Are you a project manager aspirant and you want to excel in the field of project management? Then you must be interested in knowing the details of PMP certification requirements. This article will suit you perfectly. As in this article, we will provide you with information on PMP certification requirements. We can understand the passion and motivation of the project manager aspirants to fully explore the ways to move forward with the PMP Certification, hence to explore the PMP certification requirements. This article aims to provide you with information on PMP Certification requirements. We are also going to provide you practical information about how you can apply to the PMP Exam and how you can provide evidence for all PMP certification requirements.

What is PMP?

Project Management is globally recognized as one of the very important roles within the organizations. This brings a lot of opportunities for professionals and aspirants. The demand for this role is due to the challenging nature of projects carried out by the organizations. There are a lot more complex technical and dynamic challenges to be faced and managed by project managers. On top of it, handling Agile teams while keeping efficiency and productivity is one of the most important factors.

This increase in demand brings motivation and passion to the project manager aspirants to pursue their careers in the field of project management. PMP credential is an endorsement of this motivation and passion. It is a must-have to move up the ladder. So every project manager needs to look for PMP certification requirements.

Furthermore, that brings a log of benefits to its holders. You must be well prepared prior to sitting in the PMP Exam. Therefore, knowing what it takes to prepare for the PMP exam, in other words, the PMP certification requirements, is the first step towards the PMP certification. Once you know the PMP certification requirements, you will be able to plan and pursue your goal in a systematic way.

 

Benefits of PMP Credential

There are many benefits you can reap after you become PMP certified. The PMP certification holders have quite an advantage over the project managers who are non-certified. Some of the main benefits of PMP certification include:

Global Recognition of Skills

PMP certification has global recognition. The certification is evidence of your knowledge of the project management framework. PMP validates your understanding of the overall process framework. Thus PMP brings exposure to the best practices, latest trends in project management and opportunity to learn tricks and techniques. This gives you a benefit against others. Also, your methodical approach to analyzing the problem develops with this understanding and experience.

In addition to this, your colleagues and groups see you as a coach and mentor based on your qualifications as well as your practical knowledge. Hence they prefer to discuss and seek your advice for the solution to project situations.

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The PMP certification requirements are quite demanding for the aspirants and it is not easy to clear the exam unless you are fully equipped to qualify for the exam. Furthermore, the PMP certification requirements cover the dimensions of education, training, and experience which is a complete set to ratify and accredit the knowledge and experience of the candidates. So qualifying for the PMP credentials bring you recognition. Also, you feel more confident being in the limelight with your distinguished achievement which sets a stable foundation for your career advancement.

Hiring Organisations on the Lookout

Hiring organizations look for the best-fit candidates who can not only fit the job requirement but also can add the values which make them more appropriate for the projects. Consulting organizations always try to make their profiles more prominent. The PMP credentials always help such organizations to get good scores while procuring services by the implementing organizations. Because they have certain criteria to hire the consulting teams and each of these aspects helps the organizations to earn good points while evaluating the criteria.

PMP Certification Requirements

Furthermore, PMP credential stands out as an endorsement of a candidate’s knowledge, skill, and experience. That makes the life of hiring managers much easier to screen the candidates with such endorsements. So the PMP certified candidates are their best shot. PMP certification proves beneficial during the shortlisting. Furthermore, PMP certified professionals get an advantage during the interview process. Such candidates have very good knowledge of the project management framework. Even many companies make it a mandatory requirement that the candidates should have PMP certification.

Improvement of Salary

You may expect a hike of at least 20% in your salary after obtaining your PMP Certification. This is one of the very attractive benefits of PMP. PMP is not a domain-specific certification which is one of the beauties of it. The project managers within various industries get more salaries as compared to non-PMP individuals within these industries. You may review the average PMP salary you would earn by industry, experience, location, etc. In the USA you may get $125,000 if you are in the pharmacy sector whereas in Canada you may get up to $115,000 when working in mining. Furthermore, PMP has consistently been the highest-paid IT certification. Also, the trend indicates that PMP salaries will continue to grow in the future as well.

Besides the salary advancements, PMP certification increases job security as even with the lesser jobs in the market, companies would be more keen to hire and keep the PMP certified project managers.

What are the PMP Certification Requirements?

The benefits of acquiring PMP credentials are lucrative and motivating. However, these do not come without effort. One must prepare very well for the PMP certification exam. The very first step for moving further is knowing the PMP Certification requirements set out by PMI. Once you meet these PMP certification requirements, you are eligible to sit in the PMP Exam.

PMI has set the PMP certification requirements quite diligently to cover various aspects. The main dimensions that are set as criteria include education, experience, and training. So the criteria are good enough to assess the knowledge, experience and the organized approach required to manage the projects.

