Michelle LaBrosse Blogs

by Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

Bryne Edwards and I have been doing a live radio show these past two weeks explaining the concepts in a new Cheetah Learning course called Capitalize on the Recession. We promote the radio show on several social media forums so we get a random assortment of listeners. The questions we get vary based on what someone’s qualifications are. For people with the least amount of professional credentials, the predominant questions I get are about how to not be scared in today’s economic climate. This is interesting because the first module in the Capitalize on the Recession course is how to become and stay emotionally strong so that you have the presence of mind to see and find emerging opportunities for yourself and others. Interesting as I was wondering if that would even be valuable and waffled on if it should go in there. Because there is another cohort that listens in who doesn’t seem to have much fear about today’s current economic climate. And I know this cohort well.

That other cohort are Cheetah Alumni. And their questions are more about how to best position themselves as PMPs to capture emerging opportunities (a much stronger launching off base). Considering that there are 15 million people who call themselves project managers, and only 350,000 people who hold the PMP credential, this is a fairly simple undertaking. The demand for certified, qualified project managers still far outstrips the supply and with the government bailout package, the demand will only increase. The number 2 thing, yes number 2 thing a person can do to increase their chances of success in their career and increase their future career opportunities is to become PMP certified. But the number 1 thing a person can do if they want to really capitalize on emerging opportunities (and find a lot more of them) is to become certified as a PMP by taking Cheetah’s PMP Exam Prep course.

I’ve been to a lot of Project Management Institute meetings around the world. I meet people every month who are some of the best and most sought after project managers worldwide – they usually have their next three or four projects lined out for them and projects waiting in their que’s for them to manage. And what do they all have in common? They are alumni of Cheetah’s PMP programs. Now the question is – were they great project managers before they came to Cheetah or did going through Cheetah give them that extra edge that made them a great project manager? Was going through Cheetah just another right step they made in an already fantastically well managed career? Whatever the scenario, these folks stand head and shoulders above people who haven’t gone through Cheetah’s program. Are there good project managers who haven’t gone through cheetah learning? Of course. But at the last PMI National Congress, many of the top project managers getting recognized as some of the best PM’s in the world, were also, surprise surprise, Cheetah Alums.

We do a lot for our alumni to help them stay at the top of the pack. We offer a number of free follow on courses and other services for the people who become PMP’s through Cheetah Learning that help them position their career so they are continually in demand. We make our publicist available through the Cheetah Alumni group in Linked in to get more publicity for our alum’s PM capabilities. You see, over ten years ago, we realized that the good project managers continually manage themselves out of a job as when they complete a project, they need to find another one to manage. So learning how to stay continually employed is something good project managers needed to learn how to do long ago. This is why we are getting much different questions from the Cheetah alumni who listen into the Capitalize on the Recession radio show. You can hear the show live on Wednesdays at 1 PM ET and then recorded every other day at 1 PM on live streaming radio website that hosts the show (www.wirelightradio.com). I am so proud of our students and very excited that I can stay a part of their continuing success stories.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 2:42 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.