Should I spend money on BIM certificates?

Note: I used AI to shorten my post.

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I’m debating whether to drop some serious cash on the BIM Specialist course at BCA Singapore, but the price tag is giving me major anxiety. It’s going to wipe out two whole months of my salary—basically a full year of my savings. My company thinks I should take it, but since I've been there for less than a year, they're not willing to subsidize a portion of the costs.

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​My supervisors swear it’s the golden ticket if I ever want to jump to a big international firm. But here's the thing: I’m completely self-taught. I learned everything through YouTube, Udemy, and just messing around on my own projects. The funny part is, I have friends who actually graduated from this exact course, and they often come to me to solve their technical problems. I also ended up being the one making automation tools with dynamo to speed up some of our departments process.

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​I know for a fact I can learn all of the curriculums stuff online for free or for less. But I'm stuck with this lingering worry: am I going to get trapped under a "paper ceiling"? Will companies refuse to promote me to higher roles just because I don't have the official piece of paper?