Certs That Actually Matter

We unpack which certifications actually change pay, trust, and opportunity, and we cut through hype around vendor badges, resume padding, and guaranteed outcomes. Along the way we map real paths from field to office, share RCDD study strategy, and highlight future-focused certs worth the effort.

• tech hiccups, conference updates, community shout‑outs
• acronym challenge: PBB defined as primary bonding busbar
• why certifications matter when paired with standards
• RCDD value, eligibility paths, and TDMM as a foundation
• field design without the estimator title
• vendor certifications: stacking, lock‑in, and hiring signals
• best early certs for installers and why BICSI Technician has teeth
• experience versus credentials and how managers weigh both
• moving from field to office via PM, design, or safety
• future‑facing areas: data centers, PoE, fault‑managed power, wireless, building automation
• after RCDD: OSP before DCDC for most paths
• smarter bidding and avoiding crowded bid lists

Huge announcement, by the way. Remember, knowledge is power.

Chapters

• 0:00 Tech Hiccups And Kickoff
• 2:45 Conference Plans And Community Updates
• 5:30 Acronym Challenge: PBB Revealed
• 8:50 Do Certifications Really Move The Needle
• 12:10 RCDD Value And Eligibility Paths
• 20:30 Designing Without The Title
• 25:30 What Makes A Certification Matter
• 29:40 Vendor Certs: Pros, Cons, And Traps

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Wednesday night six PM How do I clear that screen? Uh oh. Juck's in trouble already. Just started a live stream and I am already in trouble. Why is that screen not clearing? Oh boy. Oh boy. Gotta love technology. It makes your job easier. Yes. Give me a second where I can figure out how to clear this stupid screen. There we go. There we go. I figured it out. Wednesday night, 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Live after hours with your favorite. Right, Kevin? Your favorite RCDD. Kenny Fox is in the house. Ed, the old tech guy's in the house. Yes. Yes. Live trip to the topic for tonight's episode are certifications that actually move the needle. Certifications that's actually moving the needle. Okay, how you doing, Mr. Ed? Did you get my message about that thing in uh Chicago? So I got lots and lots of stuff to go through tonight. I got 10 or 15 questions. Um why did it do that? Oh, perfect. I appreciate that, brother. Appreciate that. So, anyways, next week is the Bixie Winter Conference. The Bixie Winter Conference. I will be there. I'm arriving on Sunday morning. I got a company thing in the in the morning, and uh, but then I'm gonna be there for the rest of the week, hanging out, doing stuff. I'm gonna have with me stickers for your badges to commemorate Phil Cleaningsmith. I only have 100 of them. So if you're there and you knew Phil, he mentored you, make sure that you meet up with me because once they're gone, they are gone. I'm not I only made a hundred of them. And don't forget we're doing that meetup for Phil as well. Um, I'll do more about that when we look closer. Lots and lots of stuff going on. Looking really, really forward to it. What are you drinking? What are you drinking? Tonight I am drinking um gin uh ginger zeevia. Ginger zeevia. I love ginger zeevia. It is good, good stuff. So lots of questions for tonight. Make sure, make sure that if you have any questions as we go along, that you put them in the comments, and I will try to follow along as we go through them. So uh let me see public chat. There we go. Alrighty, so the uh oh I forgot to do the acronym challenge. The acronym challenge. Tonight's acronym challenge is PBB. PBB. What does that acronym mean? That's what tonight's acronym is for. PBB. I'll give you a few seconds to figure that out while you're trying to figure it out. It has something to do with bonding and graveling. Traveling gurus in the house. Traveling guru, are you coming to the Tampa RV show? The Tampa RV show. That's a big thing every year, especially in this this neck of the woods, right? Uh no clue production back to bone. Oh, primary bonding bus bar. Primary bonding bus bar. Somebody's drinking some plain old water. And uh somebody says, I'm going to miss this year. Uh, that's a shame. They'll probably do the winter. I mean the uh conference in Vegas. And you know, they'll do another winter conference next year. Can't go to all of them. Can't go to all of them. Primary bonding bus bar. Yes, that is the correct Tyler Johnson. Yes, I knew you would get it. I knew you would get it. So let's go into the questions. The questions, like I said, again, the topic for tonight's show is certifications that actually move the needle. See, our industry loves credentials, it loves certifications. People like putting extra letters after the end of their names. I I don't know why. You know, I mean it used to be the only ones who ever had letters after their names were doctors or lawyers. Lawyers used to put ESQ. But now it seems like everybody's got letters to put after their names. And not just one. They they're they they've got lots of them. Lots of them. And and I get it why some people are doing