“PMI is the only brand they know…”

What I should really say is that: PMI is the only brand that a candidate can safely assume a recruiter or HR manager knows and is on the look-out for when it comes to screening potential candidates for PM roles. Other organizations may be “better” and ultimately provide more concrete value in terms of PM skill sets, but in the US, the PMI brand is still the one that is going to be most helpful getting you in the door for an interview.

Great list. Thank you. And yes, you are quite right: my list was targeted at a US audience, and at someone who is trying to get their resume approved by HR screeners rather than rejected. And while some of the other organizations have great value for specialists in a particular field, in terms of making the most of a broad sweep, in the US PMI is still the place to start because it is the name that recruiters will recognize.

Again, my opinion on its value is secondary to the fact that a resume is a marketing document. And if a candidate is trying to demonstrate that they have a solid understanding of project management when their job history doesn’t clearly indicate that, the value of a PMI certification (again, in the US) is the brand that PMI has (for better or worse).

Over time, some of the larger international PM organizations will begin to truly compete with PMI for US name recognition among non-PM professionals, but for the moment, PMI is the only brand they know and it’s the one that will give candidates the biggest bang for their buck up front.

Once in the door, other training and methodology avenues or specialties will usually crop up as being more valuable, but they have to get in the door first. And people moving into project management from other fields have a tough sales job (especially in this economy, with so many experienced PMs being out of work), and the advice outlined above — though definitely US-centric — is specifically designed to help get people past some of the knee-jerk reactions they are most likely to encounter while making a transition that many people consider incongruous or out of step with their previous experience.

Thanks for the other list of organizations, though. Great stuff!

~Alora

I completely agree. Like I said: the advice I listed here is targeted at people who have an education and work history in another field and who are trying to make a change by breaking into project management. I am in no way a blanket advocate for fostering the money-making machine that is the certification industry, but when I look at a woman who has spent more than a decade as an elementary school teacher, whose BA and MA are both in education, and whose work history has only minimal project management experience, she has to look at other ways to round out her resume in order to make the transition she is looking for. One of the easiest ways to do that is to get certified. Whether I like it (or agree with it) or not, it makes a big difference in her ability to get her resume past the the screener in HR to actually be able to try to sell herself to a hiring manager/organization.

Thanks,

Alora

I absolutely agree that a certification is in no way indicative of a skill set. The reason I recommend it to people making a career change into project management, is for the same reason people have an easier time getting a job with a college degree: it is one of those things that is, on paper, valuable to get past the ‘gate keepers’ when applying for a job. Especially for those whose education and background is in another field entirely, getting certified is often the quickest way to demonstrate that you are branching out.

I actually have a pretty basic philosophical objection to the whole certification industry in general, because I think it’s basically a money-making scheme. However, I also can’t dismiss that it has value for people who are trying to get up to speed quickly enough to make a change and are trying to sell to a potential employer that they know enough about project management to be worth rolling the dice on hiring them.

Thanks,

Alora

The International Project Management Association (IPMA) is a European based alternative, which offers a much more flexible organizational model (country organizations which join under the umbrella of IPMA) and they offer COMPETENCY (as opposed to knowledge) based credentialing.

There are other specialty organizations, such as the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering INternational, (AACE) which serve the oil, gas, mining and process plants very effectively. AACE offers credentials that directly compete with those offered by PMI and are, IMPO, much more technically demanding and tough to earn. If you are really into project management, and want a credential that means more than just memorizing terms and some inputs, outputs, tools and techniques, then the AACE credentials offer the next step up the ladder.

Another organization that is up and coming is the International Council of Systems Engineers (INCOSE), which tends to favor IT in the government sectors, while for general construction, the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) offers specialty certification in that application of project management. Given construction project management has been around officially for more than 50 years, CMAA probably represents the most mature incarnation of project management.

And for those who really want to get ahead of the PMI crowd, there is the Systems Dynamics folks. While this organization also has been around for 50 years or so, the thinking processes of the systems dynamics practitioners are quite different from those traditionally found in PMI, and again, IMPO, Systems Dynamics is probably where the future of project management lies.

Hope this helps shed more light on the options available to those interested in project management as a career path objective?

BR,
Dr. PDG, Singapore

http://www.getpmcertified.com

I visited the topic of project manager selection criteria during a research project I conducted a few years ago. I was able to identify the attributes that were considered when selecting project managers for twenty-five large IT projects. For those interested, the findings are available at http://managementhouse.blogspot.com/. Readers will note how high PM certification was valued in my project sample.