After many years of doing it, I guess now I am officially certified to do it 😁 I wrote my PMP and they have confirmed that I passed. But why now…. after so many years being in this profession why get a certification now…. Here is why…

I first heard about PMP in 2000 during a banking project in the middle east when I met a Project Manager with a PMP. The person who introduced us highlighted the PMP part. Back then there were not a lot of folks who had the certification. But being in a sales role I did not care much. Who wants to be a PM….

Fast forward 23 years after several jobs, unsuccessful business attempts and doing a complete career transition from sales to Program Management and Agile Coaching 15 years back, I got laid off last year along with our entire agile group. I was unemployed for close to 3 months.

During my job search, I also got time for some soul searching about life and work. My job search made me realize that certifications can add value at such times. Especially to expand and enhance our employability in a dynamic job market,

I had a bunch of agile certifications but I heard many job ads ask if the applicant had a PMP. I had always avoided PMP as it was said to be way tough to get with a 4 hour long 175 questions exam. I was also unsure if I can be disciplined enough to prepare and clear an exam.

During this time I read that as we get older it is good to take up learning assignments every now and then. PMP sounded a good assignment especially with its long lasting stand in the industry.

I enrolled for the mandatory PMP training. But soon I got a new job that was purely in the agile space and I conveniently forgot about PMP. Recently I realized that my one year to do the exam is getting over.

Last 6 weeks I spent time learning. The PMP exam content now includes a lot of Agile concepts and that did help me tremendously. I also subscribed to the PMI Studyhall and went over 6 or 7 full length practice tests. I tried learning from learning materials and books, but doing the practice tests is what helped me.

I know that so many people have done it. The question is not who all have done it, what matters is did we do it and what is the story behind it it for us. We all need different stories and different versions of the same stories to tell ourselves in order to survive and feel better.

Sometimes I think we are all just storytellers and there are no certifications for that 🥰