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Maintaining My Credential - Planning Ahead
| It's almost ironic. I work for a smaller company than I have in years, and they have more commitment to my personal and professional development than any corporate entity I have worked for. My last employer only talked about what my new employer is doing. What am I talking about? In this case, I am talking about sending me to the Professional Development Day for our local PMI chapter, coming up in September. Here come a few more PDUs! Okay, that is the wrong attitude. It will also be a great opportunity to possibly learn something new and network with other PM professionals in the area - believe it or not, contributing to the profession is important to me. I feel like I have to mention the PDUs here because that is what I am blogging about. After the event, I will post some info about the experience. As I sit here thinking about ways to plan how I am going to obtain 50 more PDUs in the next 2 1/2 years, I am looking at an ad for the Microsoft Project Conference 2009. A free copy of Project Professional 2010, free certification testing, and 32.25 PDUs is really tempting, but if you are like me, you don't have the budget. Honestly, if I had worked where I work now, last year, I could have requested funding for this event for me and a couple of my teammates, and gotten approval. (I wouldn't mention the ad, except it is here, on GanttHead.) No, I am not a sponsor for the conference. This does lead to my point about planning ahead. Pay attention to conferences and seminars that are next year, or the year after. Plant the seed with your boss now. My real intent in talking about planning ahead, though, is to encourage deliberate planning of what you will do, each year, to maintain your credential. With what is left of 2009 I will be attending 3 more 1 PDU webinars (already scheduled) that I found through my local PMI chapter's website, and at least one 1 PDU webinar offered here on GanttHead - I just received an email re: a project portfolio management webinar and know what I will be doing after I post this blog... That gives me 6 so far, this year. I'm still bummed that I lost out on the opportunity to earn at least 20 PDUs, for free with a time commitment, this year because we moved, and more in subsequent years, but you can't plan for everything. Whew. That was a mouthful. I need to doublecheck, but I think the Professional Development Day will give me another 8 PDUs, and I am sure to pick up a couple more 1 PDU webinars and another local chapter luncheon (they seem to do them quarterly, here), so that will be at least 17 PDUs my first year. On a side note, if you care, make sure that any webinars you take are from registered education providers (REPs). That way you don't waste your self directed learning PDUs. I believe that I have mentioned, before, that I don't like to give free advertising to companies and promote their products. With that in mind, I am going to mention a company's product, but not the company name. If you want the name, send me an email and I will send you the company name and website. I plan on almost doubling the amount of PDUs I have mentioned, so far, just by watching some videos. I have purchased, ON SALE, video training for Project Management and MS Project - 1 set for each topic. I need to doublecheck, but I am fairly certain that I can meet my 15 PDU quota for self directed learning with these 2 sets. It won't be all fun and games, though. I also need to takes notes and record the dates (and I think hours) that I view the training. A small price to pay, but that puts me over 30 PDUs my first year. Remember, if you email me for the company name, ONLY BUY THEIR VIDEOS ON SALE. They go on sale often, even though the sales people won't tell you that. Yes, I found out the hard way, with the expensive training. But wait, there's more... Because I spent a few months out of work, I will be cutting it close, but if I put in some overtime I am pretty sure I can hit the 1500 hours of PM experience that I will need to claim 5 more PDUs, this year. That will put me at 35+ for the first year, and then 10 more over the next 2 years (total 45+), leaving me with only 15 PDUs left to plan. I figure there will be at least 8 more 1 PDU luncheons over the next 2 years, but there is no guarantee I will be able to make all of them. There will also likely be 2 more 8 PDU professional development days. If I can get approval for them, I'll be set. Of course, I will be sure to squeeze in a few more 1 PDU webinars, from REPs. I also hope to publish an article, or two. I am going to wait until year three to publish, though. I am involved with a couple of unique projects that could prove interesting to write about, and worth reading. I will need time to research and organize my thoughts. More importantly, I want to make sure that I pass the 60 PDU mark during my third year so that I can roll over the extra PDUs. This is another reason I am completing the self directed learning PDUs my first year - I don't think they can roll over. But you can roll over up to 20 PDUs, of certain kinds as identified in the PMP handbook. If I can get 80 PDUs and roll over 20 of them, I'll only need 40 new PDUs during the next 3 year cycle, although I'll probably try for 50-60 so that I can roll 10-20 over, next time. You see, I am not just planning ahead for this 3 year cycle. I could take the approach of "work hard this cycle and then take it easy the next cycle," but I have a limited training budget for training classes and can't keep buying training videos every three years. Once I start writing, I hope to get published more than once every two years, but there is no guarantee that it will be easy to get more than 40 in coming years - too much depends on external factors, like employers having the funds to send me to conferences. I think that, in addition to getting published regularly, I am going to work on getting myself into the position where I can teach PM classes, again. I am currently a COMPTIA Certified Classroom Trainer (CTT+). If I can pass the Microsoft Project exam(s) I can qualify to become a Microsoft Certified Trainer. With my MBA, PMP, and PM experience, I am also qualified to teach as an adjunct professor at several technical schools, both brick-and-mortar, and online. To be honest, I have been planning ahead to maintain my credential for several years. The 1 PDU webinars and conferences are great ways to get PDUs, but it is the teaching and publishing that will be my long term source for maintaining my credential. My point? When you think ahead about maintaining your credential, don't just think about the next three years. Think about how you are going to contribute to the profession over the course of your career. Things that you want to do simply because you enjoy them could end up earning you a significant amount of PDUs. Good luck in your efforts, and feel free to leave comments regarding how you maintain your credential and contribute to the profession. |
