PMP Certification… Is it worth the effort and money?

Posted By Pankaj on December 4, 2007
Filed Under PMP | 1 Comment

I think, it certainly is and especially if it is mandated by your employer or sponsored by the organization (or anyone else for that matter :).

But what if you have to pay every bit of the cost to acquire the certificate from your pocket, in which case I am sure you might get a bit reluctant as obtaining this particular certificate is not easy ( preparation effort & time could be intense) and definitely costs a lot.

So how does one decide if the PMP certification makes sense for you or whether to give it a pass? First let’s see what it means to be PMP certified. As I heard in the Episode 2 of THE PM PODCAST hosted by Cornelius Fichtner, PMP that having a PMP certification only means that

1. You have some education in project management
2. You have been able to prove that that you have some expierence in project management
3. You have been able to pass the PMP test

It certainly does not mean that you are a great project manager but it can definitely fuel your career growth in all possible respects. To name few of the benefits… it can fetch you more money, it can get you the desired job change (so many job requirements states that PMP certification is desirable or required), it can increase the respect towards you from your peers and subordinates and it definitely makes one feel proud :).

Apart from all the above, the biggest benefit I think is that the PMP certification can help you do your job better that is the winning benefit from my point of view.

So if you can afford it and serious about your career, go for it and be a PMP certified project manager.

Procrastination… Probably the worst enemy of productivity

Posted By Pankaj on December 3, 2007
Filed Under Productivity | Leave a Comment

…And I think everyone gets victimized by this habit of procrastination from time to time. What is it and why people end up doing it? As I understand, procrastination is keep postponing or putting off the work which needs to be done now. Why we procrastinate? Reasons could be anything but some of the prominent reasons which I can think from top of my head could be …

- Not many ideas of doing the work hence not able to decide how to go about it
- Too many ideas of doing the same work and not able to decided which way to go about it.
- Waiting for the right mood or right time to arrive
- Too many distractions or other type of attractions around you
- Trying to be a perfectionist (Trying to do the work in the most perfect way and hence not completing it)
- Too busy in doing things which are not so important
- Task is too big that is can not be done in given time
- Task is too small and can be done anytime
- Not enough skills to do the job
- Not motivated enough to do the task

There could be many more and probably different reasons for different persons. For me, number 5 (Perfectionism) is the biggest culprit but other contributes (in negativity, of-course) as well.

How do we overcome this habbit of ours? I would say that the most important thing in overcoming the procrastination is the realization of its existence. Once that done, you could find the reason of it and then take appropriate steps to fight it out. For example, break down the big tasks in smaller ones, acquire skills to do the job, make a list of all tasks needing attention and prioritize them in sequence of their importance, finish the job first and then later worry about making it perfect, take a break and get away with distractions (attractions elsewhere) and the list goes on and on…

Feel free to share your experiences by posting comments….

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