I am a USMC veteran with four years of service as a commissioned officer. I spent my time as a Fire Direction Officer, Platoon Commander, Executive Officer, and Fire Support Officer. I have participated in over 50 training exercises to include a 7 month deployment to Afghanistan. I'm trying to quantify my project management hours and want to ensure they are valid and don't look over exaggerated. Off the top of my head I believe I have well over the 4500 hours required. As an officer I was always managing some aspect of a project. Is there any advice out there about how to detail this information in a way that will make the PMI believe that this much management could take place in a 4 year period. Also, would TBS count as PM education? The Marine Corps Planning Process follows the guidelines of project management just on a different scope, but is this credible for PMI? Any help would be appreciated. I've been reviewing all the postings and I'm thankful for all the information thus far.
Semper Fi
Answers
I agree with the responses above. I am a practicing project manager, a PMP and developed and instructed the PMP Exam Prep course at a local college. I am responding to offer to assist if you need additional help. South Florida - Les
David, Your experience should certainly meet the requirements for 4500 hrs (2 yrs) of "project management" but you do have to take some time to ensure you are accurately translating what you did in training, exercises & deployments into the phases of Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling & Closing. I had to do this myself when I left the Corps in 2008 so I can provide my own PMP Application if you contact me via email (jpaschall@asd-inc.com). For the education portion, there is nothing at TBS that would be relevant even if you could creatively describe it to make it fit. You will likely need to take a prep course to pass the exam and any prep cse of designed to also provide the 35 contact hrs of education. Just drop me an email with any PMI-related questions specific to your situation. I am both a PMP & PgMP and currently the local PMI Chapter President so I am pretty well immersed in it these days. S/F, Joe
David. You should break down everything you did in military that is a project. Put it this way, If it was Initiated, Planned, Executed, Montiored and Controlled it is likely a project. As defined by the PMBOK a Project is a temporary endeavor and not something that is part of normal operations. Once you have qualified I recommend the Rita Mulchay prep book and a a prep course. The prep course I took was 12 weeks and had little to do with memoritization. This is not stuff you memorize you need to learn it and know it to pass the test. I took over 5000 practice questions in my studies and I can say that I only saw 3 to 5 questions on the 200 question test that I could say I had had word for word. The prep class is a good starting point and only lays the framework though. Where I work in my group we have had four people pass on first try and four people fail on first try. Those who failed did not put in the effort outside of the class required to pass the test. To me you are looking at 10 to 15 hour commitment each week for about 16 weeks to know the material and pass the exam which is exactly what I did.
VCTP Syracuse is a fantastic resource that can help with this. VCTP offers 100% free IT, Operations, HR, and other professional training (resumes, interviewing, etc.) for post 9/11 Veterans and spouses, covers 1 exam fee free of charge, and also assists with questions such as this and with the preparation of your application for certification.
And also, reach out to you local chapter of pmi.org. Join, get involved, attend meetings, offer to help and also request assistance with question such as these, mentoring, networking, etc.
see also:
This discussion has links to articles that will help answer your question.
https://acp-advisornet.org/questions/topic/pmp
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