomfortable.

And so the reason I'm saying like, could you just try talking about it is because I'm hoping when you hear me say that you're like it's it's very it's obviously a very physically simple thing to go do. But I'm hoping you realize that a lot of us just don't do that, right? It's it's just way easier for us to avoid discomfort. So, I'm encouraging you like if you if you don't know why this is happening or where this is coming from or what the value is of doing certifications, like ask you could literally say to someone like I'm you're you're an adult. you're allowed to say to someone like especially if that was making you uncomfortable. You could say, "Hey, like I'm kind of confused by this and like it it makes me a little bit uncomfortable that I feel like there's a a pressure

on me to get uh you know certification, but it's never really been explained to me like why why we're doing that." And so I wanted to let you know and I was curious if we could talk more about that because like uh I know you've asked me a couple of times and and I just don't really I don't really understand um you know the purpose of this. It's like not it's not mean. It's not rude. It's honest. Um I don't know. I would say if you're talking to a manager and they get offended by that, I think you probably got bigger problems with your manager. Like it's just if you don't have clarity on something, I think it's important to ask. And if you think that something is not the right thing, then I think you should be able to talk about it. And if you're uh you're fearing that you're going to get fired or punished for that, like I I think there's other conversations we should be having, right?

But I think honestly for most of us it's just easier to kind of avoid the uncomfortable conversation. And really like when you heard me say that, is it really that uncomfortable? There's going to be some of you that watch this video or one of my other videos and you'll be like, I disagree with this I don't care what he's saying. Here's my opinion. Right? It's easy. You just you lots of you do it. Just write your opinion. This time it's just that you have to go actually talk to someone. Um, right. It's not, it doesn't have to be, just cuz you don't agree with some doesn't mean it has to be like mean or angry. Like, I actually would love if more of you commented and had completely different opinions than me. It doesn't mean that I would love if you comment and say, "You're a big dummy.

I hate you." Um, I don't love that. But if you're like, "Hey, like I actually disagree with your perspective on this." And then share yours. Like, hell yeah. That's cool. Um, it's really like where I don't like it is where people are like you want to share your perspective as well, but you decide it needs to be an attack, right? Like it literally doesn't. And I think when you go to ask questions to your manager or disagree with something they're saying, um, you know, you need clarity on it, you don't understand why, doesn't have to be a mean or negative thing. It's just a conversation. So to recap, I think that for something like this with certifications, um to me, this kind of just sounds like an example of um you know, some type of learning plan emphasis that's uh been, you know, sent to managers.

I'm speculating. Of course, this manager has an approach where it's like, hey, like I'm gonna go tell my employees to get certificates. It's easy enough to follow up on cuz as long as I tell them they have to go do it, then I'm kind of doing my job and checking in with them. And then not communicating sort of the rationale behind this with employees uh creates this weird like some people might get it and they're like oh like I know we talked about personal development and like this is a this is a great example of it and others would be like I don't even know where this is coming from. Why are we doing this? I don't see the value. maybe like the person who wrote this post and like none of none of those are wrong perspectives or like the wrong response. It's like it's just it could be very normal and so taking the opportunity to communicate these things more clearly.

Um, if you are a manager, I think is important, right? It's it doesn't need to be a facade that you're like, I need to try and improve the personal development without letting people know what I'm trying to do here. Um, because if I bring it up, maybe they'll ask me more questions and I'll actually have to help them with personal development. Um, so yeah, like more clear communication if you're a manager as to where the motivation's coming from. And again, if you think if you believe that certifications are in your opinion the best way to do this, like share that. I'm I'm sharing on this video that I don't think certifications are the best way to do that. I don't see a a ton of value in certifications, unless you're working in a job that requires some sort of certification. If you don't, I I just think there are better ways to go about it.

Maybe this manager completely disagrees with that. Maybe you disagree with that. That's totally cool. I'm just telling you my opinion. And then the last part that I was talking through was really like if you don't have clarity, ask. If you disagree with something, bring it up, right? Like um you're able to have different opinions with people um and talk about it without it being an attack. And I get that it's uncomfortable to basically be face to face with someone and be like, I don't think the same way as you, but it doesn't get easier unless you do it right. So try not to try not to run from that discomfort. Face it a few times and you'll realize uh it's not it's not so bad. So thanks for watching. This one was a little little different today, but I figured I'd try seeing if I had a perspective on maybe what was going on with this person's manager.

So, if you got questions, leave them below in the comments. Otherwise, you can go to codecommute.com. You can submit stuff anonymously that way. And then I should also mention I got a couple of other channels. So, there's uh Devleer, which is my main YouTube channel. I have a bunch of C tutorials there. Programming uh using AI tools as well. Very much like tutorial focused. Uh they're edited. That's not me driving in a car. So, a video editor that will uh do a a better job than I can for sure. Uh clipping my stuff up so you can follow along. Then there's Dev Leader Path to Tech where I do resume reviews. I have the Dev Leader podcast where I interview other software engineers. and do a live stream every Monday at 7:00 p.m. Pacific, except tonight. I would be doing the live stream in 30 minutes from now, but I'm on call back up and so I'm not going to be live streaming while I'm driving back from work from an an on call shift.

So, I hope to see you in the next video. Take care.