PMP vs CAPM

The difference between the CAPM and PMP exams and how to choose. Today at ExamsPM, we're taking a look at the big distinctions between the Certified Associate in Project Management certification and the Project Management Professional certification. It can be a daunting choice, and I do want to start off by saying I have a bit of personal bias. My personal bias is toward the PMP. I am a certified project management professional, and I believe a lot more people could be certified project management professionals if they gave themselves the credit they actually merit. The big discernment, the big distinction between the project management professional and the certified associate in project management is experience. It's experience. If you're thinking about sitting for the certified associate in project management certification, total experience required for you: zero.

That's None.

It doesn't require any experience. And as such, that's one of those little beauties that you're going, wow, I could actually sit for it tomorrow. Well, yes, if you complete the application and you can identify that you have 23 hours of advanced education in project management. Doesn't have to have the words project management. In that title. All it has to be is advanced education in project management. Number of fields that could be in, virtually endless. Contracts, negotiations, those would count. Scheduling, budgeting, those would count. Finance.

Mm-hmm.

Ethics. Yes. All of those would count toward the requisite 23 hours of advanced education in project management.

Management.

The key is to be able to actually document that you took the training. Hopefully you hung on to those certificates so you can sit for the CAPM. You can sit for the CAPM, and you can earn the credential if you can pass the exam.

Now, a lot of people think, oh, I'm going to take the CAPM because it's PMP lite. Nothing could be further from the truth. The questions on the CAPM exam are just as daunting, just as challenging as the PMP certification exam. The big difference is that it's a lot fewer questions. For the CAPM exam, you need to answer 150 questions on project management. Of those 150 questions, just so you know, 135 of them count. What are the other 15 questions? The other 15 questions are what PMI refers to as validation questions. It's their way of proving that a question is actually legitimate to ask of project managers in the field. So 15 of your questions— and no, they won't be separated out into some separate bundle. No, 15 of your questions on the CAPM would not count. Now, for the PMP exam, you've got a lot more questions to deal with. The key is on the CAPM exam, the big distinction is experience. It's designed for the inexperienced, not by the questions they ask, but just by the hurdle you have to jump in order to be able to sit for the exam. That means you have no experience managing others. No experience managing projects. And that's when you should sit for the CAPM exam. For the PMP, you need 3 years experience and 4,500 hours of work experience. Now think about that. 3 years experience acting in the role of project manager. I was very careful about how I said that. Acting in the role of project manager. I did not say you had the title. You don't have to have the title. You really don't need to be called a project manager. In order to sit for the PMP, you have to have been managing projects. You do have to be doing that. When I sat for my PMP, I only had a year and a half's experience with the title project manager. Prior to that, my title had been news director. I was the news director at a major market station in Washington, D.C. How does that correlate to project management? Part of my job as news director was to put together the annual files for the Federal Communications Commission. So as a result, I had to marshal resources, produce outcomes, get things done. Yeah, I was managing projects. And that's what PMI wants to see. They want to see that you have been managing projects. 4,500 hours worth of project management experience. Again, you don't need the title project manager. Now, that's assuming that you actually have a college degree. If you only have a high school diploma or an associate's degree, you're potentially still going to be a PMP. However, you'll have to prove 7,500 hours of project management experience and 5 years of project management experience. The same rules apply though. You don't actually have to have had the title project manager. You do have to have the experience of managing projects. If you're on the fence as to whether or not you might qualify, can you identify deliverables that you and your teams produced, specific outcomes that you accomplished? If you can, whatever got you there, that's what would count toward the PMP work experience component. If you can actually prove those pieces, you were likely managing projects. When you're sitting for the CAPM, also, you need to be aware that your CAPM expires in 5 years.

You've got 5 years to get all the experience you need to get what you need to be certified as a project management professional. After 5 years, if you decide, I'm still not ready to be a PMP, just so you know, you would have to resit For the CAPM exam. So that 5-year window, that should be enough to get you up to where you need to be to sit for the PMP. But if not, you can go back and resit for the CAPM. But once you've been through the experience, almost everyone would agree you'll never want to do that again. So it's kind of a one-off, one-time experience when it comes to the CAPM, although you can go back 5 years after 5 years. And renew by taking the whole exam all over again. Not the same with the PMP. Once you earn your PMP, you can keep your credential alive by simply racking up 60 hours of continuing education in project management over the course of 3 years. 60 hours every 3 years, or roughly 20 hours a year. 20 hours a year. Hmm. Look at that, would you? 20 hours a year. You could do that. I've been doing it. I earned my credential in 1992. And trust me, I am never going to let that thing lapse. There is no way I am going to sit for that exam again. You never have to sit for another exam, and you can be a PMP Well, as long as I have. Why the CAPM? Well, if you're going to go down that road, it's because you have no experience, you have no projects, and you need the credential. The PMP affords you the higher threshold and gives you, well, a little more credibility. Be sure to sign up for ExamSPM's free course at www.exampm.com. examspm.com/free to learn how you can obtain your PMP certification.