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PMP - Better than Gold

November 22, 2011 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: CAPM, Certification, PMP

PMP - Better than Gold
By Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, Founder, Cheetah Learning

This time of year, many of us are thinking about decorating for the holidays. You might decorate your house with wreaths, your children with bows, your spouse with gold jewelry, or your table with turkey. Decorations lift our spirits, and put us in the holiday mood. This holiday season, don’t forget to decorate your name as well, with a professional certification.

By adding a dash of PMP® or a sprinkle of CAPM® to the end of your name, you are showing your peers, employers, or potential employers, that you have what it takes to ring in the new year with success.

The CAPM® and PMP® are both powerful credentials, and their popularity and relevance within the Project Management industry has been growing over the past four years, as the graph below illustrates.

Total Active PMPs and CAPMs growth

Figure 1: Total Active PMPs and CAPMs growth

From January 2008 to September 2011, the number of PMP holders grew 69.7% to 464,168 PMPs in September 2011. In this same time period, the number of CAPMs grew 293.5% to 15,695 CAPMs in September 2011. Project Management credentials are now, more then ever, a standard for PM professionals in industries all over the world.

For the PMP® credential specifically, the benefits far outweigh the cost and time commitment it takes to earn your credential. Once you have invested your resources to obtain this credential, what should you expect? Cheetah Learning interviewed 70 Project Management Professionals with various levels of experience, and here is what we learned.

Life after PMP Certification

Everyone has their own reasons for sitting down to that four-hour exam and earning a PMP certification. Maybe you are a project manager who finally wants recognition for your knowledge and skills. Maybe you are seeking a new job or a new position within your company. We polled our project management group to see how earning a PMP has changed their careers. Following are the top three outcomes:

  • Enhanced reputation within the PM community (21%)
  • Promoted within current organization (17%)
  • Obtained a new job (16%)

Others reported answers include increased confidence and capabilities. As these results show, obtaining a PMP certification produces not only monetary rewards, but also the intrinsic reward that comes from feeling good about your standing within your industry.

Money Money Money! We know that many of you wish to obtain your PMP certification for the same reason that our polled group did: to earn a reputation for yourself within the PM community. But who can blame you if you also want to be compensated appropriately?

We polled our same trusty group of PMs to see how earning the PMP credential affected their earnings, and the results were impressive. The average reported increase in annual compensation after obtaining a PMP credential was $24,556 (ranging from an annual increase of $5,000 to $63,000). What would you do with an extra $24,556 this year?

Looking for Work? Look no Further. Searching for a new job can be either challenging and exciting, or stressful and tiresome. This greatly depends on the length of time that you are looking before you are able to land a job.

When we asked our professionals how long it took them to find a job if they found themselves unemployed post PMP certification, 77% of them said they were never in this situation, as their PMP provided job security and a career path that allowed them to be fulfilled in their current position. The remaining 23% who did need to make a career change reported that on average, it only took them 1.5 months (ranging from 0 months to 7 months) to find a new job.

This year, make sure to differentiate yourself with credentials that are worth their weight in gold. Decorate your name with PMP® or CAPM®, and bring on the holiday cheer.

About the Know How Network and Cheetah Learning

The Know How Network is a monthly column written by Michelle LaBrosse, the founder and Chief Cheetah of Cheetah Learning. Distributed to hundreds of newsletters and media outlets around the world, the Know How Network brings the promise, purpose and passion of Project Management to people everywhere. Visit www.cheetahlearning.com to learn more about Cheetah PM, the fastest way to learn about Project Management and get your PMP. You can also get your career in gear with CheetahWare, free Project Management tools from Cheetah Learning.

About the Author

Michelle LaBrosse is the founder and Chief Cheetah of Cheetah Learning. An international expert on accelerated learning and Project Management, she has grown Cheetah Learning into the market leader for Project Management training and professional development. In 2006, The Project Management Institute, www.pmi.org, selected Michelle as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the World, and only one of two women selected from the training and education industry. Michelle is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Owner & President Management program for entrepreneurs, and is the author of Cheetah Project Management and Cheetah Negotiations. Cheetah Learning is a virtual company and has 100 employees, contractors, and licensees worldwide.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011 and is filed under CAPM, Certification, 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.

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