Have a PMP? Get in here

Congrats! Yeah, the exam can be a bit intense.

Now the fun PDU fun starts!

Appleseed wrote: You can now start calling anyone you disagree with, "FOO!" or "SUCKA."

Awww yea! Big PMP'n!

Appleseed wrote: You can now start calling anyone you disagree with, "FOO!" or "SUCKA."

That works great. See my note from a few months ago above.

Congratulations! I'm going to sit for mine in August next year. Can't wait to be done.

6 year old thread zombified by spammer

Being a post whore, this was too hard to resist.

Ended up doing project management most of my career without even known that I was a project manager. I was just getting the job done with the people and resources I had. 

I think it's like being a Realtor (TM). You can sell houses without being anointed a House Seller, but everyone wants that accreditation for their resume.

I don't remember if I got my PMP or not. Took some classes while working as a PM, then went on to other stuff. I don't remember if I ever sat for the test. My wife worked as the PM on $20MM airport reconstructions, she is not a PMP. Just experienced.

Dr. Hess said:

I worked with one of those project managers once. He would always say "The first thing they teach you in project manager school is..." I was writing SQL. There was a spec for the SQL to be written for the database. The data structure was all wrong. The data didn't fit what they had spec'ed out. I told this guy that and after about 5 emails back and forth (him in Toronto, me in Arkansas), he finally emails "I don't care if it's wrong, you code it the way it's written!" So I did. And forwarded his email all up the food chain to the EVP level, who told me on the phone "If that EVER happens again, let me know immediately." After it blew up and they asked me to just fix it, I told my boss that I was never, ever, going to work with that guy again and they could fire me, I didn't care. My boss said that everyone else on the team had already told him that. That guy went away. A year or so later, I get a request to work with this guy and there's that name again. I started in with "no chance in hell..." and immediately got "No, no, it's a different guy. Same name, different middle initial. Really, different guy..."

So, umm, good luck and all that, and listen to the people actually doing the work.

Truth.  PMP, PMBOK and the rest can give you tools but how you utilize them will determine your success.  Once had an alphabet soup of a PM (all the accredation letters after his name) on a project who insisted the developers give him a firm quote on price and timeline.  Ok, fair enough, except the meeting was to discuss the user requirments which had not been properly established or documented.  The developer politely told them that they must first have requirements.   His response was "we'll get you requirements, but we need to know what it will cost and how long it will take first"  
I'd like to say that was the worst PM I've dealt with....
OP, learn it, but dont stress it.  If personal experience is any indication as long as you have a decent sense of organization and can communicate effectively you'll be better than the average PM.

Since this was bumped by spam, I'm curious if the OP could give an update.  Did the material in the course help you in our career much?  What about the letters you get to add to your resume?

ProDarwin said:

Since this was bumped by spam, I'm curious if the OP could give an update.  Did the material in the course help you in our career much?  What about the letters you get to add to your resume?

I will say, having just a PMP w/o any experience isn't going to land you a job. Much better off taking a junior PM position at a small company

Zombie thread, but a few tips for others: Don't forget that you have to renew it every 3 years. The PMI website offers free credits but they have them buried in the "learning materials" section.

If anyone else is going to take the exam: Memorize the formulas and brain dump them onto your note sheet as soon as the test starts. Also get very comfortable with ambiguity. Many questions are in the format "which of these is worst/best", with every answer fitting the prompt to various degrees.