I was watching a sports show the other day, and the experts were talking about why some people excel and become wildly successful while others with similar skill and training, often fail to make it big. They attributed this to mental attitude.

It struck me that the same is true in all aspects of life, and for all of us. The very same principle applies to PMP aspirants who are already struggling to find time to study from their busy working life. Add daily commute and social and family obligations, and it becomes almost impossible to make a consistent study effort.

I prepared PMP Study Blueprint, and pretty much everything on this whole blog, with this single goal – to make it easy (and fast) for busy working professionals, like you, to pass PMP exam and thereby achieve your career goals.

And the other ingredient for PMP success is the right mindset. A Positive mental attitude. Towards this, I am sharing an amazing book with you today, for free. It is called –

Pool Of Positive Thinking
Learn How You Can Tap Into Your Own Positive Mind Power

If you’ve signed up for PMP Blueprint you would recall this mantra –

(No) Action = (No) Success.

Download it. Study it. Act upon its principles. Feel free to share it with your friends.

If you are finding value from this blog do share with your friends. Use social network buttons on this site, and spread the word. Thank you.

Hi there!

Thank you for writing in to give your suggestions and feedback on how this blog is helping and how we can further improve to aid your PMP preparation.

Please keep your suggestions pouring in! It helps me make this blog your single place to get all that you need to ace your PMP exam.

You may have one or more of these concerns –

• I have worked as a techno-manager in the projects, how do I show my PM work?
• The number of hours of project management experience I have is not very good.
• I do not remember the number of hours of experience under each of the 5 project phases.
• I have not worked in all the 5 project phases in some of my projects.
• I am not sure how to write my application using the wordings that PMI expects.
• I do not work in traditional project management industry such as manufacturing or IT.
• I do not know if my work comes under Projects or Operations (I know PMI rejects the application that includes Operations experience)
• I do not want to spend a lot of time to figure out how to write and submit the required information.
• I am no longer in contact with my former project managers.
• I worked on many short projects (under 8 months).
• I have worked on some solid projects a decade ago. Can I show them in my application?
• I managed multiple projects at the same time. How should I show this experience?

If you have any of the above, confused about how to proceed, or worried about application rejection by PMI, please feel free to reach me on Skype. My Skype id is shivshanker.shenoy Or write to me at Shiv@PMExamSmartNotes.com

Step-by-step application submission flow

Note – On 18 Jun 2020, PMI has changed the application flow. Watch this space for updated flow.

Based on several requests for a step-by-step guide to filling PMP application on PMI.org site, here is a simple presentation (which I thought is much easier for you than a boring long post).

Please wait for few seconds for the slides to load up in the presentation.

Download the free template referred in this presentation from here. This is updated on 3rd June, thanks to one of PMESN readers, Rebeca Calderón.

Please write to me at shiv-at-pmexamsmartnotes-dot-com, should you have any questions.

Happy studying,

Shiv

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Are you preparing (or planning) for CAPM exam?

Here is a comprehensive guide to know what is required and how to go about preparing for the exam.

What is CAPM®?

CAPM® stands for Certified Associate in Project Management, a industry-recognized certification for entry level project managers or project manager wannabes. This certification exam is conducted by PMI®, Project Management Institute. You need to study PMBOK latest edition to prepare for this exam.

Which means that you can use any PMP® preparation resource for appearing for CAPM® exam as well.

PMI®’s certification and credentials are prepared by practitioners so they are practical and relevant. These are distinguished by their global development and application, which means that anyone across the globe can take this certification and apply the knowledge to successfully manage projects in any industry.

PMBOK is a framework (not a methodology) with processes of project management sliced and diced across Knowledge Areas (Scope, Risk, Communication and so on) and Process Groups (Initiating, Planning, and so on) making it applicable across industries. However, there may be project management tools or practices specific to an industry that you may need to adopt as applicable.

There are many commonalities between CAPM® and PMP® exam, but for ease of consumption of information this post details all that you need to know for CAPM® at one place. [continue reading…]

It happened to me about 10 years ago.

Almost as an accident.

I was given a challenge to lead a team as a technical lead as well as a project manager; lead a team that was distributed across 3 timezones and 4 locations, creating a product that was a game-changer in Healthcare Logistics industry.

And I accepted. Without knowing what I was getting into. 🙂

And boy, what a ride it was. Next one year taught me more than previous 5 years combined. It was hard but as they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. At the end of that project I had discovered three things –

1. That, I had a flair for managing in general. Well I did suck at few things but I could improve on them with some effort. I liked leading people by example, I liked being responsible for creating something that touched people’s lives. I liked providing transparency and setting calculated expectations with customers and delivering them. The fact that I came from technical background made the job a tad easier. I failed, several times, but I kept at it.

2. That, if I really wanted to make a broader impact on larger group of people – customer, team, organization, and end users – I had to balance both technical and managerial responsibilities.

3. That, we generally tend to underestimate our capabilities. Unless we make up our mind to go out there and try what we want to do, one of two things will happen. Either we stay where we are, or we get pushed by situations and are forced to act. And then discover what we are made of. So it made sense to just do what we wanted to do.

From then onwards I’ve got opportunities to lead and manage teams on 8 different projects which created products that are serving millions of people today. In the process forged meaningful friendship with many people, mentored many bright young engineers who wanted to be project managers and worked with several entrepreneurs.

Here is a nice video explaining the motivation for getting into project management profession.

What is/has been your motivation to become a Project Manager?

[Image courtesy productlabs.pl]

Project Management Institute (PMI) regularly conducts industry-wide surveys on topics related to project management. While some of these survey findings might surprise you, some will validate what you already knew deep within.

Look at the findings from one such Pulse report titled “The High Cost of Low Performance”, which establishes a qualified project manager’s need in today’s business environment –
“PMI’s 2013 Pulse of the Profession finds that organizations risk, on average, $135 million for every billion dollars spent. Low-performing organizations, however, risk 14 times more money than their high-performing counterparts.”

“How does this help me?”

Read on.

[continue reading…]