it, because you know, you know, credentialing and certification will certainly help you make more money. Tell me if you can hear me now. I don't know how that happened. How did it get how did it get on mute? Let me know in the chat box if you can hear it now. Man, I just wasted a whole bunch of time of y'all's time. Yeah. So it looks like it's working now. Let me double check what's see what setting it's on. I have no idea why it turned off. That's weird, because I didn't touch that button. Gotta love it. Gotta love it. The next question comes from Sarah on Facebook. Is the RCD worth it if I'm not a designer yet? Okay. Yeah, the people on TikTok, you didn't lose your sound, but the people going through Riverside, you did lose your sound. So um, yay, sound now. There we go. Thank you for pointing that out, guys. Next time, don't wait so long. Don't wait so long. So the next question was from, oops, hold on, let me flip back over to it again. The next question is from I lost track of it. There we go. Sarah, she sent this to me from Facebook. Is an RCDD worth it if I'm not a designer yet? It's funny because I just had this conversation today. I had this conversation with a uh some of one of my students in my new my RCD study group coming up in a couple weeks. And I did a show last week, and one of the things I talked about in that show was the qualifications, the prerequisites that you need in order to even sit for that exam. They're pretty wide open, they they truly are. But he re heard me talk about them and he was like, Chuck, I don't I don't qualify for that. Let me tell you this. Even if you don't plan on taking the test, buy a copy of the TDMM, the Telecommunications Distribution Methods Manual. Buy a copy of it and read it. It will make you a better technician, it will make you a better installer, it will make you eventually want to get that RCDD. It truly will. It truly, truly will. And so you don't have to be you don't have to be an estimator to be able to apply for that exam. All you got to do, so the three pre the the three prerequisites are option one, um, two years of design experience and holding a a another Bixie credential, like a tech or RTPM or something like that. The second one is two years of design experience and two years of community college or or STEM school or something like that. And then the third option is five years of design experience. So let's talk about this. Now, Bixie is the only one who can arbitrarily say what they will consider yes or no for design experience, but you don't have to be an estimator to be doing be able to do design. You can be a lead technician doing design work. How does that work, Chuck? If you have to deal with a change at on a job site and you have to come up with a new way to support cable, a different way to route cable, and you have to research and find the support systems for that, that's design work. You don't have to have the title of estimator to be doing design work. So if you apply for the RCD and you don't think you have that design experience, go look up the RCD study handbook, V.15. It's on the internet, and look for the qualifications. And I guarantee you, you probably fit in probably most of those categories. Right? Right. So there you go. So yeah, it is worth it. I have had people sit in my study groups in the past who had no, no, they weren't gonna take the test. They just wanted to learn. They just want to learn how to do it right. It's a great the RCD is a great credential if you're trying to get out of the field to get into the office. You want to become a project manager. Absolutely great certification for that. Project managers design too. They got to design change or some jobs, some jobs the project manager estimates the job, and then when they win the job, they got to manage the job. So project some project managers do do do do. I said doo do project managers do design work. I'm sorry. My wife she she laughs at me when I do that because she says, You're just a kid. Yeah, I am. I'm just a child. I'm a grown man, child is what I am. Yeah, that's me. So yeah, there you go. So it is, it is uh, you can absolutely use it to get out of the field. And when you get your RCD, you're gonna find that you're going to grain, you're gonna gain credibility. People, when you when they know that you got that certification, they look at you differently. They actually look at you like you know you're what you're doing. That may or may not be the case because there's 2,000 pages in the T DMM, you're not gonna remember everything. And and it always it always cracks you up because somebody's always somebody always asks me something that I don't remember out of the TDMM. I gotta go look it up. I don't have 2,000 pages stuck in my head. Like, sure, I got the most common questions people ask, like fill ratios and fire stopping and the length for permanent link and length for a channel. Yeah, I got that stuff, but I deal with that stuff day in and day out. But start, don't don't start talking to me about uh building automation or nurse call cabling. I haven't done that stuff in a long time. I'm not gonna know that. So my advice to you is to start the