.

Here’s a brief note for PMP Lessons Learned section by Terry O’higgins.

Also read: 3-Month PMP Journey of a Test Manager – by Nihar Mishra, PMP

Core Lesson – Do not second guess your answers!

What worked for me was –
1) learning the formulas and writing them out everyday.
2) knowing the 47 processes and ITTOs and being comfortable with the definitions
3) taking as many exam prep questions as you can is very important. In the exam read the questions carefully – generally your first instinctive choice will be the correct one. It’s fatal to start second guessing yourself.

Best of luck to all!

It’s a great feeling when you see those words pop up on the screen at the end of the exam –
CONGRATULATIONS, You PASSED!

Regards,

Terry, PMP
Dublin, Ireland

[monkeytools msnip=”http://memochimp.com/memo.php?u=1378&p=682″] Corporate jargon? What’s that?

Several years ago the start-up that I was working at was acquired by a much bigger company.

Now if you have worked at a start-up you know the typical culture and the benefits. It is much closely knit, everyone pretty much understands everyone else, there is more bonhomie and collaboration and cooperation – bottom line (ah, there goes one from me!), lot gets done in a short period of time.

In larger companies the scenario is rather contrasting.

There is, usually, lot of ‘red-tapism’, lot of meetings, multiple levels of approval hierarchy that leads to delay in decision-making, more ‘office work’ than what is needed to get things done. Not to blame the system, all these frills come with scaling the organization (is that one more?). Some of it is probably needed to systematize proceedings (not again!), and some of it creeps in as inefficiencies.

One common thing you would notice is the use of corporate jargon.

Plenty of them at times.

Sometimes they are used, sometimes abused, and to a large extent accepted to be the part of ‘corporate language’. Some of them (if not most) are quite annoying.

Whoever said beauty is in simplicity.

If you have joined a bigger corporation recently and are perplexed at the onslaught of  jargon, here’s your guide to surpassing the ‘corporate language barrier’. [continue reading…]

We looked at 5 things you must do BEFORE appearing for a project manager interview, earlier.

Today we shall see how you can ACE your project manager interview by using 10 proven tips DURING your interview.

But first here is something important to understand.

Did you know that we make an impression about a person in the first tenth of a second when we see them?

Yes, all it takes is a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger from their face, and that longer exposures don’t significantly alter those impressions!

You can see how important this can be during an interview – typically a pressure-cooker situation.

I’ve been on both the sides of the interview table during my decade and a half long career (being an interviewer few thousand times more than being an interviewee, but the experiences of being an interviewee is very vivid! 🙂 ).

In this post I put across 10 lessons I’ve learned about how one can ace a project manager interview.

This is a long post so take a cup of coffee, paper and pencil and let’s get started!

[easy-tweet tweet=”It takes 1/10th of a second to form first impression. Use these 10 killer tips to ace your project management interview!” user=”@pmexamsmartnote” hashtags=”projectmangerinterview, acepminterview”]

[continue reading…]

One common question I’ve always had when looking at successful people is “what is that you do that’s given you this success?”. One day I imagined, out of a whim, “what if I am asked the same?”.

Silly, sure. But it got me to think. And a little bit of self-discovery. And this little discovery has stood me in good stead.

In this post I am sharing few points from my own experience that has helped me. No, I have not mastered any of these, but keeping these in mind has sure benefited me more than once.

1. Cutting back on unnecessary tasks

Most of us start the day with emails. With 80-20 rule, about 20% of all the mails received are important for the business. Rest 80% is irrelevant. Still, we end up spending way more time going through all the mails, giving in to the urge of responding to all mails and ‘clearing’ the inbox. In the process we lose very crucial productive time of the morning. Focus on important tasks, issues and ideas instead. [continue reading…]

It’s Tom’s last week at office and he has already made a mental shift into the new office. It looks great, the opportunity is wonderful and he’s a bit nervous as well as excited.

There is one last hurdle to get over though.

The Exit Interview.

For many people, reasons for leaving their current job is not a happy one, especially if they are leaving for personal reasons (as they say, “People leave managers not companies…“).

If the work place is great, work is challenging, boss and colleagues cooperating and career looks promising – money alone doesn’t make much of a reason for quitting for many.

Which means that exit interviews might be looked at as a vehicle to “give it back for what all these people have done to me”, or put simply, to speak ones mind.

This could be a grave mistake of ones career. [continue reading…]