The project management certification courses from the PMI are the most widely recognized and accepted in the world. With a project management certification, you will have access to a huge number of jobs in the field of project management. In addition, other organizations such as the International Project Management Association (IPMA) or the American Academy of Project Management (AAPM) might also accept your certificate. These certificates can save you time and money by allowing you to get skills that will help you advance your career.
Project managers are in charge of the execution of a project, often leading teams made up of engineers, designers, developers, writers, etc. As a project manager, you might need frequent interactions with external customers. Some of these customers may have an idea of what they want or maybe totally oblivious.
A project manager’s job is to translate the client’s needs into a detailed description of work that will be done and then produce a timeline for when it should be finished. The best way to become competent and show your skills in this field is to take an exam for certification. These certifications are the perfect way to boost your career by giving you an edge over other candidates.
Project management certification is what you need if you want to make sure that you land the best opportunities as a project manager. It gives your resume an edge when looking for a new job and it can even boost your salary. You can earn this certification online or offline, but the most common way is by taking classes in a college or a university near you, which will also help you get more information about this industry.
Project management is a topic that has been discussed in-depth in recent years. This is because, with the massive increase of projects being completed every year, there are more demands on project managers to have a better understanding of their skills and certification.
While the project management professional certificate clearly has its fair share of advantages it also requires a lot of hard work. Thus, to find out whether this course is for you, try to acquaint yourself with the pros and cons of this certification.
Pros of PMP certification:
- It makes your resume stand out:
If you get a PMP certification it adds a unique and interesting factor to your resume. It becomes all the more attractive for the recruiters to help you to stand out. This is especially true for those who are looking for a job as a project manager in a big corporation. In fact, many companies that post recruitments for the post of project managers especially include PMP certification as part of the eligibility criteria.
- It can significantly increase your salary
If you are a project manager with a PMP certification it is highly likely that you will earn a salary that is higher than a non-PMP certified project manager. With this certification, you can expect at least 20% more salary than your peers who don’t have this certification.
- Boosts your networking and opens new doors:
PMP-certified people have access to other PMP certificate holders from all over the world. PMI frequently holds meetings and conferences in some of the biggest metropolitan cities of the world. At these conferences, people get together to network and learn about different and new project management theories and findings. At these meetings, PMP valuable Professional Development Units (PDUs) can also be earned. These are essential for renewing the certificate after every three years. Additionally, at these meetings, you can also get to know about new career opportunities from the other members at their respective organizations. In these meetings, people are allotted time to stand up and share about anything new that they have learned or about job opportunities that are available in their companies. This is an excellent opportunity to network with other project managers with different experience levels and this networking could open up countless potential career opportunities.
- Acts as a certificate of experience:
The pursuit of PMP certification requires you to share information on your total experience while working on different projects. Hence for anyone who wants to sit for the PMP exam needs to share the exact amount of hours they have spent on different tasks while handling, leading, or directing different projects. This is a mandatory requirement and during the background check at the time of PMI-led audit, the authenticity of the number of working hours or experience you declare is checked. To apply for the PMP exam you need to have an experience of 7500 hours or 5 years if you have an Associate degree, whereas if you have a bachelor’s degree then you need to have at least 4500 hours or 3 years worth of experience.
Cons of PMP certification
- It is expensive:
Getting a PMP certification is an expensive process. In order to be eligible to apply for the PMP examination initially, you have to go through 35 contact hours of Formal Project Management Education as PMP exam preparation. This is expensive in itself but additionally, to apply for the exam you need to pay $405 if you are a member of PMI, however, if you’re not a member of PMI then you need to pay $555. To become a PMI member you need to pay $139(this includes $10 of the one-time application fee). While it is true that being a member of PMI can get you many additional benefits that the non-members don’t get, but the membership sure does increase the additional cost.
- You need to invest a lot of time:
The preparation for the PMP exam can be very time-consuming. This is because you need to provide a lot of detail like the applicant has to break down and share the details of the hours they’ve spent on different projects and associated tasks.
- Renewal is expensive:
If you have a PMP certificate you need to renew it after every 3 years. Keeping the PMP certification active is an expensive process since it requires the applicant to submit 60 PDUs after every three years.
So is it worth it getting PMP certified? Even though there are many cons of PNP certification still its importance is unmatched. It can help those who want to become project managers know what they need to do in order to get there as well as what skills should be developed along the way. Moreover, with proper mentorship and guidance, you can learn how to reduce your time and money investment in getting the certification.