process when it makes sense. Don't wait, don't do it, don't procrastinate like Chuck did. Just start the process. Go ahead and fill out the application, submit it, get approved for it. Once you get approved for you, actually you have a year to take the test. So there you go. Next question number three: this comes from Jason, and him and I were having a YouTube live chat, and he says, Why do some certifications never seem to matter in the field? You know, uh, so there are some certifications, let's be honest, there are some certifications that are just really good for resume padding, right? Um, versus, you know, uh a role alignment, something you're trying to actually get. So if you took a class on on um on on spreadsheets, or you took a class on WordPress, you know, Microsoft Word, yeah, okay. Okay. That's not gonna have the same impact as some other certifications. You really want a certification where there's going to be some type of enforcement from some type of standards behind it. That's the ones that really matter. And vendor certifications. Vendor certifications, you know, I'll I'll wait to answer that one because the next question I asked about vendor certifications. So when it comes to the field, they respect competence over certifications. You see this all the time on social media. Ah, uh, I I know lots of RCDDs who can't do anything. I do too. But I know more people who don't have their RCDDs who can't do things. You know, there are some credentials that when I look at them, I'm like, yeah, good for you that you got that. And I respect that you you you came up with a goal, you pursued that goal, and you got that goal. There's there's so there's a lot to be said for that. But there are other certifications that really they don't just hand them out. They don't just hand them out. Question number four, this comes from Linda. Are vendor certifications a waste of time? I gotta be careful with this one. I gotta be and those who know me know why I gotta be careful with this one. So vendor certifications. Vendor certifications are really good if your company's locked in with that manufacturer. When I say vendor certifications, it doesn't have to be a cable manufacturer, it could be a vendor certification for Wi-Fi, it could be a vendor certification for security systems, right? So that's that vendor certification is going to be good for their systems. And there will be some things that you will find with vendor certifications that do cross platforms. They do, you know, if you get a certification from, you know, my my day job, a lot of the stuff that we teach is the same stuff that uh that you can use to install somebody else's cabling. So there's a lot of stuff that does cross, but there's also some stuff that sticks specifically with that manufacturer. They may have a proprietary type of connector, proprietary type of Wi-Fi antenna, something like that. That only applies to them. When you look at a resume, I got a show coming up on resumes. I just the person just text messaged me on LinkedIn. Um, she's a recruiter for TCOM, and uh, and we're gonna meet up at Big City and talk about potential potential topics to talk about for resumes. So vendor application, vendor ones, the cable guys in the house. Um vendor applications help if you're going to another company that's already certified in that product. Okay, they really are because again, some of that knowledge is gonna be specific to that manufacturer, and they are stackable. So if I have a resume and somebody's just got, oh, I got a I got a ICC certification. That's all they got. That doesn't resonate with me as a hiring manager as somebody who's got their ICC certification, their Belden certification, their PANDUIT certification, their their Levin certification, and all those others. So when you have more of them, then it actually kind of does stack up and actually mean something. Because let's be honest here, there's a lot of industry certification training programs out there, not mine, not the one I work for, but a lot of them out there. They're glorified pizza diploma programs. You come in, they give you a pizza, they show you the newest, latest, greatest, Jack, and then they give you a certificate. Uh-uh, okay. Okay. The problem with vendor certifications is you might become brand locked. You might only now be able to do those certifications for that one, right? Uh for NISET, they don't really test your knowledge, but your ability to find the information in a timely manner. I got a show coming up about NISET, as a matter of fact. Um, so I got a new subject matter expert joining my my team for the expert council. We're gonna do talk about that. Some certain some certifications aren't worth much, but never turn anything down that you just offer you. That's true. That's good. Daryl, great point, Daryl. Some certifications are better than no certifications. Knowledge, knowledge is always a good thing. Always a good thing. And you really got to figure you've got to really think about spending again talking about vendor certifications. How is the hiring manager gonna look at them? Okay, because some of them, some of them, some of them will put more