Posted on: August 15, 2009 01:30 AM
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Maintaining my Credential
| I decided to use my existing blog to address maintaining my credential. I hope to make this more than just a travelog of my misadventures, and hopefully offer some helpful tips. I am also going to try and keep my entries short - I do tend to ramble, sometimes. Before my wife and I decided to move out of California, I had attended a "Train the Trainer" class offered by my local chapter of PMI. The class and PDU's were free, on the condition that I then volunteer to teach the PMP Prep class offered by said chapter, earning even more free PDUs. This was one of the harder things to give up - doing this for three years would have taken care of most of the PDUs needed. I even gave up the PDUs from the original class because I could not keep my commitment. Sigh. Time to get creative. Okay, not time for creativity, yet. I'll start with some suggestions re: how I will get PDUs and how I would if I were still in California. Getting one PDU at a time is easy. If your local PMI chapter has lunch or dinner events, GO. You get a PDU, dinner, and networking with other professionals in similar or related fields. If you can convince your company to pay for the events, even better. Here, in Utah, we have lunchtime events. I like these for the reasons listed above, but also because I can go during the day. Night-time events are more challenging for my schedule. In California there were dinner events, which I was never able to make it to. Our local chapter also had breakfast roundtables where, for the price of breakfast, we were able to break into groups and discuss 2-3 issues that people at the table were dealing with for an hour. It was a great way to network and learn more about other PM's experiences. I am tempted to suggest starting these here in Utah. Another way to get an easy PDU, usually for free, is to participate in webinars. A lot of companies offer them. They generally take 45 minutes to an hour, during the day, and they are free. They are often offered by vendors, so there is sometimes a little salespitch at the end, but the better webinars focus more on project management tools and/or processes than on trying to sell you on their particular tools or services. I'll see if I can come up with some more creative ways to earn PDUs in my next post, and I'll be more specific, if I can, so that you too can take advantage of the opportunity if it is something offered by a third party. |
Posted on: August 06, 2009 10:31 PM
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Follow Up
| Instead of starting another blog discussing the differences in the results of my job search both before and after achieving PMP status, I have started a blog on another site that focuses on job hunting irrespective of profession. I may still write about my efforts to maintain my credential, but I thought I would add one last discussion to this post about the impact of the PMP on my job search. |
Posted on: July 30, 2009 10:28 PM
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Week 26 - Post Exam Update
| It's almost anti-climactic, but I passed!!! I think I must have smiled for at least 10 minutes straight after getting the results. My face still hurts, a little. Next on my list is a well-deserved vacation and spending time with my family. Time to wrap up this blog. I have a couple of different ideas for what to do next. The top 2 I am debating on are 1) maintaining the credential, and 2) job hunting, with some discussion about the differences in the result in my searching both before and after achieving PMP status. Thanks for following my journey. I hope it helps you on yours. Happy Holidays! |
Posted on: December 22, 2008 04:21 PM
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Week 25 - Pre-Test Anxiety
| Well, this is it. Tomorrow I find out if I am able to turn all of the experience and study into the correct answers on the exam. I would say, “Wish me luck,” but it is not about luck at this point. I won’t call it “skill” either, but if it were just about luck there would be a lot more PMPs out there. I had a run in with pre-test anxiety earlier this week. I started to get stressed out to the point that I could not study, and if I tried, I could not remember what I studied. I am not going to go through a litany of stress relieving techniques, but I will say that sometimes you just need to step away for a little bit, clear your head, and then get back into it. The key is getting back into it, and the longer you delay the harder it will be. Am I going to do more studying today? Contrary to advice in exam prep books I have been studying, I will. I am going to practice Earned Value a little – EAC is the formula that will likely cause me the most trouble. I am going to review contract types a little. And I am going to take a practice exam. To be honest, I could study the next 12 hours straight and still not feel highly confident, but that is just me and taking tests. At this point, I really can’t expect to learn anything new that I will still remember tomorrow, so it is really about taking a relaxed approach to studying and reviewing what I already know to keep it fresh in my mind for tomorrow. Perhaps the most important thing I can practice today is my memory dump sheet – the first thing I want to write down before I start my test, tomorrow morning. After writing about this for the past several months, I better pass. I would hate to have my next entry be about failing the exam. There I go, creating more stress for myself. Wish me plenty of sleep tonight and a clear head in the morning! |
Posted on: December 21, 2008 05:35 PM
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