Many have the question about the suitability of PMP for construction industry. There are many threads on social media and forums discussing about this, and multiple articles.
Debashis Maity works as a Land Surveyor, and has a diploma in Civil Engineering. He lives in the beautiful city of Makeni, in Sierra Leone. As he realized that the knowledge of project management is essential to do a better job in Construction industry, he embarked upon his journey of learning project management. A lifelong learner, Debashis began learning online, then CAPM, and finally PMP®.
More Construction companies than earlier are asking their employees to get PMP certified, as they understand the importance of learning the best possible ways of managing projects. In fact, in an interview Cornelius outlines how critical is PMP for construction industry professionals.
In this interview Debashis shares exactly how he went about passing the PMP® exam recently.
If you are preparing for your exam, don’t miss signing up for the free Simulator from the last section of this article.
What made you take up PMP®?
Actually in mid of April of 2019 I received a mail from my company HR that whoever completes PMP certification and send their credential to HR and they are eligible to get certain amount of extra increment for PMP certification.
This was not the sole motivation for PMP, but the trigger for sure. 🙂
Then I started searching in Internet about PMP certification. Gathered enough information about PMP and registered for PMI membership.
During my research I came to know about CAPM certification, which is bit easier to pass than PMP, as this is focused for entry level project management roles. The other way to look at this was to treat CAPM as a stepping stone for PMP, which is what I did.
I started preparing for CAPM and I clear it in October 2019 and subsequently got certified.
The next target was PMP and started studying in small steps. But then because of my busy schedule and nature of my job I did not get much time for prepare.
I planned to take the exam before end of 2020, which did not happen either. My application going to expire on 21st April 2021. Thus in January 2021 I took it seriously and decided to clear it before my application expired.
I scheduled the date for exam and cleared it in my first attempt with 2 above target and 1 below target score.
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Now that you are a proud PMP®, how may this help you?
In fact my initial expected benefit was salary increment, but after passing the exam I can see a broad picture of my future career path ahead, it is much more than just salary increment. I have received incredible appreciation and recognition from my manager and the seniors in my company.
In this short time I have been able to professional connect with other like minded project managers outside of my network.
Now I can apply this invaluable knowledge and skills gained through my PMP journey in my daily activities of workplace and some of the principles in personal life as well!
Being PMP certified means acknowledgement of efforts, hard work, commitment, dedication and now I am able to follow the standards and bring the success to my project, without any guess work.
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Can you talk about the study resources you used?
I started with Simplilearn to get 23 contact hours for CAPM application, read PMBOK 6th Edition as well. Preparation for my CAPM certification gave an extra mileage during my PMP preparation because PMBOK is one of the suggested study reference for PMP exam.
Used mock exams from different sources like Tridib Roy in Udemy, PMP with Ray, and Mr. Amer Ali videos.
I took the PMP prep course of Joseph Phillips, and Andrew Ramdeyal from Udemy.
How did you approach the exam, and what was your study plan?
Basically the PMP exam is based on the Exam Content Outline and not on only PMBOK Guide process groups, knowledge areas and processes.
My serious preparation began from first week of January (new year resolution! :-).
I read Rita Mulcahy and took the chapter-end questions and studied the Agile Practice Guide to cover Agile part of the exam.
I also used PMP Pocket prep application, started small chunk of questions like 10 questions, 20 questions and so on.
Most importantly, I took mock exams based on domains.
First I focused on Business environment because only 14-15 question expected in real exam (8% of total questions). My target was to get Above target in this domain and I did it.
Then I focus on Process (50%) and last but not least on People (42%) domain. The people domain is all about Servant Leadership. Please don’t try to memorize, try to understand the concept and situations, it will help you to choose the right answer.
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Any issues/blockers you faced along the way?
I decided for the exam on Proctor based online exam (from Home). It works well. Be sure you check your internet connection/speed, webcam, microphone etc before 24 hours from your exam.
Keep one mobile with working sim card, they will send a link to your mobile number and you have to follow the instruction, they will ask you for snap your exam room, front back left and right and upload them.
The week before the exam – how did you study during this week?
My study plan was to focus on mock exam, as much as I can by domain wise, I don’t mind the score but made sure that I complete review of all the wrong answers as well as right answers.
Stops mocks one day before the exam, only watching videos of Amer Ali and other sources in YouTube.
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What was your exam experience like?
I took the online exam and it went well, did not face much issues. Just made sure to follow all the instructions before and during the exam.
I took my first break after 60 questions, it was time boxed for 10 minutes but I took around 7 minutes and continued my exam.
Did not take 2nd break after 120 questions, and just continued to answer.
After the completion of 120 answers I saw the most awaited word on screen “Congratulations”. And the feeling I can not express in words, honestly.
You prepared for the 2020 version of PMP® And took the 2021 version. How did you study for extra syllabus?
Yes, the new exam basically added Agile/Hybrid part on top of the Predictive. The earlier version did focus a very little bit of Agile/Hybrid, but not much.
I was getting comfortable with the earlier version exam content and just had to find a way to study for the additional information on the exam.
Thus for the Agile part I read Agile practice guide. This comes as the part of PMBOK guide if you download the soft copy from PMI site, as a member of PMI.
I also watched the videos of Joseph Phillips course on Udemy for more study on these topics.
There was not any additional resources I used, nor did I feel like they were needed.
Excellent. Before we end, any quick study tips for PMP® aspirants?
- First of all, fix a target date for exam and study accordingly. I cannot overstate how much it helps to prepare when you have a date on calendar.
- My second advice to the aspirants is not to go only for free materials as they are many in the market. It is not that it doesn’t help, it is better to supplement these with well researched and credibility backed study material/book/course. Also, when we spent money for good quality material we are likely to be motivated to study (we tend not to value anything we get for free).
- Practice as much as you can, it is a test of expecting the unexpected. Invest in a good exam simulator. Here is a free one for you.
Finally, if you are in construction industry like me, I now firmly believe that PMP for construction is an absolute must. You will be surprised how much confident you will be after getting PMP certified.
So, go for it!
Good luck,
