How Do I Get PMP® Certified?

Project Management Professional (PMP)® is one of the most valuable feats for any aspiring or experienced project managers. It is an internationally recognized professional designation given by the project management institute. A PMP certified professional has additional proficiency in project management skills such as project planning, timeline mapping, budget allocation, stakeholder management, troubleshooting, service delivery, etc.

Project management professional certification can give a boost to your project management career in terms of financial growth as well. The studies show that a PMP certified professional would take home almost double of what a non-certified project manager gets on average. In the United States, the numbers can go up to $106k a year . In India, PMP certified professionals can get as much as 20 percent more than non-certified professionals.

PMP Certification Roadmap

There are as many as 1 million certified project management professionals right now. The kind of professional growth it offers demands dedication and equal skills to earn the designation. By now, it must be pretty clear that PMP certification is not available for everyone. It requires specific prerequisites to be able to sit even for the certification exam.

Prerequisites for PMP Certification

The prerequisites can be divided into two parts, where either of the two is necessary before a candidate can apply for the certification.

• You should have a four-year degree
• There is an experience requirement of 36 months of leading a project
• 35 hours of project management training/education or (CAPM)® certification

The other set of prerequisites include:

• A high school diploma or associate degree
• Experience of 60 months leading a project
• 35 hours of project management training/education or CAPM certification

After you are confident that you are eligible in any of the above categories, you can move forward with the application process.

PMP Certification Application Process

After the successful evaluation of eligibility, a candidate will apply for the certification on pmi.org, the official website of the project management institute. The application must contain detailed information about the experience in the following format:

• Employer’s details
• Role and responsibilities during the employment
• Duration of the projects
• Details of the project management training/education including the training hours and course details along with the institutions

After the successful completion of the application, it will be reviewed. After the evaluation is done, the candidate is supposed to submit the examination fee. The examination fee is divided into two parts.

• Member’s Fee - $405 USD
• Non-Member’s Fee - $555 USD

When you join PMI, a membership fee can be paid to get the compensation in the certification exam fee. The PMI membership fee stands at $129 and $10 USD joining fee.  And the benefits can be seen in reexamination fees as well, where the member’s price is $275 USD, and for the non-members, the cost is $375 USD.

PMP Certification Exam Details

After the successful completion of the payment for the examination, a candidate can schedule an exam at the nearest testing site. The exam consists of 200 multiple choice questions that are based on domains, tasks, knowledge, and skill statements. The 5 tested domains are:

• Initiating
• Planning 
• Executing
• Monitoring and Controlling
• Closing 

For further information, you can check the official documentation. Although, there are revisions in the examination format expected by 2nd January 2021. So if you are planning to appear for the PMP certification exam, the last date to appear according to the current version is 31st December 2020.

Maintaining the PMP Certification

After the successful completion of earning the certification i.e clearing the exam, there is a pressing need to grow professionally in order to retain that designation.

Soon after the certification is awarded to the candidate, he/she is required to earn 60 PDUs in a period of 3 years. These PDUs are also divided into Giving back and Education PDUs where a minimum of 35 education PDUs are required and a maximum of 25 Giving back PDUs are required.

A PDU or a professional development unit is nothing but a measure to ensure professional development. A candidate can earn the PDUs post completion of certification by course or training, content creation, volunteering, presentations, etc.

Conclusion

The professionals who have already cleared the certification exam often advise enrolling in an online preparation course provided by accredited training providers such as Invensis Learning. In addition to that a through study of the PMBOK® Guide helps as well. Though passing the eligibility criteria can take a lot of time for some candidates, just the PMBOK terminologies and concepts will not suffice. Structured learning ensures better performance on the certification exam.

Also, the current examination format is only valid until 31st December 2020. Starting from 2nd January 2021, the new exam format will be implemented. So, if you’re aspiring to get PMP certified according to the current examination format, the last date is 31st December 2020.