1. Focus on Your Profession. You’ll get the most bang for your buck if you get a certification from an organization that focuses on what job you do and what job you want to do. If your current or desired title is something like buyer, purchasing agent, procurement specialist, supply manager, director of purchasing, etc., then you want a certification from an organization focused on purchasing and supply management (like the SPSM). If your current or desired title is inventory planner, production scheduler, inventory control analyst, etc., then you want a certification from an organization focused on those fields (like the CSCP from the American Production and Inventory Control Society).

2. Global Recognition. Today, purchasing and supply management professionals are doing more and more business with international suppliers. Getting a national certification will fail in communicating to your global supplier counterparts what caliber of purchasing and supply management professional you are. A globally-recognized certification (like the SPSM) will help you in this regard while also teaching you from a global purchasing perspective.

3. Future Promise of the Certification. At least one of the certifications you cited above is soon no longer going to be available. So be careful not to invest your time and money into a certification that will decline in value as time passes. Also look to the history of the organization’s certifications. Do they pull the plug on their certifications (like the A.P.P. no longer being available after a few years on the market)? Also, think of the risk of a “copycat” certification being forced out of the market. If there are similarly named certifications (not just the acronym, but the full name), check to see which was out first, whether there are trademarks registered, and if there are any office actions from the US Patent and Trademark Office outstanding against the “second to market.” In this world of monkey-see-monkey-do, it is quite possible that a new certification could be forced out of the market due to trademark infringement. So it would be sad for anyone who invested their time and money into such a certification.

How does a Sourcing professional select which certification to pursue, and is it worthwhile to pursue them all? I’ve always enjoyed having letters behind my name.