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Keywords: Safety designation, CSP, Environment, Sustainability, Workplace safety, Hazardous materials, Industrial hygiene, Occupational health, Safety regulations, Hazard prevention, Risk assessment, Chemical safety, Ergonomics, Health and safety, standards, Environmental policy, Workplace health promotion, Environmental health, Air quality, Water quality, Climate change, Green initiatives, Sustainable development, Government news, Public policy, Politics, Government services, Government programs, Public administration, Political analysis, Government leadership, Federal government, State government, Local government, Government accountability, Government transparency, Government efficiency, Government reform, Legislative updates, Government decision-making, Government technology, Government innovation, Public service, Workplace safety, Occupational safety, Safety training, Health and safety compliance, Safety management systems, Risk assessment, Safety audits, Safety culture, Incident investigation, Ergonomics, Hazard identification, Industrial hygiene, Safety inspections, Behavior-based safety, Safety program development, OSHA compliance, Safety policies and procedures, Job hazard analysis, Safety performance metrics, Safety certifications, Sheldon, Primus, Sheldon Primus, Safety FM, Jay Allen, Dr. Todd Conklin, Dr. Sydney Dekker, Stan Smiley, Safety Differently, HOP, BBS, COSS, COSM, Oil and Gas, Chemical Manufacturing, Medical Compliance, Human Resources, HR, Podcast

[00:00:03] Announcer: This episode is powered by Safety FM. 

[00:00:12] Sheldon Primus: Welcome to the safety consultant podcast. This is the podcast where I teach you the business of being a safety consultant and we talk about, about OSHA compliance. Uh we talk about a bunch of stuff in this uh podcast. Welcome.  

So if you're just getting here, I’m Sheldon Primus and I am The Safety Consultant. That's what Jay Allen always calls me, safety consultant. If you haven't heard of Jay Allen, go to safety consultant, excuse me, safetyFM.com it's a network of safety podcasts and broadcasts, I’m one of the network. So Jay Allen, there you go. Shout out.  

All right. So what we're going to talk about today? Oh, oh, oh, before we get to what we're gonna talk about today, let me do a couple of things I like to do, talking about our audience. So let's do some audience demographic stuff first, and then we'll talk about what we're going to talk about. I actually like doing this part because it's kind of fun to see where everybody is listening from and it helps me because, you know, for what, four years ago we're in season four now. So I was doing this thing and I was like, oh man, I'm talking to myself. And most of the time I was, but right now we do have some other people from different countries listening to me. So let's give you guys the, the list of countries as it is from chartable.com, which tracks podcasts. Uh So right now it looks like US, thank you for listening. Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Jamaica, UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, Spain, Brazil, Chile, New Zealand, Russian Federation, Mexico, Aruba, China, Israel, Thailand and Nigeria. So those are the places where right now you're hearing my voice, you're listening to me, uh If I have not mentioned your country, then that means it may not be enough of a number of you guys listening to me uh to get on the list over here. So that means tell a friend. That'd be wonderful, if you ever wanted to find a way to support me and you didn't know how to do it, uh best way to do it would be just going in and telling a friend about the show. Um, share it on your social media, that’s a wonderful way of doing it so that people could, could get the word about not only safety consulting, but we talk about occupational safety and health and a few other things regarding what you do.  

All right. So let's tell you about my rankings right now. It looks like in Apple I am out of the US podcast under Government and that's, uh 200 is the range, so I'm out of 200. Seoul, Korea or excuse me, South Korea, I am number 98 in the government listing. Uh Saudi Arabia, I'm 63. I'm out of Singapore, so that means I'm out of the 200s. Chile, I'm 49 and Senegal, I am 46 in the Government charts for podcast on Apple. Awesome. Thank you all. Uh, for chartable, uh they have their own rankings and this is like a global US/Canada ranking, so globally out of all podcasts, I am all whopping 12,242 out of all podcasts ever. In the US, I am 9576 in the US market. But if you go down to globally in the government reach, I am 146 on the chartable podcast in my category. And uh for the government of US, my reach is at 109. I'm not too sure what that reach means, but, oh, well, so there you guys go. Thank you so much. I really had a, I enjoy that you guys are listening and I'm pretty sure that there's gonna be some sharing with friends and uh that's consistent with the numbers. So, thank you so much for that. There you go, round of applause.  

[00:04:44] So what I'm gonna do today is actually just a little um thought that I want to give you. And this thought I have actually thunk this thing before. I had thunk a thought before. The only reason why I'm gonna mention it right now is because I have seen it like, it seems like it's a seasonal thing right now. And the seasonal thing that I'm talking about is people wanting to, in the safety field, wanting to, uh, get more and more and more certificates. They're looking to get every acronym in the back of their letter, acronym that they can, from the back of their name, excuse me. When you say your name, comma and then the designation that you have. Uh there's a trend to this again. A lot of people want to get the safety designations and I've been seeing in group after group after group as to uh the questions being asked, what is the best safety um designation? And then I also hear them say uh what do I do next? I just got this, what do I do next? And everyone's looking for that answer of what to do next.  

