Something About Why I Chose to Take the PMP
I am in the IT industry (not a programmer), and I often travel to foreign companies. So apart from my day-to-day work, project work has become the focus of my work. Whenever I see a plan from a foreigner, I am always confused. Even with many years of accumulation, I still don’t know what to do in a project cycle.
Considering my long-term career development, I had already studied ITIL before, but decided to do a systematic study of the industry standard project management system. I chose PMP mainly because of the industry I work in and the fact that most IT departments in foreign companies still prefer the waterfall model.
Here is something about enrolling in classes, studying and exams.
I found the PMP training(check that) institute in my city and found SPOTO, which is convenient in terms of location. And the schedule is more suitable for weekend face-to-face classes. After registering for the course, you will receive a very thick textbook in the mail with more than 700 pages. I took the time to read it all first. The content was not difficult, and then I listened carefully to online classes of the teacher of the SPOTO (if there was not enough time you could choose one or the other).
After that, I listened to the teacher of the SPOTO, who had his own lecture notes. Due to the epidemic, I switched to online classes after a few times. The class of the SPOTO is humorous and interesting. Probably the content is also about the IT industry, so it’s not stressful to listen and understand especially fast. If I were to catch up, I would give up the live lectures and choose the recorded online lectures at 2X speed.
Due to the epidemic, the exam was delayed again and again. So there was a lot of time to read it for a few more times. I can follow the course in the middle of the year. Even if I don’t do it by myself, I can just watch the recorded lectures. Because the lectures of SPOTO are first given, and then I can pause and think about the answers before continuing to listen to the analysis. Personally, I think this is better than doing the questions yourself and then checking the answers.
All questions can be done online. But personally, I used the answer card template of SPOTO for the last 2 weeks to get used to using pencils to highlight and colour in the answer sheets. (I haven’t experienced this since the GCSE. But it’s important.)
In the end, the exam was really tough and proved to be a bitter pill to swallow as risk management was not done properly. As the exam centre was far away and there was overnight construction near the hotel where I stayed the day before the exam, I only got 2 hours of sleep before the exam.
Although I had no choice but to persevere and finish the exam. (PS: The control during the epidemic was still very strict, which invariably increased the preparation work.)
Thoughts after studying PMP:
Combined with the project management knowledge I learned, I have applied the knowledge in PMP to the projects I participated in and managed during the year (the cycle was very long because of the epidemic), which really made the work more standardized and avoided many risks. And the course also covers knowledge points that you can extend and apply to other areas. For example, Pareto diagrams are in the area of quality knowledge, but you can still use this thinking to the IT perspective, considering how to solve most business needs with the least amount of time and cost.
All in all, learning the PMP is a worthwhile “project” that will be of great value for future work and self-improvement. Finally, I would like to thank SPOTO and the teacher of the SPOTO.
What is PMP?
PMP refers to the Project Management Professional (Personnel) credential.
The Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam held by the Project Management Institute (PMI) of the United States is promoted in more than 190 countries and regions around the world, and is currently the most prestigious certification in the field of project management.
These people are suitable for taking the PMP certificate.
- People who are ready to take the PMP qualification exam
- Senior and middle managers of enterprises, managers of various departments.
- Project managers, project supervisors, system managers, system integration engineers, system development engineers, and project team members.
- Corporate human resources departments, marketing planners and marketing business people.
- People who are willing to improve their workplace skills and are interested in project management.
Obtaining the PMP certificate not only enhances the project manager’s project management level, but also directly reflects the project manager’s personal competitiveness and is a symbol of the status of project management professionals.
As an important symbol of project management professionals, the PMP certificate is an indispensable certificate for every project manager’s career development.
The certificate is considered a prerequisite for project managers in many companies, especially multinational companies, and is also an essential qualification for project managers in many major project tenders.
There are currently 870,000 PMPs worldwide and more than 180,000 people have passed the PMP certification exam in China. The PMP certificate is gaining more and more popularity among professionals and is known as one of the top three management certificates in the world, alongside MBA and MPA.
