Demonstrate Your Know-How to Become a Project Management Professional
A Project Management Institute (PMI®) Certified Project Manager holds the globally-recognized credential of the Project Management Professional (PMP®). The PMP® credential is for more experienced PMs who have 5-7 years of professional project management experience. This credential represents a certain level of proficiency in the language of PM, as well as a dedication to the profession. More and more companies are looking for these credentials in their prospective hires to signify that a person will be able to communicate effectively within the organization. Can you speak the project management language?
1. Why do you need a PMI PMP certification to be a Certified Project Manager?
For people who hold the PMP credential, companies are assured that the person who is doing the role of “project manager” has passed a rigorous industry standard test regarding the basic knowledge necessary for the job of project management. Also, only people with the necessary credentials are eligible to take the exam, which ensures that if you hire someone with a PMP credential, they are already pre-screened for the experience necessary to be a project manager. Considering that 75% of all projects fail due to poor project management, PMPs are considered critical organizational assets by the companies who employ them (Gartner Group, 2012). Recently, the federal government mandated that any projects receiving government funding need to have PMI certified project managers, and most businesses in every industry with any level of success today require their project managers to have their PMP. The high demand for PMPs equates to a higher compensation. How much more do PMPs earn the non-PMPs? Based on the PMI Salary Survey 2020, the median salary for a Project Management Professional in the US is $120,000. Project Managers who have a PMP® credential tend to earn at least $20,000 more annually than their non-PMP counterparts. Those that go through Cheetah Learning for their PMP certification also can take a follow on Cheetah Leadership program and are able to command much higher salaries. Also, for companies that bill out the time for their Project Managers – most can charge up to three times more for a PMP certified project manager than a non-certified project manager. Given the pay raise requirements, this represents almost a $700,000 increase in billable rates per project manager for the organizations who supply project managers
2. Who hires certified Project Managers?
According to the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) 2021 Talent Gap Report, the global economy will require 25 million new project professionals by 2030. This translates to an average of 2.3 million individuals needing to enter project management-oriented employment each year to meet demand. Project Managers are in high demand in nearly every industry. Our Cheetah PMP students work for a wide range of companies, government agencies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations, large and small. Our client list includes over 650 companies from 15 industries: academia, consulting, government, health care, insurance, investment/securities/banking, manufacturing, non-profit, pharmaceutical/biotech, real estate, retail, service, software, telecommunications, and utilities/energy.
3. How do you become a certified project manager?
You become a certified project manager by becoming a Project Management Professional (PMP). The Project Management Institute is the globally recognized professional association that grants the Project Management Professional (PMP®). This credential is recognized by the Federal Government as being “certified project managers.” Individuals have to meet specific experience requirements and pass a very difficult certification exam to earn this distinguished certification. The PMP is for people with more experience in project management – with or without a college degree.
4. Why has Cheetah Learning been the preferred way to go for passing the PMP exam since 2001?
Without Cheetah Learning, most people spend anywhere from six months to two years preparing for the PMP certification exam and 50% of them fail. With Cheetah Learning, people spend four days in their intensive accelerated learning program and take the PMP exam within seven days of when your program ends. 98% of Cheetah students who follow the program are successful with passing the exam. Cheetah Learning guarantees their students pass when they follow their program. Cheetah Exam Prep works. Cheetah students take the actual PMP exam within seven days of when our program ends. They do not have to do any additional studying – either before or after our course. No other program offers this approach even though they may claim that they are “like” Cheetah and offer comparisons. Read the fine print – some recommend you spend 40 hours studying after class. Many Cheetah Learning alumni are now leaders in their respective industries, as they also learn in the four day program how to learn and adapt quickly to very fast changing situations (just like a “cheetah”). It is learning that sticks with them for life and is transferrable to a wide variety of situations. It is an intensive week-long experience that enables people to positively transform themselves into peak performers for long-term, sustainable success.
How you pass the PMP exam matters. Think about this – if you had a choice to hire two project managers. One told you they could get the project done in a week with a 98% confidence they would succeed. The other told you it would take them a year and there was only a 50% confidence they would succeed. Which project manager would you hire?
Project Managers who get certified with Cheetah’s approach are the first ones hired and the last ones fired.
5. Want to Learn More?
Cheetah Learning offers free tools to assess if Cheetah’s approach is right for you:
1. Cheetah’s Smart Start Guide for the PMP
2. Five Quick Steps to Become PMP Certified Webinar
3. Free Personalized PMP Success Plan
Other Approaches
Cheetah students tend to be the best and the brightest project managers who have the highest career aspirations. We recognize some people pursue the PMP certification without a choice on PMP providers and have to do what some providers refer to as a “PMP boot camp.” This is a student beware situation as if the program tells you you will earn PMI’s requisite 35 hours of basic PM training – this means you are left on your own to complete the PMI Eligibility application. Over 50% of people who complete those programs never take the next step and do their PMI Eligibility Application. Many of these people then take Cheetah’s course where filling out the PMI Eligibility application happens BEFORE they step into their cheetah class, telling us the were not confident they could even do that crucial step AFTER these other programs. Cheetah Learning takes you across the PMP finish line. To help you review the others who offer four day programs – evaluate WHEN you complete your PMI PMP Application.
We do get many students who bypass their company’s onsite programs as well because becoming PMP certified is too important to their career to leave it to chance with unproven programs taught a couple times a year – that take six months to two years of extra study and there is only a 50% chance of passing the PMP exam.
There are also a wide array of other approaches to do PMP Exam Prep – these include PMP Practice Test Questions, and include the basics of Project Management. We cannot vouch for any of these approaches. When you do a comprehensive evaluation, you will see why Cheetah Learning is the best PMP Exam Prep approach for your career.