My work is sending me to get PMP certified. I am in the process of filing out my application at this point. Just curious if anyone here is certified and how difficult was the exam? From everything I have been reading online, it is pretty tough.
My work is sending me to get PMP certified. I am in the process of filing out my application at this point. Just curious if anyone here is certified and how difficult was the exam? From everything I have been reading online, it is pretty tough.
Is this something you already have to be a PM to earn or can you earn it to help your resume? I'd like to become a project manager at some point.
Railroad PM here. Currently heading up a roughly $20 million rail project, with more coming.
I started my railroad career with NS. After about 3 years, I left to manage a transit startup. Did that for 6 years, now I'm private.
I started off as a drafter 4 years ago and just got promoted to Project Coordinator about 5 months ago to coordinate the projects for the engineering, purchasing, and CAD departments. Within 3 weeks of starting, I was thrown onto managing one of our new product launches whose status was as red as you could get. Within 2 weeks of that I was put onto managing a program where we're launching 12 new products in just barely over a year. So I went from drafter to project coordinator to project manager to program manager within 2-3 months. I'm currently working on getting my CAPM because I don't have a bachelor's and moved too quickly to get my contact hours. If this program I'm managing is successful next year, I'm going to have my work petition for me to bypass the contact hours to get a PMP or PgMP. Another problem I'm experiencing with moving too quickly is that I'm just barely above my drafter pay, approx. $46k/year, but now I'm 3 levels above that. If you guys don't mind me asking, what kind of pay range are you at and what should I push for with the following credentials to get a fairer pay rate?
Degrees:
Associates in Business
Associates in Arts
Certifications:
Six Sigma Green Belt (1 of 4 people in company with six sigma certification)
CAPM (only certified PM in the company)
Experience:
4+ years w/ company
Successfully pulled a product launch in the "hot-potato-effect" on track and into green status.
Direct a program level product launches spanning across 11 different products within 1 year. Only PM managing at a program level.
Program team includes 26+ members. All other project managers have less than 6 members on their team. Company size is 325.
Report directly to the CEO of the company but technically work under the VP of Design and Purchasing. All other PM's report directly to their VP's.
Established a set process for all product launches in the future.
Program budget is sitting approximately $4million.
Program will get us in a $3billion market.
Authority level: can hold VP executives accountable for missed dates and not working cohesively.
CEO and president declared it as the highest budgeted and most intense project in my company's history.
Company investors are aware of project and that I'm managing the program.
I assume I'm doing pretty well especially considering I'm very new to this and this intensity of the projects because of the critique I get from my most immediate officer and the CEO of the company.
Depends on the industry you're in, I would say, as well as location. I may have missed that in your post, but didn't see it.
FWIW, as a PMP, starting out running large change management projects, I was at 85k excluding incentives. I had an engineering background though, and had 4yrs of experience doing Systems Engineering on aircraft. Most of my projects were Engineering and Aircraft related. I would venture to say that if you're in aerospace, retail or manufacturing, that pay level is about on par with what you should be compensated.
That being said, oil&gas, or tech, a project coordinator should net more than that. In my "consulting" days, I worked with software companies and construction companies and their PMs were pulling in 100-130k, but they were very good and managed high-risk opps....
It sounds like Machdup might have more exposure to this kind of thing, so take my comments with a grain of salt.
I started off as a drafter 4 years ago and just got promoted to Project Coordinator about 5 months ago to coordinate the projects for the engineering, purchasing, and CAD departments. Within 3 weeks of starting, I was thrown onto managing one of our new product launches whose status was as red as you could get. Within 2 weeks of that I was put onto managing a program where we're launching 12 new products in just barely over a year. So I went from drafter to project coordinator to project manager to program manager within 2-3 months. I'm currently working on getting my CAPM because I don't have a bachelor's and moved too quickly to get my contact hours. If this program I'm managing is successful next year, I'm going to have my work petition for me to bypass the contact hours to get a PMP or PgMP. Another problem I'm experiencing with moving too quickly is that I'm just barely above my drafter pay, approx. $46k/year, but now I'm 3 levels above that. If you guys don't mind me asking, what kind of pay range are you at and what should I push for with the following credentials to get a fairer pay rate?
Dang, $65k as a drafter pay...I missed out on that. lolHow ironic, I too started out as a Drafter for my company (aerospace) and they're moving me to Project Coordinator. My dad is a PM and talked me into getting certified. Luckily, work agreed to pay for it.
I'm currently at $65k (still on drafter pay too) and have been with my company for 2 years and 3 months. I have a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice and 6 or 7 drafting certifications.
PM's around the Houston area average $80-90k starting out. So I'm hoping after I get certified (still in the process of filling out my application), my pay will get bumped up as well.
I have a PMO office that reports to me with lots of PMP's. The exam is one of the toughest industry exams. First you have to be eligible:
PMP Certification Eligibility Criteria
Eligibility Requirement Four-Year Degree Secondary Degree*
Years of Project Management Experience 3 Years (36 Months) 5 Years (60 Months)
Hours Leading & Directing Projects 4,500 Hours 7,500 Hours
Hours of Project Management Education 35 Hours 35 Hours
The first time failure rate is very high. Highly recommend finding a PMP boot camp and attending, then studying and then taking the test. Forget anything you know about PM work and only concentrate on how they (PMI) want you to answer the questions.
After you have attended your boot camp and studied, you might want to look at something like this to get a feel for the test (hint, hint):
http://www.pass4sure.com/PMP.html
I also recommend hooking up with your local PMI chapter and seeing if you can't find a mentor to help you through the process.
Outstanding and Congrats.So I took my certification exam on Saturday and I passed. I'm the first and only PM in my company that has any PM certification and they made me a full fledged Project Manager instead of a Project Coordinator. They doubled my pay rate as well so it's been a pretty good month.