PMP Certification

[Brovane]

One of my goals for this year which was to get my PMP certification. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Management_Professional . After a lot of studying the last several months I passed the PMP exam today.

I have been doing Project Management in my field (IT) for about 15-years in additional to my other technical duties and I have always enjoyed managing projects. However it has always been one of many hats I wear as Server/Storage Admin. As my current employer is centralizing or IT structure there is more opportunity now to specialize in certain areas. I figured with my experience I should take the initiative this year to put me in a position to move into technical project management if the opportunity presents itself. My current Manager was also very supportive of me getting my PMP. At least I figured it wouldn't look bad on my Resume.

 

[Aharami]

congrats!

 

[purbeast0]

congrats.

i've worked with many PMP's on multiple projects, and that is one gig i would never wish upon anyone lol. good luck with that!

 

[Chess]

congrats.

i've worked with many PMP's on multiple projects, and that is one gig i would never wish upon anyone lol. good luck with that!

lets face it.. most PMP professionals arent technical worth a shit.......

Ive met VERY few that are.....

 

[Buttzilla]

congrats! i'm thinking about pursuing that also. i was going to take a course thru uc berkekely extension:

https://events-na8.adobeconnect.com...anding.html?sco-id=1499940955&_charset_=utf-8

 

[rh71]

OP congrats.

lets face it.. most PMP professionals arent technical worth a shit.......

Ive met VERY few that are.....

True - to date I've only met 1 who is as involved as they need to be while still being competent. Others are just note-takers or babysitters.

 

[purbeast0]

lets face it.. most PMP professionals arent technical worth a shit.......

Ive met VERY few that are.....

i'm not sure what relevance that has to do with my post. the PMP's i worked with were all working like 50-60 hour weeks regularly and just had to put up with so much shit from the client. it's just a gig i would never want or wish on anyone.

granted, the multiple PMP's i worked with were all on the same project with the same company, and that company was terrible and i no longer work for them.

 

[Brovane]

congrats! i'm thinking about pursuing that also. i was going to take a course thru uc berkekely extension:

https://events-na8.adobeconnect.com...anding.html?sco-id=1499940955&_charset_=utf-8

Well you need for the PMP 35-hours of PDU's. I actually took my courses through CBT Nuggets for the PDU's I needed. My work bought or entire team subscriptions to CBT nuggets.

The bid advantage of CBT Nuggets was that you get access to Transcend-er online practice tests as part of your subscription. You can really drill down into your weaknesses using the Transcend-er practice tests. The Transcend-er tests also do a really good of explaining why a particular answer was write. Let me know if you have any more specific questions and I can try to answer them.

 

[Brovane]

OP congrats.



True - to date I've only met 1 who is as involved as they need to be while still being competent. Others are just note-takers or babysitters.

I figured I would approach it from the other end. Most of the PMP's I have meet were never technical and now are leading technical projects. I am coming from the technical side and looking to cross-over into project management.

 

[Buttzilla]

Well you need for the PMP 35-hours of PDU's. I actually took my courses through CBT Nuggets for the PDU's I needed. My work bought or entire team subscriptions to CBT nuggets.

The bid advantage of CBT Nuggets was that you get access to Transcend-er online practice tests as part of your subscription. You can really drill down into your weaknesses using the Transcend-er practice tests. The Transcend-er tests also do a really good of explaining why a particular answer was write. Let me know if you have any more specific questions and I can try to answer them.

unfortunately my employer is a bit shiesty about paying for courses, i've been signing up for stuff through udemy

 

[Chess]

i'm not sure what relevance that has to do with my post. the PMP's i worked with were all working like 50-60 hour weeks regularly and just had to put up with so much shit from the client. it's just a gig i would never want or wish on anyone.

granted, the multiple PMP's i worked with were all on the same project with the same company, and that company was terrible and i no longer work for them.

I was just making a statement, as it seems to be true in the IT field... I work for a large consulting firm (dont drink the kool aid) and they like to push PMP's on folks.

I know literally less than a handful that are technical. When you try and complete a technical project it turns into a nightmare...

Was just stating an opinion from my side.

 

[Brovane]

unfortunately my employer is a bit shiesty about paying for courses, i've been signing up for stuff through udemy

If you are serious about getting your PMP exam it might be well worth your money to pay for 1-year of CBT Nuggets, which is about $1k. They have a lot of different courses from technical to soft skills. You can get all your PDU's you need for the PMP certification through CBT nuggets. The Transcend-er part is gravy on top of everything else. Oh if your employer doesn't want to pay for it, you have a tax deduction if you itemize. I was concerned that the Transcend-er practice test were not hard enough going into the PMP exam but I found them very much spot on in difficulty level compared to some of the practice exams out on the Internet. They have a course for ITIL foundation which I took for some of PMP PDU's. I am thinking about re-taking the course on CBT Nuggets and getting my ITIL foundation certification next.

