Something’s been building up at work. You’ve been there, what, nearly 7 years now. Started as a junior, spent many late nights, grinding away, not saying a word as your manager piled on more work. It’s how everyone gets ahead, you tell yourself. You had been patient and thankfully, it paid off. While your direct manager was off playing golf, you got closer to your skip manager, who appreciated your timely reports, as well as the detailed insights that answered her questions before she even asked them.
It’s come to a head where, she’s called you into her office. HR’s there. You’re a bit nervous; was there something that you shared around that shouldn’t have? Very quickly, you realize that you have no cause for concern: she’s looking to promote you, starting with formalizing your project management experience by paying for the PMP Certification online for you! You can’t help but feel like Will Smith at the end of “Pursuit of Happyness”.
This scenario won’t happen for everyone. You are likely going to have to work hard (which I’m sure you’re doing anyway) and walk down one of two paths if you want this valuable certification on your resume. You are not alone – I’ll tell you watch each path looks like below.
Path 1 – Street Smart
If you found yourself wondering how the hell I knew about your work history, don’t worry. I’m not spying on you, nor am I a scammer. I just applied some creative liberty to the life of what I like to call a Street Smart Project Manager.
Street Smart project managers are that breed of PM who are thrown into the deep end of a project and not only swim, they break records. They just have a knack of figuring out how to get the many pieces of the project in the right places, then getting to operate and hum like clockwork.
They might have only finished high school or a diploma and come straight out into the workforce because they couldn’t stand theory and just wanted to learn by doing. I’ve got good news and bad news.
Bad news is that you can’t escape the theory forever. While it can be dry, it does underpin why the work, works. You have to do 35 hours of accredited study to make sure your understanding of project management is up to scratch. The good thing is that because you’ve walked the walk, it should be common sense now, especially for all the hours you’ve worked.
Speaking of hours worked, you should have clocked up 5 years’ of full-time hours. This will have to be verified by the PMI, so don’t even try to fudge this. That’s 5 years’ of full-time work within the last 8 years. No problem for someone as hard working as you.
Path 2 – Book Smart
Path 2, I call the Book Smart Project Manager. Now, you might be led to believe that this person is very much a fan of theory and not great at execution. This is far from the truth.
It’s worth clarifying here that no matter if you’re Path 1 or 2, you have to have banked up years worth of live project management experience. If you’re on Path 2, you need to have done a 4-year university degree. This showcases that you have an appetite for learning (and patience!). This then means that you don’t have to have worked as many hours as Path 1: just 36 months (3 years) of full-time project management in the last 8 years.
Also, just like Path 1, you need to complete 35 PDUs, which is 35 hours of recognized study that cleans up your knowledge so that it’s on par with the standard expected by the PMI in the current day and age. This is because standards improve all the time. What you studied at uni years ago might be somewhat applicable, but not account for improvements in technology, or new standards.
There you have it. You’re either going to be a Path 1 or a Path 2, mostly depending on whether you started working straight out of high school or did tertiary study. Either way, you’ve got a challenge in front of you that is the PMP. Enjoy it, it will push you, but that’s how you know you’re growing.