Hello Folks,
I have been QE quality Eng for the last 10+ years and am Interested in transitioning into TPM. I am not working right now. My friends told me about PMP certification if I want to transition. I also see other certifications: CAPM, PgMP, and PMP. Which ones are good? So I can find a job sooner. I like more online classes or in-person. Are there any good institute recommendations?
I am excited to hear back your suggestion. Thank you very much. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Puneet
From what I understood from what you’ve mentioned, and you can correct me if I am wrong, you don’t have Project Management experience yet and in this case, you can’t apply for PMP (you need minimum 3 years of experience) and neither for PgMP (you need 8 years program management experience plus PM experience) so your only option is CAPM which is the entry certificate for individuals new to project management.
For CAPM, you can review all requirements on PMI website. PMI offers an online course or you can buy a course on Udemy (I recommend Jospeh Phillips courses).
It depends on the nature of your engineering work. Quality improvement efforts are often projectized. When quality issues are found, the solutions can be very involved. You need to be able to explain your relevant experience in terms of PM skills however, not the engineering skills. Leading six sigma projects for example is an excellent fit if you consider it from the perspective of the DMAIC process rather than the statistical skills.
I got all my experience either from leading engineering projects, or as an engineering team lead where projects are more focused on engineering process improvement than the end products themselves. Saving Changes...
Thanks, Rk and Keith, for your responses. I may not have had the project manager title in the past but I have led many projects from the quality side of things from start to end. Understanding requirements Risk Assessment Write test strategy Test plan Test execution and post support. I have led many org-wide process improvements like standardization of technical documents, planning, and running training programs with eng org. Is that enough to qualify to take the PMP exam? I have been handling such projects for 5+ years. Thanks for your help.
...
1 reply by Keith Novak
Sep 11, 2023 8:19 PM
Keith Novak
...
Those are many of the types of PM experiences I had as well in design engineering and R&D. Since engineering roles require a degree, that should meet your 36 month requirement without cutting it too close.
I rarely had the job title of PM myself either as it was often confused with administrative roles. Even now I am a "Program Integration Manager", which is really a technical PM by PMI's standards who's projects can involve nearly anything and have had various other titles intended to signify a leader of technical initiative projects.
With experience in the engineering planning, training, and process standardization, you could easily qualify as a member of my own team at Boeing focused on improvements to preparing planes for flight test and delivery.
Thanks, Rk and Keith, for your responses. I may not have had the project manager title in the past but I have led many projects from the quality side of things from start to end. Understanding requirements Risk Assessment Write test strategy Test plan Test execution and post support. I have led many org-wide process improvements like standardization of technical documents, planning, and running training programs with eng org. Is that enough to qualify to take the PMP exam? I have been handling such projects for 5+ years. Thanks for your help.
Those are many of the types of PM experiences I had as well in design engineering and R&D. Since engineering roles require a degree, that should meet your 36 month requirement without cutting it too close.
I rarely had the job title of PM myself either as it was often confused with administrative roles. Even now I am a "Program Integration Manager", which is really a technical PM by PMI's standards who's projects can involve nearly anything and have had various other titles intended to signify a leader of technical initiative projects.
With experience in the engineering planning, training, and process standardization, you could easily qualify as a member of my own team at Boeing focused on improvements to preparing planes for flight test and delivery. Saving Changes...
Hi Puneet, Basically PMP is for practitioners, not for a transition to the profession. I think it’s also quite challenging exam, requiring firm preparation. There are many other certificates more suitable for people considering project management as new profession, even already mentioned CAMP.
It seems from the discussion, that you could gather 36 months of experience in past 8 years. As other colleagues already said it’s not about the title, but the experience. You could give it a try to see if your experience is good enough for the exam (though if not – rejected application stops you for 1 year for PMP only) I would recommend you to do the following exercise: 1. Review the PMP Exam Content Outline, PMP Exam Preparation and other relevant information at www.pmi.org 2. Watch some YouTube videos explaining how to prepare your application 3. Try to describe your experience in a form of application document to see If the requirements are met (or how close you are). Then if you are confident with you experience, you will place the application form and see the decision in 5 days. If accepted, you will have time to prepare yourself for the exam.
I recommend Rita Mulcahy's certification prep, it's a good option to acquire PM Knowledge at your own pace, and is updated to the latest exam. Visit this link:
https://rmcls.com/about/rita-mulcahy Saving Changes...
Community Champion