value to them than others. This is where you do your research into the company. If you've got a if you got a Beldon certification and you're applying to a company that they only they only sell and install Comscope, your Beldon certification isn't gonna mean Jack Diddley squat because it doesn't help them. It does tell them that you you took a class and you passed a class. That's a good thing. So be careful that with uh vendor certifications. Carlos on Instagram, hey Chuck, first Bixie conference this week in Orlando for me. Recently do my yes, make sure that we meet up. Make sure that we meet up. I will be floating around. You'll see me. I typically wear high-viz shirts so I can people can pick me out. And uh yeah, make sure we meet up. Uh, Carlos wants to know what certifications matter the most for installers who want to move up. So installers are kind of a vague term, right? Is it an installer with one year experience? Installer with five years experience. Okay. Um the for key for copper certifications, the best ones to go for are the the Bixie installer certifications, the installer copper, installer fiber. Uh, like I mentioned, the FOA does do the um copper certifications, um, but they're not as involved as the Bixie ones, I don't think. Um I'm currently working through mine, so I'll tell you that, give you a report on that. I'll do an episode on that one on a little bit later. But the technician level, this one I like. The technician level, the Bixie technician level, it's got teeth. It's got teeth. There's a lot of stuff in the Bixie level class that you gotta learn that shows up again in the RCDD, right? Make sure, and that and that's why I like the Bixie Technician, because the Bixie Technician is more than just terminating copper and fiber and testing, it's also one that that tests you on leadership, right? So that's what you that's why I like that one. And any certification that you look at before you decide to move down any path of a certification, how does it approach safety? How does it approach testing? And does it really comply with the standards? I was talking to somebody yesterday, no, no, it was on Facebook last night, and they they complained about something or another, about how people don't like this, that, and the other. And I said, Well, you know, there's additional codes, standards, and best practices. Big difference between all three of those, right? So that's what I like. Um, also make sure that um whatever certification that you go for, it helps you build a ladder to the position that you want. That's the key there. That's the key there. Uh the cable guy, Bixie carries more weight in the industry than most, at least that's my opinion. I agree with you there, the cable guy. When are you gonna come to a Bixie conference? Um, the the next biggest one would be the FOA, the Fiber Optic Association. They've got some certifications, and they're well known outside of the enterprise environment, and they're really good outside the enterprise environment. They're great certifications. I will never, never talk bad about anybody who has a CFOT because you're probably better at fiber than I am if you if you got your CFOT. Brian from LinkedIn, if you had to pick one certification to start with, what would it be and why? So, what I would pick might be different than something you might pick, right? So, what you really got to do is you gotta think about your career. Most people in the field, I don't want to say all people, but most people in the field, they're going to be thinking, okay, I I I wanna I wanna get out of the field. And there's several avenues for getting out of the field. There's there's training, there's quality, there's sales, um, there's project management. So think about what role you want. And before you still decide that, make You talk to people who have those roles. Since you came to me at Brian on LinkedIn, look at let's say using an example, let's say you become a project manager for low voltage. Find up other project managers on LinkedIn and say, hey, look, I'm trying to decide which way to go with my career. Can I ask you some questions about project management in low voltage? The vast majority of people will answer those questions for you. Right? They'll absolutely answer them for you. So um and don't don't get don't get hung up in short-term goals. You know, the this is where you know we get left behind. When you look at uh the Japanese and compare the Japanese businesses to American businesses, American businesses, they're typically planning out a quarter, maybe six months, maybe a year. Japanese companies, they plan out five years, ten years. Because why not why not build up your your career path with the end goal in mind instead of just kind of just putting bricks together and hope at the end of the day you build something? That's what I'm just saying, right? And also make sure that you look at certifications that really make you think, not just memorization. That's why, again, I hate to say this because it sounds like I'm plugging my study group, but I'm not. My study group is not about memorization, my study group is about walking people through the content that's