Project Management

raul2010

Hi,
I am a sys admin looking to enhance my skillset as there is talk of outsourcing IT in my company so I want to make myself as marketable as possible. I already have a few certs such as MCSE, VMware, etc. I'd like to add Project Management to the list as it is an area I am interested in plus it means future opportunities may not be limited to sys admin work only.

As part of my role, I manage a lot of large multi team projects anyway and would like to beef up my CV a little bit with a formal certification. Are there many opportunities for project managers around Dublin today? Would people recommend doing a Prince or PMP certification?

Static M.e.

PRINCE2 is a week long course with two exams in the middle. Easy enough to do.

PMP is another dog altogether it requires a long process where you show how you have worked on multiple large projects at the same time.

If you want a quick cert then PRINCE2 is fine. PMP is something which will take you a lot longer but still doable

There's always Project Management Jobs.

raul2010

Thanks for that. From an employers perspective, do they tend to value PMP a lot higher than Prince?

Static M.e.

I would say Yes, PMP is like a professional certification while PRINCE2 is more...common(?) for want of a better word.

Have a look through the PMP certification process. It takes time to get one

JJJJNR

Theres a very good PM course in DBS, I attended it a couple of years ago, it lasts a couple of months doing one evening a week. You get to discuss real projects and methods with real highly experienced project managers. Although the lecturers don't concentrate on either prince 2 or PMP they do touch on elements of both which for me was better as some places use PMP, some use prince 2 and others use MS project...

I found the diploma certainly opened a lot more doors and I'm now doing Six sigma which is really interesting. There isn't a huge amount of Infra projects going at the moment, its a hard nut to crack to get into pure project management within infra but its a good feather in the cap of a Sys admin. (like myself)

fidelma_1

You should do PMP or IPMA certification. Prince isn't really that recognised. For PMP you have to have a certain amount of experience and hours of training. It's the similar for IPMA but there are different steps to IPMA so you can start at Level D and work up to C, B etc. It's also internationally recognised (International Project Management Association). It's really important to go to a quality institution/college. It seems that every college under the sun is providing project management courses these days! If you want to spend a year doing a masters you can go to Trinity or UCD. If you want a professional qualification and to study while working the institute of project management of ireland is well known.