PMP Lessons Learned by Lijin Thomas, PMP
Shiv Shenoy
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Lijin is a Certified Project Manager with 10 years of robust experience in Physical security systems and delivering a wide range of integrated electronic security and communication solutions.
1. What made you to take up PMP? Did you consider any other certification exams?
The desire to gain PMP certification was ignited by my previous Line Manager at Amazon, who took the effort to motivate and encourage me to pursue this course.
I was undecided between PMP or CSMP (Certified Security Management Professional) certifications, initially. Upon doing a thorough evaluation on the adequacy of both certifications, I looked at the prevalence and application of the concepts of both certifications to wide range of industries and domains.
Based on this I decided to give first preference for PMP.
How do you see this certification helping you going forward?
I was confident that getting a good grasp on the concepts, knowledge areas and related ITTOs would definitely equip me to manage medium to complex projects with a high degree of success.
With the certification as well as knowledge I've gained now I'm seeking a role that complements my skills and expertise within a matrix organization where project management function is given due importance.
The PMP certification has given me the extra firepower and resilience to position myself as an project management specialist/expert within my domain of expertise. It would also enable me to exert a significant level of influence on the senior management during critical project related decision making process.
Also read: Beverly Wong discovered the secret to ace PMP exam, and she reveals in this article.
Can you share the study resources you used?
I started my preparation in February with a PMP course from Simplilearn (detailed 5000+words hands-on review here) and took the PMI membership at about the same time.
The self paced learning course got over by August and I used PMBOK guide as a secondary source of reference.
Following this I decided to focus on PMBOK guide and began reading the guide on a daily basis targeting to finish 2 knowledge areas per day.