My PMP Journey!

 

When was the last time I had been this jubilant? Of course, apart from vibrant travel experiences, I

suppose, undoubtedly, it was when I FINALLY wrote and cleared my PMP certification exam.

Such a yearlong, arduous journey, but never mind, I got there in the end.

Better late than never, is it not?

Before I take you to my backbreaking journey of PMP, I’d like to offer a very big thank you to Shriram, for persistently keeping me motivated with his enthused messages around the clock!

You’re a class act and I owe you big-time!

But that having been said, it is very funny how I even got motivated to do PMP. I still remember it as clear as day it had been the first time, I was handling a non-ERP based project and was given with a resource who was key for the project. No room for guessing and he was completely demotivated in the role and in the project. It was when I started googling on how to handle or motivate such resources, I stumbled upon PMP. During the process, an old PMPBOK 5 photocopy, thankfully left by one my old roomie in 2016, had caught my attention and thereupon I opened Resource management.

Just a glimpse into few pages, I realized I have a lot of things yet to improve as an individual to apply my interpersonal skills and undoubtedly, PMP could mark a great step forward in my career journey. Around the same time, one of my ex-colleagues, who is a purely into technical domain, posted that he had cleared PMP. Now, being a topper all your life, you think that everything is a piece of cake. Exactly! I was like if he can, it must be like a walk in the park to me. 

Till then I had never known the power of underestimation!

I rang him up and enquired about the training institute from where he had completed his PDU's. With a lighting speed, I enrolled and joined the very first batch which was available after my call in Sep-21

I had been meaning to write PMP since Dec-21 and set my target to 12th Dec 2021 i.e., on my birthday, (compelled to have birthday honour, you see) on the very first day of the class. My short-term goal was to finish it in three months (How optimistic I was!) 

I, being an early riser, was pretty studious and sincere when I had started the sessions. With unbeatable enthusiasm, the reading sessions commenced. But then, a couple of my unannounced professional projects were nearing to Go live in Dec-21 and Jan-22. With the timings being conflicting, I reckoned it wasn’t such a good time to study PMP anymore.

Eventually, all my buddies of the study group ended up writing the PMP exam in 2021 and 2022 leaving me all to myself. Not that it had dampened my spirits least bit. Being a tenacious person that I am, I made a mental note to write the exam after my project Go Lives. 

Fast forward to Feb-2022, I got a new job and started considering writing the certification again. But unfortunately, I was stuck in handling the chaos of new job particulars and old company handover responsibilities. Eventually, I started preparing for a detailed project plan for two government entities even before I had joined the new company as I always did the project management being on the client side but never had any hands-on experience on the vendor side. So, I was more and more cautious about the initial beginnings in the new company.

Again, back to square one, as it felt it wasn’t such a good time to study PMP anymore. After all, sometimes, you cannot really control your destiny and are bound to be at the mercy of it, I told to myself and let go of it.

Fast forward to June-2022, my work life balance was stabilized a bit and such an opportune time to consider writing the certification. One wouldn’t believe I had even created an intense study plan for me that was way better than my girl’s English class teacher and could give a run for it to anyone. It even inspired one of my colleagues, Pritam Khatu, so much that he BEGGED (no wonder, I sometimes try to find such mighty words just to motivate myself) to join me for combined studies! Besides, what’s wrong if the poor fellow gets benefitted from my Oxford University style study plan! (Well, another mighty word)

Alas! Shortly, I received my Australian PR (the one I had been waiting for four long years) demanding that I instantly travel for my stamping and as such formalities. It being the middle of year Jul-22, Aug-22 and with the start of summer vacation for kids, I had no option left other than traveling during this period.

Again, back to square one, my PMP took a back seat!

It was like all the five elements of nature (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Space) are together hell bent in stopping me from writing my PMP. No, I am not exaggerating, really.

