You want to know what I saw today!?! A VA, here on Active Rain, who says she is "certified Military Spouse Virtual Assistant". Ok. Who gives that certification? And what the heck does it mean? Why do Military Spouses need a VA?
I swear some of these certifications are purely made up. I think I'm going to start offering blog posting certification. All the VAs here can pay me $395 and I will give them a logo for their website that says they are certified to post blogs. It will immediately give their blog more credibility than other blogs without the certification.
Seriously, how do you know what certifications mean anything? Well, the NAR REPA certification is given by the National Association of Realtors. You can bet that certification is a good one. IVAA has two certifications that are important, the CRESS or Certified Real Estate Support Specialist, and the Ethics Checked certification.
Other than those, take a look at what the VA had to do to achieve the certification. Just because it's a certification doesn't mean the teachers knew what they were doing. The virtual assistant industry is unregulated. Anyone can say they are certified in anything. It doesn't make their knowledge any better than someone who's been in the trenches gaining life experience. At this point in the VA industry, a person's associations and memberships have as much weight as their certifications, if not more.
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EDITED TO ADD: I was contacted off blog for clarification on my intentions with this post. I figured I'd post them here to make sure everyone reading this understands.
1) I am not knocking the VA industry. I did laugh when I thought there were VAs to Military Spouses, though.
2) I am not knocking VA certifications. I am just warning people that some certifications may be bogus and to check them out and not blindly believe a logo that anyone can make.
3) A VA who is an active member of popular VA organizations is less likely to be fly-by-night. They are also more likely to know lots of cool stuff that can help their clients because we VAs talk to each other and we share all the good info with each other. That's why I think affiliations are as good as certifications.
I hope that clears up any misunderstandings.
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