in there because I want you to be a good RCDD, not just somebody passed the test, right? The cable guy says, but I would love to help to be able to start talking some things, time to go. Honestly, my region and the jobs I do, they don't require certifications, especially when they see my work. There's a lot of truth in that one. If you have great quality work, a lot of times that a lot of people will subside and and not worry about the certifications. But and certifications really, they really come into pl they really come into their own when you start doing medium-sized projects, large-size projects. You know, when you do if you just do a 10-cable job for your local vet office, they're probably not gonna care that you're a Bixie technician because they don't know what Bixie is. But your large jobs, your government jobs, you some of your medium-sized jobs, they will know. If it's somebody who does cabling in all the facilities across, yeah, they're going to know. They truly are. Amanda, how do I avoid chasing certifications that don't move the needle? Okay, so there are some red flags that you will find in certification marketing. So always when you read the marketing literature, always read it with an eye of it's being written by somebody marketing, trying to make it sound really good, so you do it. So think about that. Don't don't fall for some of the traps that they go. If they say guaranteed success, that's nonsense. There's no certification that guarantees that you will land that job, that you will get more money. Find one that's recognized by industries, not just not just regionally, not just by one company, recognized by the industry because it's recognized by the industry, then you've got clout. Then you got clout. And then um whatever certification you decide you want to pursue, make sure that you come up with a list of questions and call up the company and ask them them questions. There's no harm, no foul in uh um in asking questions. Question number eight. This comes from Tom. Do certifications really matter more than experience? Tell me what you think in the chat box. Tell me what you think in the comments below. Do you think certifications matter more than experience? That really depends on the experience, doesn't it? Does a certification replace 10 years of bad experience? Absolutely. Absolutely. Does a certification replace 10 years of being trained correctly? I don't know the answer to that one. I I really don't know the answer to that one. Again, as a hiring manager, because I hired technicians for a long time. Again, if you have certifications, except for some very few specific ones, again, that told me you have the ability to make a go, achieve that goal, and move on. So but there's I know I know some people who have credentials who can't do anything right. I know some people who have tons and tons of experience, but they were trained wrong, is done horribly. So it's not a it's not a it's not a right versus wrong answer. It truly isn't, right? In real life, take pride in your work, and you'll definitely outweigh certification. Absolutely, absolutely. Right? Um, so make sure that uh whatever certification that you're choosing chasing after, that when your experience stalls, it doesn't stall without credentials. Okay, question number nine. This comes from Kevin, not the Kevin in in here tonight, but uh which certifications help me move from the field to the office? Project management certifications, design certifications, uh, those kind of certifications will get you out of the out of the office, out of the field. And let's be honest here, some people, some people don't want to go into the office. They want to stay in the field. And I understand that. I understand because when you're in the field, you pull it. Yeah, you sometimes it's gonna be hot, sometimes you're gonna be working in some uncomfortable places, but some people like working with their hands, they like building things. Going to the office isn't all that it's hacked up to be. You got office politics and and then all kinds of other stuff that goes on, just being in the office ain't what I know. I know all I know way more people who made it into the office who want to go back to the field because they thought, yeah, I don't like working in the office. Then I know people who want to get into the office. Right. So um again, so project management design and uh anything like that. Oh, you know, a lot of times too, sometimes your some of your safety ones will get you that as well. You get some of the right safety certifications that might bring you into the office as a safety person. And nobody I know a lot of people, a lot of people hate safety officers because they think, oh, you're only out here to tell me I'm doing it wrong. No, they're out there to make sure you go home safely at the end of the day. Again, I told this many times on this show. I've had an uncle who died in a workplace accident. Okay, it's not a fun thing to go through as a family. Truly it's not. Daryl, the RCD says, I would love to go back into the field. Absolutely. Um Garcia says, I think it's the best balance is to uh be some type of foreman, field