Board 8 > Any Project Managers (PMP) here?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've been recommended to get this certification and I've never really bothered with certifications before so I'm blindly intrigued.

My contact said it changed her life and opened her up to new industries, income, and respect. She also thinks I've done enough projects in the past with theatre to go straight to practice-testing and would be a slam-dunk fit for the work...so my curiousity has been peaked.

What has been your experience with it? What commitment should I expect to get certified?
I'm not letting one person's experience represent everybody's experience, but this sounds pretty nice.
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What is practice-testing

I briefly looked into this in the past, the process seemed pretty simple: Apply, check 'yes I meet the requirements of x hours managing projects' (of which you may be randomly audited to prove), then pass a test.

People have said the test is basically nothing like the real world, so you'll need to study for it even if you've run giant projects for years. I can't vouch if its difficult or not beyond that though.

I'm not really sure what getting a PMP opens for you, if you want to stay in the theater world probably not much. if you're willing to move your dayjob elsewhere... maybe? From what I can gather, the value it holds really depends on the person you talk to. I don't think it can be a negative, though.

It had too many unknowns for no real benefit in my field, so I passed on bothering with it. Good luck if you go for it!
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turbopuns2 posted...

What is practice-testing

X_Dante_X posted...

People have said the test is basically nothing like the real world, so you'll need to study for it even if you've run giant projects for years.

Pretty much this.

I've got letters of recommendations from several people who could vouch for my hours of projects I managed, so I feel comfortable with that aspect too.
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yeah I had no real doubt you'd meet the experience (you seem to always be working on new play productions!)
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I've also been recommended to get this certification, so it's definitely worth something to look into. I'd say go for it if you can.
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I'm not certified, but the courses I took on this subject in school lead me to believe that the cert is 100% worthwhile if you actually are interested in doing PM things.

For you in particular, as was already said, if you want to stay in theater you probably don't need it. But it would open a lot of doors for other sorts of things if you're looking for a change of pace.
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I have zero experience in project management, but I'll ask the ones I work with and see what they have to say.

Up for the day-crowd. Thank you for the advice so far everybody.
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