[zhte415]

Suspicion is good :)

I'll take PMP for example. I have made my way through the PMBOK Guide and various satellite publications. I've found some parts very useful, especially when focusing in retrospect.

I have also worked in organisations where HR decide to get 20% of operations and technology staff certified in a year because they're working on projects for no reason other than a box-ticking exercise to show the organisation is a learning organisation. [This is then compounded by one company doing it, then all of the neighbouring ones deciding to do similar.] PM career paths were not opened. Rather, those PM paths that existed were made a lot harder for anyone that now didn't tick the new PMP-box. And I have friends that did it simply because it afforded a small pay rise; many freely admit (brag) the only thing of recall was the sweat that went into a month of cramming before the test; required experience of actual project work was largely imagined.

So, while with great respect to the effort that's been put in by the PMI in creating PMBOK etc, the certification system they use for PMP is broken for determining any signal in competent project management. I'd far prefer someone's blog.

For OP: That does not mean the above makes certificates worthless. Far from it. Getting them can get you through various filters. They can signal an interest in a field or in furthering one's self in a field. They can provide networking opportunities. They are what you make of them.