Career Change into Project Mangement

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shyamalranjan
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Joined: Thu 04 Apr 2013 4:34 pm

Hi!

Let me introduce myself. I am a professional working in the Multimedia Industry for past 5+ years. In my past I had opportunity to design Educational Software and Mobile Software as well. Currently looking for a career advancement, I am planning to do Project Management Certification or MBA classes over weekends. I read somewhere that you should already have some experience in Project Management to enrol. I am not sure which of these two I should go for and where. Currently situated in India in New Delhi.

Thanks​
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dhaughey
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Location: London

Hi Shyamalranjan,

A Project Management Certification and MBA are quite different things. A Project Management Certification will give you a good grounding in managing projects, and knowledge of the tools and techniques used in project management. An MBA will cover a lot of ground across the whole spectrum of business management and will usually include some project management.

I'm a project manager with both qualifications. I've found it a good combination, however, I would not recommend doing both at the same time because the work involved is considerable for both.

Overall, the MBA is worth more from a career perspective, but is a significant undertaking. If you are intending to become a project manager then a PM certification will serve you well, but is quite narrow in it's focus.

It might not be a question of one or the other, but both and in which order to do them.

For project management qualifications look at:
  • Certified Scrum Master (CSM)
  • PRINCE2 Practitioner
  • Project Management Professional (PMP)
The first two are easy to enrol on and with diligent study fairly straightforward. The third (PMP) needs you to have considerable project management experience, so this may count you out at the moment.

Hope this helps, and good luck with your career change.

Duncan
begeland

A agree with Duncan on this. The MBA will be a significant undertaking. A certification will help you get noticed quickly, but the PMP certification does require a significant number of hours of experience just to sit for the exam. You'll need 4,500 hours of direct PM experience - which translates to a little over 2 years of full time PM experience. Good luck...and remember, the best method is to get your foot in the door somehow and get some experience under your belt.
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