supervisor. Um, you're an office personnel, but there you go, still on the site. Yeah, there's a there's a lot of that. There's a lot of stuff that does that. Exactly because it was your dad, your granddad. Absolutely. Um it's kind of funny. I mentioned I didn't even think about you being in the in the live stream. So my cousin's in the live stream. It was her grandfather, my uncle, who died from that workplace accident. Again, safety related. It probably could have been avoided. So I take safety a little more serious than most people. Rachel wants to know how should certifications align where the industry is going, not where it has been. Okay, so if I'm looking at certifications now in the low voltage industry, I'm gonna be looking for certifications in data center design, power over Ethernet, fault managed power systems, right? Because that's where this industry is going. And why not get a certification that's gonna help you get where this industry is going? The industry has a lot of big seat technicians, a lot of uh CFOTs. Why not think about where it's going? Wireless, building automation, right? Think about that design and lifestyle and life cycle thinking. Those are the ones you want because that's where right now there's a shortage of those kinds of people. Last question, this comes from Steve on YouTube. Why do some people collect certifications but never advance? Because some people just collect certifications. I get asked all the time because I only have two of them, the Bixie Tech and the RCDD. And I get asked all the time, well, Chuck, how come you don't get more? Um, well, there's several reasons for that. One, I'm getting old. I see the light at the end of the tunnel of my career, but I don't I don't pursue certifications, just attack more letters on the end of my name. I look at a certification and I look, okay, how does this certification impact me over the next three years, next five years? Does it make me more efficient at my job? Does it make my job easier? Does it make help me make more money? Those are those are the filters that I put through any certification before that I pick them. Right? So there are some people that just want to collect those certifications. Everybody needs a hobby. Yeah, yeah. Uh collecting certification is not a good hobby for though, right? Um, and some people are some people are just addicted to learning. Now, I am one of those people. I am always my wife and I, when we're sitting down, the our living room is just actually on the other side of this wall. And when we sit down and watch TV at night, she watches TV. I'm usually online trying to learn something. And it's just because I'm a constant learner. My brain is restless sometimes. It is restless. But certifications without responsibility, I don't know if I would waste the time on that. I just truly, truly don't. How hard is the RCDD test? That is a great question. Chicago FLG. It is hard. Very hard. It is 150 questions, two and a half hours, and you got to study a 2,000-page book and know that information inside out forwards and backwards. The vast majority of people who apply for that test fail that test the first time around. It's a very hard test, but it's very rewarding when you get that. Very rewarding for that, right? Uh those certifications do look nice at the convention when you get your lanyard. Yeah, it's funny you say that because my lanyard's actually from last year sitting right there. And I've got, I don't know. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, eight, nine banners on it. Nine, nine, nine of them on there. Yeah, I get that. Some people get into that hole. How many lanyards do you have? Yeah, whatever. I don't do that. Anyways, so I am at 6.34, four minutes past showtime. I've got a recording to do, a recording to do for an episode coming up on the podcast. Huge announcement, by the way. Huge announcement. Oh, I missed some questions here. What certification should I pursue after my RCDD? Um, considering the DC DC or OSP, since I have experience with Cisco and outside plant technology. Okay, so do you want hard first or do you want easy first, right? If you want easy first, go for the OSP. Now I'm not saying the OSP is an easy certification to get, but what I will say though is it's a lot easier than the DC DC certification. So get the OSP first, then go for your DC DC. That's that's my recommendation. Do you know platforms to find low voltage work and bidding? Okay, that's a great question, Mr. Jackson. Um, my problem with using those platforms, and there was every every region of the country had these construction um books that come out like once a month, tell about upcoming projects, stuff like that. My problem with those kinds of books is everybody and their brother in the area are bidding on it. I would much rather, much rather be in a bid environment where I'm only competing against three people instead of 30 people. Because when you're bidding against 30 people, the person who won the job missed something. So, yeah, there you go. Um, all right, that that is it for tonight. So let's go ahead and uh shut this down. Until next time, everybody. Remember, knowledge is power.