I then started reading Rita, 10th Edition, more as a novel, to my own disbelief. But I'm well versed with Agile concepts as we practiced it extensively in my previous companies. So, in Sep-22, I took a real oath to myself (so real, like the one we swear in courtrooms. I do, swear in the name of God that I shall finish my PMP certification….it was more like that). I was ferociously determined to maintain the consistency in my preparation, but I realized that it's going to be a year from the time my application gets approved i.e., by 27th Oct-22. I was a complete wreck! I was not sure nor ready if fifty days would be sufficient to prepare. I started googling, like one of those million users worldwide who would google everything on Earth hoping to find a solution in the Search Engine. Complete PMP in 4 weeks!

I vaguely remember having some discussion that I will be given three months extension as a one-time chance by PMI. I immediately chatted up with one of the PMI virtual assistants and got it extended by three months i.e., till 26h Jan'23

Yippie! My fist punched the invisible air. It felt like God had been silently listening to my frustration. Why disappoint Him! So, I hadn’t left any stone unturned in the preparation process. I would practice diligently questions, chapter by chapter during early Jun-22, but it wasn’t until Sep-22 many of the concepts had become clearer. Added, my work had given me enough practical exposures that also came out as helping hand in PMP.

Good god, I had to admit, by then I felt like a real Harvard student. I was doing multiple things to absorb everything like reading, hearing, processing, keeping the complete focus on People and bit of Process domain chapters - Resource, Stakeholders, communications, Scope, Schedule and Integration as well and most importantly jotting down all that I’ve learned in my summary notes. I seriously couldn’t remember doing a serious write down last time voluntarily, probably back in my school days when my social teacher would whack everyone with a long wooden stick every time, we miss copying notes from black board. 

And then, in the midst of my diligent study, I had been notified by my family that guests were going to be in the city for the next two months i.e., from Oct-22 to Nov-22.

Well, well, though I seriously practiced a restrain on not to scream at my situation, I was as well reminded by a great saying in Sanskrit – Atithi Devo bhava!!  Which basically means your guest is your God. In our tradition, guests should be treated no less than a God! So, I was all for my guests and put the great saying to real experience by indulging them with as much obliged as possible.

Now you should understand why I wasn’t actually flaunting when I had been comparing my PMP journey to a roller-coaster ride.

Finally, when my Calendar pointed to 29 th Nov 2022, I had thousand butterflies flapping their wings in my stomach. What am I even doing? I wasn’t setting my priorities right and kept pushing things back which mattered the most. It’s high time I stop making excuses, letting the destiny control everything and being at its mercy. After all, I am one of those who controls their own destiny.

So, this time, I got so serious, and you’ll have to believe me when I say serious and try not to roll your eyes at another assumed attempt of postpone. I was even ready to fight all the elements of nature as I chalked out an intense study plan like never before that could put even a Stanford student to shame. Nothing in the world, I knew deep in my guts, would dare to interrupt me now once if I set my mind. I have cut down my hangouts, parties and sacrificed my wine :P too during this period to retain my focus.

The last three weeks leading up to the exam were the most intense I have had in a long time. To ensure optimum focus, I took a social media break, had done a lot of practice questions (although it never seemed like I was ready as there were still gaps), and had done a lot of pep talk to lift my own spirit. Despite putting in my maximum efforts, I was not reaching 63-68% in my mock exams, to my utter disbelief.

So, when I was left with just a week, I took off from work, put all things aside, focused my energy, concern and attention on just one thing, PMP. I woke up in the wee hours of morning, read and studied gap areas. When the world would sleep dreamily, I burned the midnight oil, diligently practicing questions, filling my brain with sheets and mastering concepts. I practiced tests from Shri learning, Oliver Lehmann 2 sets of practice papers and lot many questions from quizlet.com. I hardly slept, the focal point being the exam. 

Finally, the big day of my life had arrived. As I settled in, read carefully through all the questions (of course I marked a lot of questions for review :)) and went through the instructions, all I did for few seconds was to deep breathe to settle my adrenaline before I plunged in.

After few hours when I saw CONGRATULATIONS pop up on the screen, I had to pinch myself. Rush of emotions - shock, jubilance, relief, ran high. I was overwhelmed with a great sense of accomplishment; my hands and feet wouldn’t stop jittering. All I could say was THANK YOU! All those diligent hours of hard work had finally been paid off!

What more could’ve asked for!

Phew!