Certification: The Rush for Certification

Many project managers say that they wish they had invested in certification bodies before the “goldrush”. Certifications date back a long way.
There is a drive for certification and qualification of all professionals, from doctors to chartered accountants. According to the Project Management Institute, over 880,000 practitioners have received the Project Management Professional (PMP(r)) certification.
Scrum.org claims that there are more than 245,000 certified scrummasters. So it goes. There are certifying bodies that can certify everything, from Certified Construction Flaggers to Licensed AlligatorTrapping Agents. It seems that everyone is getting in on it, from the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program), to the CFL [Certified Fireworks Launcher],
Project managers are moving beyond a simple certification and pursuing more esoteric labels.
Erika Flora is one of these individuals. The CSPO stands as Certified Scrum Product Owner. ITIL was once a term that referred to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. However, ITIL now refers to a deeper understanding of IT service management practices.
Her first certificate was actually a certificate in project management. It took me almost a full year to earn the certificate. It was so much fun learning and meeting other students in class.” But then, she began stacking up the certs. “I am obsessed with learning about better ways to work.”
Igor Zdorovyak PMP (CLSSBB, ITIL and CSM) is another project manager with a similar focus. The CLSSBB is his certification as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. He said that he started with the PMP because it was the best option for him given his current position.
“I was the IT/PMO departmental leader for a $20 billion revenue organization. I was already responsible for large portfolios and wanted to learn more about the best practices and methods that could be used to help the organization run more efficiently and effectively.
Some certifications are not directly related to the IT or professional worlds. Joanne S. Aaronson PMP, REV decided that her spiritual side was important and applied enough to be certified.
Her first certification was a graduate certificate from the University of Maryland in technology management. She was looking for more credibility in the field. “Basically, a graduate degree to enhance my credentials. I already had a technical degree but wanted more (administration, finance etc.). )”.
Aaronson states that she realized the importance of the PMP(r), which was crucial to her career advancement. “I took the PMP as a way to help me when I was laid off and needed to find work. It was appreciated by the community.
“I was 53 years old so it was hard for me to retain all the information. I studied for four months and was prepared with practice exams. I was proud to have scored 83%, which was a great achievement. Although I can’t claim that the real world of project administration mirrors what was on the test, it taught me how PMI thinks about it.”
She wasn’t done there. “The next was the Reiki Master. Reiki-a healing technique that relies on the principle of touch to channel energy into patients.
“This one took four years, going through Reiki II, III, and the final Master level. I knew I wanted to retire from the corporate world and start a retirement company, but I wasn’t sure what.
“My Reiki studies taught me how to be more sensitive and sensitive to energy. This made sense to me, as I was a physics major. People are energy beings. Understanding how people emit energy is possible based on their energy body is a way to increase your sensitivity to it.
“I was able to sense the energy levels of the chakras (7 energy centers) and “read” people’s motivations and relative situations. This ability was crucial to my success.