Felicia WarnerPM Specialist| City of ChicagoChicago, Il, United States
I recently just received my PMP and just wondering what should I focus on next. Any suggestions? I was thinking about other certifications like Azure. Saving Changes...
What do YOU want to do (career-wise)? Certifications are there to augment or amplify the experience you have to help you further your career, but if you haven't defined what that next role is, in what industry or with what types of project and in what location, then it would be pretty difficult to provide any guidance.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Felicia
I tend to agree with Kiron's feedback but if you still don't have a clearly defiend career path, an Agile credential would be benefitial for you as it applies for most industries these days.
I believe a good place to start is with the current role that you have. See how much of the theory of Project Management that you just learned, that you can apply for real. Learn by doing it.
Meanwhile, spend some time structuring your next move, answering the questions that Kiron mentions above.
I agree with Kiron. It depends on your career path, job market and so on. Saving Changes...
Felicia WarnerPM Specialist| City of ChicagoChicago, Il, United States
Thanks for the suggestion and feedback. Just a little about me. I've been a PM for the government for over 25 years. I have my Master in Health Informatics and I really enjoyed implementing an EMR within the FQHC area. I have work to do figure out my next steps. Again, thanks for the feedback. Saving Changes...
Since you have enough experience, you can do the next step by acquiring a certification or diploma that best adjusts to your work. If your organization implements Azure, don't doubt to specialize and become an expert in this. Saving Changes...
I faced a similar situation a few years ago, and discussed it with my neighbor who is close to retiring as a career Coast Guard logistics specialist, and entering the private sector. When most or all of your career is with one employer, including the government, one of the reasons people get certs is to demonstrate that their experience is portable and not only relevant to how it was done at that employer. Another is demonstrating that you're still a lifelong learner, and not cruising towards retirement.
You can still learn valuable skills, but often more technical oriented certs are more applicable to less senior employees. At 20+ years, we tend to be leads, coaches, and mentors, and certs help how we market our skills to potential employers.
That is not to say you can't learn valuable new skills that will help your career. When I'm looking at how a highly experienced PM can benefit our team however, I expect the majority of their effort will be leading the technical work of others and working at a strategic level rather than primarily focused on performing the technical tasks. I sometimes use the expression that if I can write an algorithm to do my job, you need my skill to write the algorithm, not to do the job itself. Saving Changes...
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