This weekend, I took the first step of rebranding myself. Some know me as Derek Huether the "PMP"; some as Derek Huether the "CSM"; some even refer to me as The Critical Path blogger or Zombie PM. With the real risk of the Federal Government shutting down this next week, I'd be an idiot if I didn't eat my own dogfood and have some kind of Risk Management strategy.  Though I may have to "accept" the risk, I will do what I can to mitigate it.

Because I am NOT a government employee, if there is a shutdown, I will NOT get paid.  When I heard about a possible shutdown, I remembered the similarities between grief and risk.  So, what needs to get done?  I need to get my resume and social links updated.  Wherever my name is, I need to make sure the message I'm sending reflects my current frame of mind.

When I look at LinkedIn profiles, it appears some people really love adding initials after their names.  I saw one fellow had no less than 6 acronyms after his name.  Though people in the industry may understand this alphabet soup, I think many are just annoyed by it.  I did a search on him and he really had nothing to say (publicly).  So, who is this guy?  What I see happening is he'll be loaded into a database with everyone else and he'll become nothing more than a keyword search.

Though I admit, that could happen to me as well.  I'll do what I can not to pander to it.  I think people should be hired because of their personalities or because they are good culture fits.  I wouldn't want to be hired because a hiring manager needed a body with a PMP or CSM.

I'm not going to turn my back on what I've learned over the years.  I will still champion the baseline information the pursuit of these certifications or accreditations exposed me to.  But, I'm not going to continue using them in my name.  It's just not who I am.