 

The PMP certification requirements and their eligibility criteria are given in the below table.:

EducationProject Management

Experience

Project Management

Education

Non Graduates5 years/7500 hours35 hours
Graduates3 years/4500 hours35 hours

In this section we will discuss these PMP certification requirements:

PMP Certification Requirements: Education

Education plays a significant role in the experience requirement. To appear in the PMP Exam, you must at least have a high school diploma or associate’s degree or global equivalent. If you have a graduation degree it is a plus as it will reduce the work experience requirement.

How can I claim my Education in PMP Application?

Claiming your education is a breeze as you only have to mention your degree level and credentials as you already have obtained your degree/certificate after completion of your education program.

Evidence of Education – PMP Certification Requirements

In case your PMP application is selected for the audit, all you have to do is to include a copy of your degree/certificate in the response package. This will suffice for your education evidence and fulfill your audit requirement.

PMP Certification Requirements

PMP Certification Requirements: Experience

Based on your education level, the experience requirement varies.

  • In case you have a bachelor’s degree, the required experience is 3 years (36 months). In other words, you can say that work experience of 4,500 hours is required to fulfill the criteria of experience by the candidates. So you must have experience of at least 4,500 hours if you are planning to sit in the PMP Exam provided you have a bachelor’s degree.
  • In case you have a high school diploma or associate’s degree or global equivalent the required experience is 5 years (60 months). In other words, you can say that work experience of 7,000 hours is required to fulfill the criteria of experience by the candidates. So you must have experience of at least 7,000 hours if you are planning to sit in the PMP Exam provided you have an associate’s degree or equivalent.

When you are looking at the experience requirement of 4,500 hours within 3 years, you can interpret this as 1500 hours per year or on average 125 hours per month requirement for the required time period.

It is also important to note that you do not really need to be a project manager during this time period. You may be working on these projects in various capacities. If you are working on the project in any capacity, you should be able to claim these hours depending on the different phases of the project that you have been working on.

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How Can I claim my Experience in PMP Application?

In order to fill in the PMI Application form, you need to do some homework to avoid any anomalies within your experience claim. First of all, you need to list down the projects you have been working on during the time period that you are going to claim the experience. Then for each project, you should mention the start date and the end date. During each project time, you should mention your effort in terms of hours within each phase of the project.

Furthermore, you do not have to claim each phase within the project. For example, you are hired for a waterfall methodology based large project during the execution of the project, you should not claim any hours during the initiation phase of the project. So your claim will be subject to the phases you have been working on. Also if you have left the project before the closing phase, you do not have to claim for the closing phase of the project during your experience claim form. Additionally, you can not claim two overlapping projects within the time period. If you worked on multiple projects that overlapped in a single month, only one of those projects can count toward your experience requirement. The experience you have gained must be in a professional environment.

PMP Certification Requirements

Evidence of Experience – PMP Certification Requirements

You should be very vigilant to claim what makes sense and especially what can be verified by your supervisors in case your application is selected for the audit.

In case your application is selected for audit, all you have to do is to get the print out of the PDF documents from your audit package organized by PMI and mail those documents to your supervisors. They will have to verify and sign off on each form you have sent to them. After the signing off they have to send the forms back to you. After you receive all the forms form your supervisors you will also include them in your Audit response bundle.

Please note that you may have worked on multiple projects which may require sign off from relevant supervisors. So each of the specified supervisors needs to verify their relevant project. Also, the supervisors do not have to send the verified forms directly to PMI.

PMP Certification Requirements: Training

PMP training is one of the PMP certification requirements. It is important to note that the PMP training requirement is a must to sitting in the PMP Exam. As per PMI criteria, you must have 35 contact hours of PMP training. So you must get formal PMP training. Even though on first look the PMP training requirement may seem to be one of the simplest PMP certification requirements, it really is a make or break game changer.

How do I Choose my PMP training?

As a matter of fact, the PMP Exam is not a simple exam. It is more likely that the candidates have a higher tendency to fail the PMP Exam if they are not well prepared. There are many training providers that offer PMP training programs. Also, there is a cost associated with the PMP training that you will pay to the training provider.

Now the big question is what should you look for the training and which PMP training is better to opt. There are many well-known training providers who have marked their global presence in the area of training. However, when you are evaluating the training, there may certain aspects you should consider for the selection of training providers. We must highlight some of the aspects that you can consider to choose the training provider. These aspects include

  • Will I get a completion certificate to fulfill the PMP certification requirements?
  • Is the training provider recognized for its PMP training?
  • What are the formats they offer for PMP training?
  • Does the training program suit my preference for location and time or any flexibility?
  • Does the course cover PMP Exam topics?
  • Are there any extra training material to prepare for the PMP Exam after the training?
  • What is the duration of training in terms of calendar days?
  • Will the training help me assess my readiness through exercises, quizzes, practice tests, mock sessions, etc.?
  • Is the offered PMP training cost-effective?

In addition to the aforementioned points, you may also look for their policies like money-back guarantees, success rates of the training providers, feedbacks of the individuals who have been trained by them. Do they really accommodate any ad-hoc but necessary classes schedule changes?

PMP Certification Requirements

Which training format to choose?

