Professional certification helps credit managers rise to new challenges 

As you embark on your credit career, you will always be faced with new challenges. Whether you are taking on new responsibilities, handling larger customers or starting an entirely new role, continued education is a critical resource as you ready yourself for every turn your career journey takes.

For Matt Mezger, CCRA, CBA, CICP, credit team lead at Uline (Pleasant Prairie, WI), earning his Certified International Credit Professional (CICP) designation helped him prepare to manage new international customers.  

“As my company looks into expanding into international markets, I felt now was a great time to grow my base knowledge on credit and the different areas I need to understand as my company enters the international credit field,” Mezger said. 

Credit education is an opportunity to learn about areas of credit and the differing, unique ways that each credit department functions. “There’s so much to learn and the better educated we are, the better decisions we will make,” Mezger said. “This is my third designation, after each class I have been able to bring knowledge and skills back to my team to help improve processes.” 

Credit learning opportunities are central to a credit managers professional development, as each class, webinar and certification signifies a level of mastery in a new area of business credit. 

“NACM is an awesome resource for learning and continuing education,” Mezger said. “I’m a member of the education committee for NACM Connect, so I take a lot of value in different ways to learn, expand our knowledge and become better credit professionals at the end of the day.” 

Study tip: “Stay on a schedule that works for you,” Mezger said. “The instructors do not recommend moving too far forward, so getting into a good routine helped me stay on track. I also utilized my iPad to study, so I could download the PDFs and study even when internet was not available.”