I need advice.

You definitely shouldn't bother with the CAPM certification as that is oriented towards entry level PMs. I took the PM exam at about 20 years experience and there wasn't anything that I was not very familiar with other than the PMI taxonomy for PM related activities. I got a PMP certification because I believe it makes my experience more portable by demonstrating in know the industry standard methods instead of just how we did things at my former employers.

Your credentials far exceed what is required to earn a PMP, however that doesn't mean you will pass a resume screening program or HR employee deciding which to pass on to the hiring manager and which end up in the round file. I have been hired for jobs where PMP wasn't mentioned at all, but where I later found out that it was indeed part of the filtering process.

Peter, I do agree with Keith. You definitely should go the PMP directly and not bother with the CAPM. More or less, the study material for both exams is the same but the exam is different where it is scenario and experience based for the PMP and knowledge based for the CAPM.

As part of the application, you should complete 35 educational hours (a course) and you can take a self-paced course online and complete it at your own pace. Here is what I recommend you do:

1) Read through the Exam Content Outline (ECO), PMBOK 6th Edition (Including the Agile Extension as lots of questions are Agile / Hybrid based) and then read the PMBOK 7th edition (it is a small book). Alternatively, you can read through the ECO, PMBOK 7th edition and then go through the new Process Groups Practice Guide.

2) Go through Rita Mulchay’s Exam Prep book, I think its 11th edition now, but double check. This is one of the best resources for exam preparation.

3) After you are done, purchase the Simulator Package through PM Prep Cast and practice as much as you can. This is a great simulator and resource for questions that mimic the real exam and will boost your confidence the more you practice.

4) If you want a course to fulfill your 35 Hours then check Joseph Phillips on Udemy. He is a PMI ATP and great instructor or check out PMI's self-paced course in the PMI Store.

Hope this helps - Let me know if you have further questions - Good Luck!

You definitely shouldn't bother with the CAPM certification as that is oriented towards entry level PMs. I took the PM exam at about 20 years experience and there wasn't anything that I was not very familiar with other than the PMI taxonomy for PM related activities. I got a PMP certification because I believe it makes my experience more portable by demonstrating in know the industry standard methods instead of just how we did things at my former employers.

Your credentials far exceed what is required to earn a PMP, however that doesn't mean you will pass a resume screening program or HR employee deciding which to pass on to the hiring manager and which end up in the round file. I have been hired for jobs where PMP wasn't mentioned at all, but where I later found out that it was indeed part of the filtering process.

Peter, you don't actually need to DO the 35hrs of coursework, you can just let a Udemy course run for 35hrs and get the certificate for it :)

But, in case you need to freshen up the foundations then the 35hrs structured courses are a great way to do it.

As some of my more experienced colleagues mentioned, the exam can be a bit hard for someone with too much experience as the real world project management can differ from what the PMI theory preaches and requires to be used in the exam.

Good luck :)