By: Claire Knott

Certificates and badges are a great way to show your expertise and knowledge on a particular matter. Having these on your LinkedIn and resume solidifies that you have actually worked with the skills you claim to have like writing and Excel skills.

If you love social media, the HubSpot Social Media Marketing Certificate and HubSpot Content Marketing Certificate are excellent options. Both of these certificates are free and will teach you how to create impactful content and develop a strong social media strategy. Aside from these, HubSpot has other certificates focused on sales, software, and marketing.

Available on Coursera, Google provides certification courses in IT support, data analytics, project management, and UX design. These are great opportunities to learn about skills that are needed in many jobs. It wouldn’t hurt any business major from learning about data analytics!

Other companies such as Oracle, Amazon, and Cisco provide certification programs. Amazon’s courses focus on their web services but have classes for non-engineers. If you want to highlight coding, routing, and other technology skills, Cisco has a wide variety of courses. Oracle has so many courses to choose from including JavaScript and database management.

If you take OIM 210 at UMass Amherst, you have the opportunity to earn multiple badges to demonstrate your mastery of Excel, PowerPoint, and Access. These badges are a great way to show that you have worked with these software’s that are common skills employers look for.

If you’re still looking for more certificate options, LinkedIn has many of their own courses. Be sure to take advantage of all the ways you can show future employers your interest in different fields and expertise of certain skills!