As we start 2016, the most important topic that should be on the minds of working professionals is individual competitiveness in the workplace.  This question has many forms: How to obtain more progress: by role, title, or skills. How to attain greater job security, growth, and satisfaction.  How to stand out from the crowd, rising from the ordinary to extraordinary? There are many ways to enhance your competitiveness, and obtaining a professional project management certification ought to be a top priority. In this article, I chose to write about certifications because my experience shows that it is one of the fastest and frankly easiest ways to upgrade your skills and improve your marketability at the same time, combining the ideas of “work smarter” and “work harder”.

Let’s look at some numbers: In 2015, there were nearly 50,000 new PMI credentials awarded globally. By sheer magnitude, PMP has the largest increase, at 42,000+ PMPs (Project Management Professionals) or a 7% growth, and PfMP (Portfolio Management Professional) with the lowest at about 100+ PfMPs but at a staggering 63% growth. The table below shows the growth of the certifications (Reference #1).  What does this matter to you?  The answer is rather simple: without strong credentials, you may be left in the dust.

PMI Certifications 2014-2015

As an executive, entrepreneur, strategist, and professor, this question of competitiveness is close to my heart.  My students, colleagues, and customers, often ask about this. They even inspired me to start my own training and consulting firm three years ago, PMO Advisory, with a social mission to help them improve. In my mind and to keep it simple, there are essentially two ways to compete: “work smarter” and “work harder”.

• Work smarter is a bit tricky, since “smarter” is often viewed by most intelligent people as just not “working stupidly”. For example, most smart people choose smartly about college, career choice, industry, and companies they work for. But there are many competing goals: for example, should you choose an opportunity that pays more? or an opportunity in which you will learn more? Only when looking back some time later do most people realize whether they chose correctly or not. I had a wonderful mentor from my early days, and Ken always told me to “try” even at the risk of failing. “Make mistakes early when you can afford it.  Learn, move on, and try again.”

• Work harder is straightforward enough. If you read more, do more, go to work earlier and leave later, you are more likely to move ahead. Ken was nearly always the first to work, even though he was the boss in our department (and lived quite far). He was always on the phone by 8 AM calling other directors around the company. His notes was meticulous, and he introduced me to Franklin Planner. However, in his own words of wisdom, working hard is simply not enough.

The magic is to find synergy where one plus one is equal to three – how to combine working smarter and harder. In the professional world, there are few accomplishments more desirable than achieving new or additional certifications.  There are many reasons, but the most important ones are:

1. Global Recognition. Unless you graduate from a globally recognized school such as Harvard or Columbia or NYU or work for global brands like KPMG or Apple, most schools and companies are only regionally or locally known. Thus, for most employers, it is very difficult to evaluate workforce readiness based on college degrees or prior work experience. Certifications matter because it is an objective standard and PMI certifications are globally recognized. That’s one reason why PMP grew from about 200,000 at the end of 2006 to nearly 680,000 people today.If you are considering certifications, then consider what the Project Management Institute has to offer. PMI is the largest and the most popular project management certifying body in the world.  I learned recently that its standard for Project Management, Program Management, and Portfolio Management are based on ANSI (American National Standard Institute) and thus, its certifications are globally recognized.

2. Continual Learning. Preparing for certifications is also an excellent way to learn new and/or solidify existing knowledge. Speaking from personal experience, I was a project practitioner long before PMP was popular. But preparing for the PMP exam (and later PgMP, PfMP, and PMI-RMP exams) helped me better structure my knowledge and understanding of their applications. Some people see it as just “book smart”, but it’s far more than that. By combining your experience with knowledge, the improved internal structure provides faster access to the information and frankly, if you are able to communicate the frameworks, you not only look smarter, you are smarter.

3. Significantly Higher Compensation. If these reasons do not convince you, then let’s see if financial rewards move you. In PMI’s most recent report on the salary study of 26,000 respondents across 34 countries, certifications such as PMP garner a higher salary (20% higher on average) than those without a PMP certification. While the study focuses mainly on PMP, this trend is likely to apply to all other seven PMI certifications (See Reference #2).

4. Control Your Destiny. Unlike many endeavors in life, in which the outcome is rarely guaranteed, you have a high degree of control when it comes to certifications. Assuming you qualify for the credential, and the entry-level certifications such as CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) require little to no work experience and only a high school diploma, you can then determine how hard you are going to work toward achieving the certification.

5. Be extraordinary. The last reason I would argue here is that people with certifications are likely to be more valuable professionals to their employers. Thus, when it comes to recognition, advancement, job security, and pay raises, certifications matter. One of our corporate clients has recently made it official – PMI certification is a highly valued criteria for promotion considerations. For that client, it’s a matter of firm-wide priority, not just at the employee level. As the company competes with others in their industry, having a workforce with globally recognized project management certifications does matter.  This company wants to raise both its firm and its employees from ordinary to the extraordinary.

So, what is your New Year resolution?  What is your plan to become more extraordinary?

References:

1. Analysis of new PMI credential holders is based on the increase in certification holders from December 2014 to December 2015 as published in PMI Today.
2. Salary Report: https://www.pmi.org/~/media/PDF/learning/project-management-salary-survey-2015.ashx.