You might have been browsing and checking online about the benefits of being a Project Management Institute (PMI®) – Project Management Professional (PMP®) Certified. You will see a lot and are all true. Compressing the list further to get you focused on your goal to PMP Certification, taken my personal and professional experiences on my PMP journey here are the points I would share with you.
- Personal Achievement – this is foremost of the benefits I would say, you may or may not have much money, friends, a job, and other things but achievements brings you to the next level, a clear sense of accomplishment. It makes you static, believe more in yourself and gear up to the challenges ahead. Without this certification, I may still be a lowly employee struggling for a promotion. In the government sector, I still remember one of the bosses saying, “You are good for promotion but we cannot proceed unless you have your master’s degree or a certification.” I took this certification path and a day after passing the exam I resigned.
- Increase your market value – why did I resign the day after I passed? Because I know looking at many job sites that opportunities for a PMP Certified individual is a lot. You check it for yourself. Browse through job sites (local or not) type in ‘PMP’ or ‘PMBOK’ or ‘PMI’ and there, you will see how much opportunity you will have when you are certified. The industry is continuously growing as more and more organization realizes the importance of Project Management and having a PMP Certified resource in their roster. It increases an organization’s value by raises its image as a forerunner of a globally accepted standards, that is PMI and the PMBOK.’
- Command higher salary – given the fact that you are certified, you can command higher salary. You can check salary surveys to see how a certified Project Manager salary in a certain area goes and see the difference. In one of the multi-national company that I joined, they even gave me a ‘salary premium’ on top of our agreed figures. And why would companies do that? Because as mentioned above having a PMP Certified individual in their roster raises their industry image as one who adheres to the PMI Global Standards and with that, raises the confidence of their clients which turns to more sales and higher pricing for the company services and offerings.
- Always have options – a lot of professionals feel lack of options after staying with a company for many years, and with that, many succumb to the wall of no return. They opt to just stay in their miserable situation leading to an unhealthy life. With this globally recognized certification, you will always have options not just to go hunt for another job but perhaps engage in more challenging work such as consulting, trainings, and others. Always good having other options, than you being just an option.
- Be recognized – needless to say that recognition equates to compensation, may not be literal but when you are recognized as an expert you get both the soft and hard benefits of being one. Better environment, bigger projects, more exposures are being entrusted to you. Why? Because the organization recognizes you and your expertise and PMP Certification helps to get you there.
There’s a lot more benefits of being Certified PMP than the above, I strongly encourage you to draw you path to PMP Certification.