Hey all, I am an IT professional with 8 years of experience. I complete the Network+ certification in 2001, and the MCSA/MCSE in 2002. This May, I completed my BS in Information Systems from a B&M school, but got a lot of assistance from the UnixMan thread for some CLEP/DANTES exams. My ultimate goal is to become a CIO/CTO, but I have got to start making some career advances in the short term. I have been a network administrator for quite some time (for four companies!), and I do not want to put a fifth company down... because I think it may be what keeps me from advancing. My current position has a lot of opportunity as my IT Manager is not very experienced on the server/infrastructure side, so he really leans on me a lot. As such, I have developed our three year infrastructure plan, a lot of policies, and I am have considerable input on the rest of our three year plan (which includes ERP and CRM changes). I hope that if I stay in this position, I will be promoted within a year to "Senior" Network Administrator, or Network Manager, or something like that. Anyhow, I have a contingency plan if I don't see things going well with this job (which means I don't see a promotion coming). If this years municipal elections go well, I am in quite well with the mayoral candidate that I hope unseats the incumbent. I have already outlined the waste and excess in IT that the city and county have, so I think I could find myself with a good position there, and the opportunity to get better value for the tax dollars that are spent. Beyond that, I am looking into a master's degree program that I may start next fall. In the meantime, I think adding the PMP certification to my belt could assist greatly. Does anyone have any insight into it?
Hi Dus10, The PMP is a good certification and seems to hold a lot of weight in most organizations these days. I'd say 'yes' to the PMP. I'd also suggest, if you can afford to, that you look at an MBA or MS in Management/Business to round off your education and bring some business education to your resume.
Thanks for the thought. Currently, my plan is an MBA, but I am looking at the ALM-IT from Harvard, as well. My undergrad degree is in Information Systems, which is actually a business degree, so I already do have considerable business education; the MBA is just icing on the cake. The only problem is that I want an MBA that is not obviously a distance program, and I would like it to be a top 25. For that, I am looking at considerable cost. Indiana University has an online MBA, and they are top 25. It is about $900/credit hour. Beyond that, I have looked at Northwestern, which has a part-time MBA program that can be completed on Saturdays alone, in about two years. But, that is about $4K per class. So, I am just seeing where things are going to take me in the short term, and see if I will be with an employer that will pay for a significant chunk of my program. My current employer would likely pay up to $500-1000 per quarter, but that isn't going to cover the $8K/quarter in tuition at Northwestern.
I would also say yes to the PMP. That is something I would like to complete (someday). Since you have an IT background, have you looked at the Project+ exam? It is a great path and I have heard it is like a mini-PMP test. I took the Project+ about 2 years ago and thought it was a great project foundation.
Hi - I have a question for anyone who has experience with such a PMP cert program. Most often I see this cert raised in the context of IT or Engineering careers. Are there applications to other career tracks? If I'm in Engineering and am interested in getting out and into a more general business/management track, would this cert be useful or would it just seem weird?
The PMP certification has grown tremendously over the last few years mostly due to the IT industry picking up more formal project management methodologies. The PMP would be good for anyone involved in projects...and most companies have projects. In fact, a lot of companies have already moved to a project-based environment for most work. I see the knowledge behind the certification as being somewhat meaningful in any industry having projects. This knowledge would help broaden a person's knowledge base for many careers.
As an alternative, some international organizations oer fer the IPMA http://www.ipma.ch/Pages/IPMA.aspx. My understanding is that the PMP correlates to the IPMA-D (lowest) level.
Thanks for the link Kari. Another is the Association for Project Management (http://www.apm.org.uk/). I sometimes forget about the other non-US based PM certifications and methodologies...all of them are very good and well worth the effort to learn although very few US based companies know anything other than PMI's methodology.
It seems that industry is more keen about these type of certifications than academic credentials. PMP, CISSP, MCSE, etc are in demand nowadays. The only caution here is that these type of credentials are only good for certain time frame so you need to "cash" them as soon as you get them. Who knows if a PMP or CISSP will be in demand in ten years from now as new certifications might come up with more market image.