So here's your answer. Be strategic. How's that? Probably not the answer you're looking for, but you wanna be strategic. So here's what I mean, when I tell you to be strategic. I, as you guys know, I've mentioned it several times, I work with a group called the Alliance Safety Council since 2013. Uh not sponsored, uh it doesn't mean that it can't be sponsored, anybody from the alliance listening. But uh what would they do their programs that I teach is the certified occupational safety specialist and certificate of occupational safety manager. So those are two uh designations. The one that I hear about the most is pretty much the designation that has a lot of marketing to it, and that's CSP, certified safety professionals from the Board of Certified Safety Professionals. Uh that actually has a, a bulk of the uh clout, if uh we wanna use that term is, is honestly because they had partnered with American Society of Safety Professionals for quite a long time. So they have been, their name as an agency and a certification, is kind of been married hand in hand to the development of um ASSE at first, American Society of Safety Engineers and then ASSP, which is current American Society of Safety Professionals. So they got a big boost out of that. But that doesn't mean that they're the best, right? It just means that it's an option. So what I tell people in this conversation is, it's not bad to, to want to get the letters behind your name. It's natural, everybody wants to do that. I've been doing that. I literally took out the letters from behind my name. I am, you know, a graduate and therefore the first designation I always use is that I have a master's degree. So that's my first and I have a Master’s of Public Administration. So the letter behind my name, first one is MPA when I choose to use it. I normally don't use it at all. Uh At one point I was a professional operator, PO, so I had an MPA/PO/COSS/COSM, got ridiculous. Does it help you? Mm, depends on what your outcome is. So that's what got me thinking of this one because again, I've been hearing a lot of people talking about it. So first, uh what is your desire um outcome from this designation? What are you looking for the designation? If you're looking to make yourself feel good and have as many letters as you want so that people could uh see that you're a professional in the field, then by all means, the only way to do that is by gathering certificates, and you're gonna have to keep on going and it's expensive and you have to keep recertifying it because it's not just the one time because they do lapse. So that means you're investing in this thing for the entirety of your career, and at one point in your life, you have to figure out do I still need this uh designation where I'm gonna pay for the renewal every year? Or can I let this one just lapse because I'm not doing anything with it. You know, that, that you want to be really bad, but quite honestly in practicality and going out there and people looking for a certain designation, it's just not there. But you got it, you got all of them. You went to every single school. Yes, it's gonna help you. I'm not telling you don't go for the learning, but especially if it's self funding, it's gonna get truly expensive. If business is funding, all right. I could see where you could get whatever designation you want uh because job’s paying for it. All right. That's consistent. A lot of people do that, I did that at first. So, OK. Is that your motivation? Get everything the boss will pay for. How's that? I'm telling you, go ahead, get everything the boss will pay for.  

So that's one thing. If you're paying it and you're self-funding, if you're self-funding to, to get your career going, and then at that point, you gotta kind of like, you know, you have to kind of like stop the madness. Here, here. We're gonna stop the madness. That's enough. Do not keep chasing designations because it's gonna make you broke. OK? What you really need to do is you need to just take some time, figure out what is the desired goal of this designation? Is it to help you fortify a knowledge in something that you're currently working in or is it something in the future you're going to? So first and foremost, not just seeking the letters, what are you gonna use it for? And then the second thing, what is the market driving? Because if you’re, the end goal of your designation and certification is for you to get some sort of job, then start with the end in mind. Look through résumés of where you wanna be and look to see what they're requiring for that job. Now, when you see a designation, or sometimes they'll tell you a specific designation, or they’ll say an equivalent or something similar, that's where you should start your look. So first, end in mind. What are you gonna use this designation for? Go to any job search. Um Anything that I, I've in the US we use, um, there's a lot of these job boards that are electronic that you call and Indeed is one of them, and there's a bunch of other ones. Uh If there's a similar one in your country, go ahead and look up what you wanna do, what's practical. Picture your life in that uh in that job. Is that something that you want to do? So, if that answer is yes, then let's go back to what is the designation that I need for this job? So if you do need some sort of designation to get this job, that's leading you to what to get certified in.  

So, I don't know, maybe that, that makes some sense, right? Like I, I hope. Next time you want to end up, um, I don't know I just see it a lot. I feel really bad because there's, every time you post in any of these groups that uh you're looking for a designation and you need some, some people to help you with it. The response usually comes back as a deluge of BCSP um designations and that's not against the organization. Uh The organization did what they need to do to promote their product and to get their product in this position that it's in. So they did well, other designations need to step up and do what they're doing if they want to get the same kind of clout. But I just want you guys to know that it's not the end all, be all for that particular designation. But the philosophy should be the end in mind, get the designation that's gonna get you to a goal, as opposed to just acquiring these certificates to prove that you know stuff. Alright, you don't need to prove that you know stuff so much, just do stuff. How's that? Instead of having to prove that you know stuff by your designations and your name. Uh Let's go ahead and just do stuff. Get out there, um don't worry about the designation so much. There's so many people out there that don't have designations that are doing well and a lot of the designations, well, the one I mentioned CSP actually requires you to have a four-year degree. So if you don't have a four-year degree, then you're actually not even in the qualification range for that one.  

So you might have to look for alternatives, but don't take everyone else's word for it. It has to ring true to you. So stick with your interest. Go for the end in mind. If there's a job you're looking for, look up that job to see what they're requiring and then get the designation to match it. So set yourself up for success, alright. There you go enough with the designation talk already, you guys are uh getting out of control, just out of control with that one. Stop it. All right.  

Thank you guys for listening. Uh If you got anything out about this, just go ahead and share it with a friend, especially this episode talking about designations. And tell them, don't worry about it. You're good enough. There you go. Tell them, you're good enough. Don't worry about it. All right, gang. Go get ‘em. 

[00:15:23] Announcer: This episode has been powered by Safety FM. The views and opinions expressed on this podcast or broadcast are those of the host and its guest and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the company. Examples of analysis discussed within the past hour are only examples they should not be utilized in the real world as the only solution available as they are based on very limited and dated open-source information. Assumptions made within this analysis are not reflective of the position of the company. No part of this podcast or broadcast may be reproduced, stored within a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means mechanical, electronic recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the creator of the podcast or broadcast, Sheldon Primus.