« Case Study: Project Reporting
Top 10 Considerations When Integrating Social Media in Your Project Management Processes »

My Road to Becoming a PMP

September 25, 2012 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: PMP

My Road to Becoming a PMP
By Dana Bowlin

About 6 years ago, I started working as a project coordinator and business analyst. It seemed like an interesting job, gathering requirements, scheduling project tasks and raising issues up the food chain if things started going sideways. As I started working on various projects and with various teams I began to realize just how difficult project coordination and management could be. I started talking to my boss about the things that were happening in the various projects. After many of what I assume were annoying questions, he swiftly introduced me to the world of PMI (Project Management Institute) and what it meant to be a PMP (Project Management Professional) and something crazy called the PMBOK.

Let’s just say after learning more, I was hooked. There was a framework for how to get work done, there were ways to mange risk, create schedules, communicate and so much more. That day, I set a goal to become a PMP.

Move forward, 6 years, still no PMP. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the training or the experience at this point. I had taken multiple classes, read many books, practiced on my own projects. The issue was I was afraid to take the test. I know, it is only a test right. No, in my mind all I could think of was what would happen if I didn’t pass. To make matters worse every time I asked someone about the test, they would moan and groan about how horrible the test was and how they never wanted to do it again.

Finally, this year my previous manager helped me solve the problem and I will forever be thankful for her for it. As we were setting goals for the year, I yet again put “Become a certified PMP this year”. She agreed to this goal with a stipulation, I had to take the test within 4 weeks of the end of a PMP preperation course. Really, I had to commit to take the test that I feared.

I was able to find and attend a wonderful 4 day course in my area with a great instructor and a great group of people that seemed to be in the same boat as me, but the test was still terrifying me. I committed to my promise and scheduled my test within 4 weeks of my course and proceeded to study.

Test day came and let me tell you, I haven’t been that nervous since I did finals in college. It seemed that even reporting on project status to CIO’s had nothing on the PMP test pre jitters. I spent the fours hours allotted for the test and with mixed emotions and fear hit that button that said “score test” and I waited and I waited.

PASS……6 years of hard work and worry boiled down to this simple four letter word.

Looking back, I can say there are quite a few things that I have learned along the way about myself and also lessons that may help others in their goal to be a certified PMP. Below is by no means a guaranteed way to pass the PMP! These are simply a list of thoughts and things that would have helped me.

  • Repeat: You can pass the test.
  • The test is hard.
  • Take a PMP 4-5 day prep course.
  • Repeat: You can pass the test
  • Schedule the test within a 3-4 week period after your course.
  • Repeat: You can pass the test.
  • Study!
  • Repeat: You can pass the test.

Best of luck in your journey to becoming a PMP.

Dana Bowlin is a project manager at Tier 3. She has spent approx 12 years working in large enterprise IT as a developer, business analyst, and project manager. You can read more from Dana on her blog.

Share this article:
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • TwitThis

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2012 and is filed under PMP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 person has left a comment

Congrats! Right there with you on all of it. I just passed my test this week (4 weeks after a boot camp) and may have actually stopped breathing as I push the SCORE button…

Scott R wrote on October 5, 2012 - 1:44 pm | Visit Link

feel free to leave a comment

Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). All line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published. Keep it PG-13 people!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

All fields marked with " * " are required.

The Stevens Enterprise Project Management Master's Program

Project Management Categories