Is our consultant class too qualified and memberised for its good?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

I should spend more time on LinkedIn and Instagram, and perhaps less on Facebook; I am content to remain at my current level of contributor activity here on the Coffee Shop though I suspect I should be stepping up elements of my coding work to modernise and help raise the visibilty and navigability of our resource.

I was struck on Instagram this morning by the long lists of qualifactions and memberships of a significant proportion of the LinkedIn contributors and responders on a post I shared earlier.  I have redacted the names, and these are NOT the person I quoted earlier, where I was able in a 100 word summary to encapsulate the gist of what he was saying in 3,000. Just look at these:
[redacted] CEnv, FEI, FISEP, CMILT, CMVP, MSc, CRWM
[redacted] MAPM, MRailEI, MIET, MIfSE, ACIRO, MCIM
and someone who bangs his drum in a different style:
[redacted] "Senior Industry Expert"

For sure, we (who are on LinkedIn) all have to (or, rather, really need to) indicate what we are, and give at least a clue as to our background.  These days, now that I am retired from so many elements, I have chosen to say no more than "Webmaster and Administrator at Great Western Coffee Shop Passenger Forum";  I have no rail industry qualifiactions what so ever - I didn't even study Geography as far as 'O' level, and I have just a lowley Batchelor's degree.  You will pick up from my profile that I'm a director of TravelWatch SouthWest (a 3 year term from December 2024 to 2027) but I don't do headlining that.

Are there too many different qualifications, learned bodies, interested parties, meetings, committees and so forth for our own good in the rail industry? Or has it got so complicated we need them all?

Edited to correct typos

[TaplowGreen]

I was struck on Instagram this morning by the long lists of qualifactions and memberships of a significant proportion of the LinkedIn contributors and responders on a post I shared earlier.  I have redacted the names, and these are NOT the person I quoted earlier, where I was able in a 100 word summary to encapsulate the gist of what he was saying. Just look at these:
[redacted] CEnv, FEI, FISEP, CMILT, CMVP, MSc, CRWM
[redacted] MAPM, MRailEI, MIET, MIfSE, ACIRO, MCIM
and someone who bangs his drum in a different style:
[redacted] "Senior Industry Expert"

Sums up Linkedin to a tee - it's become the home of ego, bullshit bingo, generally showing off and "look at me" type inspirational dissertations.

Following your name with a list of qualifications/membership like that is little more than willy waving.

I keep my (free) membership going as a means of keeping in touch with people I've interacted with in business over the years but other than that, rarely visit it.

There's a hilarious book called "The State of LinkedIn" which is well worth a read, and some great parodies too - enjoy this one!

https://x.com/StateOfLinkedIn/status/1989042552134148365?s=20

[stuving]

Noting that RailEI features in that list, and for those that are not up to date, earlier this year the Permanent Way Institution converted itself into the Railway Engineering Institution. There is a new, rebuilt, web site and one of the side effects of that is that (as far as I can see) everything in their "knowledge hub" - including local meetings - is now only accessible to members. If that is entirely true, and remains so, it's rather a shame as they were a useful source of detailed (and true!) information.

[Sixty3Closure]

Bit like TG^▸ (TaplowGreen - a respected member of this forum - or, possibly, a train cancellation code ("cancelled due to an issue with the train crew"), depending on context) I use it occasionally to keep in touch with people. I never quite had the confidence (audacity?) to embellish my titles and roles but it always makes me laugh when I see, for example, the Junior Project Manager I hired for a project describe themselves as the Project Lead.

Sometimes you need to adapt a job title to make sense to the wider world but too many of my former colleagues who might have been one of a dozen+ Operations Managers are suddenly Head of UK^▸ (United Kingdom) Operations.

I was also very wary about hiring someone young and/or inexperienced with too many qualifications as it suggested a focus on exams rather than practical experience. That did come back to bite me though when I applied recently for a government job and didn't get an interview on the basis of not having a particular low level qualification (or rather I did but had let it lapse about 20 years ago). I suspect though that's AI job filtering to strict criteria rather than my 30 years experience in the field.

[grahame]

I was also very wary about hiring someone young and/or inexperienced with too many qualifications as it suggested a focus on exams rather than practical experience. ...

From Huffpost

Michael Nicholson.

The 71-year-old man from Kalamazoo, Michigan, has earned 29 degrees -- and he's not finished yet. ABC News breaks that down: one bachelor's degree, two associate's degrees, 22 master's, three specialist degrees, and one doctoral degree.

"I would like to get to 33 or 34. I'm almost there," Nicholson told ABC News. "When I complete that, I'll feel like I've completed my basic education. After that, if I'm still alive -- that would take me to 80 or 81 -- I would then be free to pursue any type of degree."

That did come back to bite me though when I applied recently for a government job and didn't get an interview on the basis of not having a particular low level qualification (or rather I did but had let it lapse about 20 years ago). I suspect though that's AI job filtering to strict criteria rather than my 30 years experience in the field.

I can ... understand ... that frustration.  I have a number of connections with guests from Ukraine who are highly intelligent, very well qualified, but with qualifications that are not recognised in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom).  The lady who's got a second degree in environmental sciences, really bright and "with it", and is stacking shelves in a store in Swindon.    In contrast, I had a job lined up for when I finished my Batchelor's degree, ((sure, I got an upper second with honours (too lazy to have got a first))), but whether or not I passed and got "letters" didn't matter to my employer, and it's never been of any consequence to getting a job since.