The website Project Management Tips recently published an article consisting of five reasons to immediately pursue PMP training and certification. Most of the information contained within it was generic and fairly obvious. It pointed out that such a certification would make IT professionals more attractive to current and prospective employers, and would likely lead to substantially higher salaries.
But to the article’s credit, it also included some unique insight into these topics, including the specific figure of 18,500 dollars. That is how much the mean salary of a project manager has been found to increase once he or she acquires PMP training and certification. That figure goes a long way toward highlighting the value of a relevant training program. And the article also notes that that value doesn’t seriously diminish in the face of uncertainties about the trajectory your project management career might take.
That is to say, Project Management Tips notes that PMP training and certification is never specific to a particular set of project management tools; so it will be equally applicable regardless of the institutional structure you find yourself working in. While it may be advisable for you to seek out other forms of information technology training in order to make yourself more adaptable to different professional circumstances, as long as you’re working in the area of project management, PMP training and certification will serve you well.
However, the article also indicates – both directly and implicitly – that there are a handful of disincentives to pursuing PMP training and certification as well. Chief among these, of course, is the hard work that goes into acquiring such a qualification. This was also explained at Project Times, where project manager Fabio Mourao detailed his own months-long process of preparing to pass the PMP exam.
Success in that process is something that is certainly achievable by everyone with a meaningful background in project management. But whatever your previous level of experience, obtaining PMP training and certification is no easy process. Project Management Tips hints at some means by which the process can be made easier, including joining study groups in your local area or even within your own company. These also double as further incentives for pursuing PMP training and certification, in that they project opportunities for networking.
But in discussing that aspect of the process, the article inadvertently highlights inequities in field. Although the rewards promised by additional qualifications are not limited according to geographic area, a person who pursued PMP training and certification in California may have opportunities for collaborative study that are not available to people in rural settings or in foreign territories where there is a demand for information technology professionals but relatively little training infrastructure.
This, of course, is where online information technology training comes into play. As companies offering such training proliferate and acquire more solid reputations in the US and elsewhere, online information training consultancies increasingly act as a great leveler in the field. PMP training and certification is prominent among the courses offered by such companies, and they may even make up for the perceived deficiencies in having little to no access to local study groups.
An online PMP training and certification program allows you to pursue the qualification at your own pace and to form your own study groups with like-minded and similarly experienced people, instead of just with those who happen to be geographically near to you. For many people, this sort of autonomy can more than make up for the disincentives that might otherwise hold them back from acquiring the given certification and reaping the considerable benefits that come with it.