I have recently been working on my professional development and was delighted to be awarded the status of Chartered Information Technology Professional (CITP) from the British Computer Society last year.

Why does this matter?

Chartered status can only be granted by organisations which have received a Royal Charter to make these awards and Chartered status should be equivilent across different professional fields, so CITP status is considered equal to other professional awards such as Chartered Engineer or Chartered Surveyor.

CITP is a measure of current (at the time of award) competency.

For those of you who haven’t come across the term before Chartered Professional is the pinnacle of professional awards in the UK - it’s a measurement of professional competence. For anyone visiting from the states, you could think of this as being broadly like being a licenced Professional Engineer, in the field of IT.

CITP isn’t about how long you’ve been in IT

CITP isn’t an award you get for hanging around the place. It’s a measure of current competence and professionalism. Candidates are independently assessed against the SFIAplus skills framework to ensure they meet the right criteria for experience over several years, and CITP holders must maintain and renew their ‘certificate of current competence’ to retain the status.

CITP isn’t about being better at IT than others.

CITP is a measure of the professional, ethical, and technical level I’m working at right now. It’s an affirmation that I’m working at that level and that I’m able to present evidence of that for an independent assessment by an industry body. It’s not a claim by either the BCS or me that I’m automatically better than anyone who is not a CITP.

CITP isn’t about knowing everything

I work in Infrastructure, cloud and architecture these days, and my CITP application and assessment was based around those areas. My competency as measured by the award is around these areas. It doesn’t mean I’m an expert at every aspect of IT (I’m not great at either programming or soldering and being a CITP didn’t magically help me be any better).

The code of conduct I’ve agreed to as part of my BCS membership and CITP award compels me to be aware of and honest about my weaknesses. And over the 30+ years I’ve been working in IT most of the biggest failures I’ve seen have been to overconfidence or an inability to step back and reflect on a decision.

So, I’m still not the person you want to write you a complex computer program… but I can admit my limits and set about helping you find someone who can do an excellent job of writing your code for you.