 

[purbeast0]

I was just making a statement, as it seems to be true in the IT field... I work for a large consulting firm (dont drink the kool aid) and they like to push PMP's on folks.

I know literally less than a handful that are technical. When you try and complete a technical project it turns into a nightmare...

Was just stating an opinion from my side.

aah okay yeah i gotcha. you are right too, when i was working with them, only 1 was any bit technical.

we had some non-technical people trying to run daily standups and they were trying to push an agile environment, and just had absolutely no clue wtf they were doing.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I was just making a statement, as it seems to be true in the IT field... I work for a large consulting firm (dont drink the kool aid) and they like to push PMP's on folks.

I know literally less than a handful that are technical. When you try and complete a technical project it turns into a nightmare...

Was just stating an opinion from my side.

They generally don't add value to a project when they're not technical. The PMs I work with are, as someone said, babysitters - actually, I end up babysitting them most of the time. Their job, IMO, is to get out of the way and if I tell them I need something, they better get it or remove any obstacle I'm facing.

A few years ago, we were going to hire a company to do some work with us. They sent back an itemized proposal and on it, was a big (and expensive) line item for a PM. I told them that wasn't necessary and they said "Oh, we require PMs on our projects." I said "That's fine -- you can pay for it. We're not paying for YOUR requirement. That's non-negotiable."

At my current gig, they're getting clued in that the PMs aren't adding value and are just needless overhead. It used to be required to send a PM along any time a technical resource went onsite, but they have since eliminated the requirement. It really made us non-competitive on many engagements.

Congrats to the OP though - the PMP is one thing I keep putting off and should probably just do it, because I am a far better project manager than any PM I've ever met and it would help me hop around to other jobs, I think.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

unfortunately my employer is a bit shiesty about paying for courses, i've been signing up for stuff through udemy

Cornelius Fitchner runs the PM Podcast and has a ton of really cheap and free training materials. When I was studying for my PMP a couple of years ago, I bought the PM Podcast and it counted for the 35 hours of training you need to apply for the exam. IIRC, I paid $100 or $120 for it, which is not bad and I still have all the videos. He also has some PDU stuff on his site.

 

[BrokenVisage]

now work on your PIMP certification, fo'sho.

 

[Iron Woode]

I heard PMPin' ain't easy.

 

[MtnMan]

Every time I got a new certification, I asked for and got a raise.

 

[glenn1]

Congrats on your PMP. Now go get your Certified Scrum Master cert so you can learn how to facilitate a proper Agile project rather than "manage" a project with obsolete Waterfall SDLC methods and artifacts and can toss crap like Gantt Charts in the trash where it belongs.

 

[dullard]

Now you just have to blow a weekend a month and pay hundreds/thousands of dollars a year for training to keep that PMP scam active! It is a fad that I hope passes. (My wife is PMP certified.)

 

[glenn1]

Now you just have to blow a weekend a month and pay hundreds/thousands of dollars a year for training to keep that PMP scam active! It is a fad that I hope passes. (My wife is PMP certified.)

It won't unfortunately. Indeed new certifying bodies are springing up to fleece hopeful suckers for yet more fancy letters to put on their resumes which don't mean shit. "Certified Business Analyst Professional," "Certified Data Management Professional," the "Disaster Recovery Professional," and hundreds more with basically all of them being simply crap. Basically if it has the word "Professional" in it you can be assured that it's crap.

 

[drebo]

We hired a PMP at my company. He's the very definition of a middle manager and he's honestly pretty useless. We'd be far more functional without him.

 

[Ns1]

Congrats on your PMP. Now go get your Certified Scrum Master cert so you can learn how to facilitate a proper Agile project rather than "manage" a project with obsolete Waterfall SDLC methods and artifacts and can toss crap like Gantt Charts in the trash where it belongs.

A+ post would read again

 

[edro]

I have had good experiences with project managers in engineering.
It sucks when they constantly ask for updates, but they do keep everyone on track.
The biggest help I saw was just keeping on people and ensuring deliverables were met when different groups were interacting.
It is common for engineering to send a request to production for samples and production sits on it for 2-3 weeks because its low priority to them.
With a project manager, they would hound production and it would get done quickly.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Regarding the ITIL foundation certification -- I have one and I can tell you, it is a complete and total joke. However, many companies seem to value it so get it -- it is a cheap and easy win. I'd put the difficulty on par with the A+ test I took in the mid 90s, which was super easy.