We mentioned that PMP training is one of the most important PMP certification requirements. So it is important to choose the best format for your needs. The training providers are trying their best to broaden their training horizons. Hence they offer various training formats. These training formats not only focus on expanding the customer base of the training providers but also these formats are very significant for the students.

You can look for the following training formats and make a choice according to your priorities to fulfill PMP certification requirements. These formats include:

  • In-person Classroom Training
  • In-person Virtual Classroom Training
  • E-learning Online

These trainings are great events that prepare you for the certifications. Considering that the aspirants are professionals and must be busy in their jobs, finding time to attend the training could be a bit difficult for them. Whereas there are some other cases when the candidates have the flexibility to adjust their schedules or they are willing to attend the classroom trainings. Such candidates find in-person classroom training the best option.

However, there are some cases when candidates look for in-person trainings but they are not willing to travel to attend the class. Hence, Virtual Classroom training can be a good option for such candidates. Also, there are many cases where the candidates look for flexibility in terms of both location and time. Such candidates prefer the e-learning format.

Benefits of PMP Training

There are various benefits of PMP training programs:

  • PMP training offers guidance through experienced trainers.
  • The PMP training creates a great impact as they help the candidates to have a clear road map to achieve the target.
  • You get the opportunity to interact with other project managers from various backgrounds and experiences.
  • PMP trainings cover the project management framework, basic concepts of knowledge areas and processes with respect to the PMBOK published by PMI.
  • The trainings provide a lot of practice material. You can practice through these exercises to reinforce your learning.
  • Furthermore, training programs provide quizzes, games, practice tests, and simulations. They help you to assess your readiness, identify the preparation gaps and cover them with the revisions. E-Learning training programs play a significant role in this regard.

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How Can I claim my 35 contact hours in the PMP application?

Along with your Education and Experience, you will need to specify your training along with the training provider detail in the online PMP application form. At this time you should have the PMP training certificate that endorses 35 contact hours.

Evidence of PMP contact hours – PMP Certification Requirements

Once you get training from a training provider, they must award you with a certificate of completion with 35 contact hours. All you have to do is get a copy of this certificate and add it to your Audit response bundle which you will send to PMI in response to the Audit selection.

PMP Certification Requirements

What should I do if I do not satisfy PMP Certification Requirements?

If you do not fulfill the PMP certification requirements to sit in the PMP Exam, you do not have to worry. PMI offers certification opportunities to such aspirants which do not have the experience that fulfills PMP certification requirements. So there is still an opportunity to choose the path of certification.

Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) Certification is one of the internationally recognized certifications in Project Management which is also provided by the Project Management Institute. CAPM certification is for those who have less experience in the project management area or for those who are interested in pursuing their career path in project management.

The CAPM certified project managers also have many opportunities as compared to non-certified individuals without experience. In any typical project, there are team members who contribute their specialist skills whether these are related to software, construction or any other domain. These will help them to work better in a project environment, understand the challenges and work with the project manager in a more aligned manner.

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The certification cycle of CAPM is 5 years. In other words, the CAPM certification lasts for five years. During the fifth year, your renewal period starts. For CAPM renewal you are required to sit in the CAPM Examination again. That means renewing your CAPM certification is not just a simple matter of sending in payment and obtaining continuing education units.

The way forward

Once you are CAPM qualified person, it does not stop you from moving forward to the next ladder in your career. You can opt for PMP Exam as soon as you fulfill the PMP certification requirements.

You may acquire CAPM certification at the start of your career. That validates your knowledge base of project management skills. Once you acquire CAPM credentials, you get 5 years of the certification cycle. It means that you do not need to renew your CAPM certification in this time period. So this ensures your affiliation and acknowledges your knowledge in the area of project management.

Furthermore, you get ample time to prepare for PMP while you complete the PMP certification requirements to sit in the PMP Examination. Therefore, rather than considering the renewal of your CAPM credentials, it is the best time to go for your PMP credentials which is more valuable because it takes you to the next level. So you can proudly move to this next level!

As your knowledge is already inline with the PMBOK and project management framework, your foundation to appear for the PMP is already set. Therefore you can say that one can appear after the completion of three years of professional experience provided they have a Bachelor’s degree.

PMP certification requirements: Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed the PMP certification requirements. Within each of the PMP certification requirements, we discussed what is required to apply for the PMP Exam through an online PMP application. In addition to this, we have briefly highlighted the evidence for each of the PMP certification requirements. So you can understand upfront what can be asked by PMI if your application is selected for Audit.

Likewise, we provided information about how can you provide the evidence for these PMP certification requirements just in case your application is selected for audit. In case your application is not selected for the audit, the evidence of your PMP certification requirements is not required. We also discussed the PMP training, main points to select training providers.

And last but not least, we also highlight the path of CAPM certification for those who do not fulfill the PMP certification requirements but they plan to pursue their career in the project management field. We hope you like this article and found the given information about PMP certification requirements is helpful for you to further explore PMP and CAPM certification.

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