A student preparing for the Base Certification exam recently sent us a question, but it wasn’t about the exam. It was about how to position her certification credential on her resume to highlight she’s SAS Certified.
This is a great question since employers continuously tell us a SAS Certification is a solid measure of candidate’s knowledge and skills. But the answer to this question is different for everyone.
It somewhat depends on how much space you have available on your resume. Certainly list the credential and include it if you already have a 'skills' section on your resume. If so, you may want to add some key skills related to base programming, such as 'SAS Data Step Programming' or 'Data preparation and cleansing'. It also might depend on the job you’re applying for and how important those skills are. But if you have a lot of SAS experience from previous jobs, I would not sacrifice listing that in favor of the skills section.
I hope this helps others out there looking for SAS jobs. Also, you can 'push' an electronic credential verification to a prospective employer using the SAS Certification Records Management System.
If anyone has other advice, please comment below. Or maybe there’s a hiring manager reading this blog that could share their experience from the other side.
5 Comments
Hi We ar ehiring SAS Admin @ San Ramon, CA..Pls drop your resume to vara@texaras.com in case you are willing to apply
I have a slightly different quandary. After much deliberation in October last year I gave notice on my previous job to pursue a new career direction as a SAS Programmer - I studied Base SAS at the SAS Institute for a week, subsequently passing the certification exam.
The certification logo and dates studied/passed are on my C.V. but so far I have been unable to find work in this field. It appears firms hire interns or experienced programmers, but nothing in between.
I'd be really grateful for some advice on how to gain employment utilizing my Certified Base Programming skills to avoid them going to waste.
I am base sas certified in may 2013..I have 6 months clinical data management Quintiles experience...Looking for new sas level I positions in Raleigh,NC area..And receiving feedback from clients that i have minimal experience ..I donot know how to search my new job.
I have a section on my resume for credentials where I list both the Base and the Advanced and the dates that I attained them.
I also recently had business cards made for myself as an independant contractor. Where the template wanted a company name I filled in my certification instead, and I uploaded the Advanced logo to go on the back with a URL for my LinkedIn page.
Looks really nice :)
Yes, it would be nice to hear managers and people who have been hiring thanks for their SAS Certification. I am sure there are a lot.