💃 The PMP Certification - Will It Elevate Your Salesforce Career? 🕺

Good morning, Salesforce Nerds! Wanna be a PMP?

No, not the 50 Cent jam 🎶.

PMP = Project Management Professional.

You remember the 2 year run from 2021-2023 when seemingly everyone and their mom was running to get a Salesforce Admin cert to elevate their career?

The PMP had that run for 2 decades 😳.

And while you don’t hear about it much in the Salesforce ecosystem, it still holds a ton of value.

How much value?

How about a 32% increase in salary kinda value 🤑! (Salesforce isn’t the only organization that is adept at marketing their certifications, the PMI does a fantastic job).

So, dive in to today’s article and see if the PMP is a career elevator for you!

WHAT IS IT?

What Is The PMP

The PMP, aka Project Management Professional, certification is one of many certs offered by the non-profit Project Management Institute (PMI). Just like Salesforce has many certs, so does the PMI.

In terms of respectability and difficulty, the PMP is on par with the Application Architect cert. And, as the Application Architect cert is achieved through a gaggle of prerequisites, the PMP, similarly, covers a wide spectrum of specialties.

The PMP became available in 1984 and there are currently 1.4 million PMP certified individuals.

For context, there is probably less than 100,000 people out there with the Salesforce Admin cert (if you know the actual count, please reply to this email!).

Cost

For the privilege of taking the 180-question PMP exam, be ready to shell out-

• $425 if you’re a PMI member (membership costs $159/yr)

• $595 if you’re not a PMI member

^{Hmmm, clever pricing…}

Furthermore, there are prep courses. Really expensive prep courses - this popular course is $2000. Expensive, but-

It’s kinda like the LSAT, MCAT, and GMAT - sure, you can prep on your own, but it’s really nice to be amongst classmates and be taught by an expert.

Another reason for the courses - the test is based on the PMBOK, the project management bible. This is a book you can use to weigh down the bed of your pickup truck on icy roads. It’s massive 🦖. And the exam covers it front to back 😫.

Finally, there is a PMP certification renewal fee of $150. But the renewal cycle is 3 years 🙂.

THE GOOD

Benefits of the PMP

1) Tools. So many tools. 🧰

The PMP covers a ton of concepts and tools that are incredibly useful when applied effectively. They will change the way you look at your Salesforce role.

Here are some of our favorite concepts and tools-

🛠️ ITTO - Inputs → Tools and Techniques → Outputs. Oh, this is the same logic as business applications? Imagine that 😎.

🛠️ Project Phases. The ChaCha already Salesforce’d these for you 😘.

🛠️ Slack or Float. In practice, a bit complex. As a concept, it’s valuable in staying 2 steps ahead of your stakeholders.

2) Another Cert!

Salesforce professionals love certs like fat kids love cake. Nuff said 🫡.

3) Differentiating Skillset

When everyone else is getting Advanced Admin and Platform App Builder certs, a PMP could be the red-striped Waldo that recruiters are looking for 👀.

While you hear much about the saturation of the Salesforce job market, you don’t hear about saturation of project managers.

With the increasing complexity of Salesforce solutions, project management skills are straddling the nice-to-have and need-to-have 🙌.

CONSIDER THESE THINGS

What You Should Know About the PMP

Hold up. It’s not all sunshine 🌞 and rainbows 🌈.

1) Waterfall

The PMP teaches a waterfall approach. Technology is constantly changing and in need of change (for the business) and Agile is the preferred methodology for shorter cycles.

But let’s not split hairs. Every project has a start, a middle, and finish. Waterfall and Agile can both manage this 🤝.

2) Barrier to Entry

So. Much. Friction.

🫨 You need a 4-year college degree + 36 months leading projects within the past 8 years + 35 hours of project management education/training (another reason to take the course…)

OR 👇

🫨 You need a High School diploma + 60 months of leading projects in the past 8 years + 35 hours of project management education/training.

AND THEN 👇

🫨 You need to provide documentation that you’ve done the above things.

AND THEN 👇

🫨 You submit your documentation and wait to be approved to take the PMP exam.

Sheesh 😒.

On one hand 🤚, it creates a sturdy barrier to entry. Unlike Salesforce.

On the other hand ✋, we’ve all met that PMP-certified project manager who couldn’t find their way out of an empty room (this is actually quite shocking because the test is so damn hard!).

FINAL THOUGHTS + READER POLL

Takeaway

👍 The PMP is great. It goes deep on a ton of tools. You can post on Linkedin when you get it 😉. It differentiates you in the Salesforce ecosystem.

👎 But it’s also expensive, is more aligned with Waterfall than Agile, and has a high barrier to entry.

So what do you think? Is the PMP worth it for a Salesforce professional? Take the poll ⬇️

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