How do I get a PMP Certification without experience?

The simple answer to the question is that it is impossible to get a PMP certification without project management experience. This question is akin to asking the question - how to become a heart surgeon without attending medical school? There is absolutely no way on earth through which one can become a PMP certified professional without having the requisite experience. The Project Management Institute or the PMI clearly lists several educational and experience requirements. It is comparatively easy to obtain the educational qualifications needed and to fulfill the educational requirements but it is not so easy to obtain the experience requirements. At least as far as the contact hours of training are concerned, those can be obtained by undergoing PMP certification training.

By experience requirements what is meant here is that one should have spent a fixed amount of time working in the real world as a full-fledged professional, and that too as a full-fledged project manager. They should have spent a fixed amount of time (which is stipulated by the PMI) in leading and directing projects to successful completion. In this way they should be able to show that they have spent the stipulated amount of time in managing projects not as an abysmal failure but as a sparkling success. So none of the projects which they have led in this stipulated time period should have resulted in a failure and all of them should have been completed successfully and to the satisfaction of the employers. Due to the large number of requirements, it is but natural that one will be led to ask the question - “How do I get a PMP certification?”

The PMP certification exam requirements are as follows -

SET A -

1. 4-year degree -

A four-year bachelor’s degree from a university or a college. This degree should be “clean,” meaning that the student should have an absolutely clean record in his university. There should be no criminal activity listed and one should not have been put on probation throughout his academic career.

1. 36 months leading projects -

The candidate should possess at least 36 months of project management experience in any well-known industry. He should have been in a position of team leader or lead project manager for those 36 months. He will have to produce a complete record of his project management experience including the time period in which he was in that position, the names of the employers he was employed under, the names of the team members he led or whom he was associated with, the names of the projects he led, etc. Unfortunately, this requirement can not be fulfilled by undergoing PMP certification training.

1. 35 hours of training in project management or a CAPM certification -

This can be obtained easily by taking a PMP certification training course. 35 hours of contact training in the field of project management will be included in that PMP certification training online.

SET B -

1. A high school diploma -

The same educational requirements apply as before even in the case of a high school diploma. The diploma should be “clean,” meaning that the student should have an absolutely clean record in his high school. There should be no criminal activity listed and one should not have been put on probation throughout his academic career.

1. 60 months leading projects -

The candidate should possess at least 60 months of project management experience in any well-known industry. He should have been in a position of team leader or lead project manager for those 60 months. He will have to produce a complete record of his project management experience including the time period in which he was in that position, the names of the employers he was employed under, the names of the team members he led or whom he was associated with, the names of the projects he led, etc. Unfortunately, this requirement can not be fulfilled by undergoing PMP certification training.

3. 35 hours of training in project management or a CAPM certification -

This can be obtained easily by taking a PMP certification training course. 35 hours of contact training in the field of project management will be included in that PMP certification training online.

So a candidate can take the PMP certification exam and become PMP certified only if he fulfills all of the requirements of either SET A or SET B.