Do You Need PMP Certification?

When it comes to professional certification, there are those who strive to obtain as many certifications as possible and others who strive to attain the highest certification possible. Still others see little value in certification, but rely on experience and formal education. If you are a project manager and are unsure about professional certification, this article is for you.

You may be considering the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI). This is the gold standard of certification for project managers, and requires significant preparation and experience to achieve.

Is it worth the time, study, and professional development needed to prepare for and maintain PMP certification?

Career Potential

If you do an informal analysis of the job boards, you can gauge the potential of your certification in helping you to find your next job. Do a search for "project manager" and see how many results are returned. Next, do a search for "project manager pmp" and compare the results. Make sure that you use the same criteria, like type of position, geographical area, age of postings, etc.

I looked at Dice.com and found that of the 12,764 project manager positions posted in the last 30 days, nationwide, 813 of them (6.4%) required PMP certification. I did similar searches for CISSP and MSCE, and found that they were 5% and 4% respectively.

From this experiment, you can see that it is required for about one in twenty jobs. If you want a shot at these jobs, and an advantage at the other nineteen, consider the edge that PMP certification will give you.

Skills Development

There are many skills and techniques in the project management profession that you will not develop without a goal in front of you. Many project managers have achieved their titles because they know how to get people to work together, to track tasks and owners, and to work through issues. While these skills are important for all project managers, larger, more complicated projects require a honed set of formal skills.

Obtaining the formal education that may be missing from your skills will help you to become a significantly better project manager.

Reputation

Let's face it. There are a lot of project managers. There are just as many who want to become project managers. If you differentiate yourself with professional certification you will gain the respect of your peers, both inside and outside of your company. People who share a common prestigious certification hold a common respect for one another. Those who don't hold it look up to those who do.

Reputation is not built on certification alone; it must be backed with a solid track record of project leadership. But certification is a great place to start, especially certification that combines experience with testing, such as the PMP.

Getting Started

The PMP certification requires you not only to prepare yourself for the six domains of the exam, but also requires 4,500 hours of experience. If you are interested in going further, consider one of the many preparation guides available at Amazon.com and preparation courses. Good luck!