Credentials

[thecityofjoy]

Hello all ,

   I have sat for the PE exam in electrical power and hoping to get it . What other good credentials are there for power engineers ?                                                                            At the least I am hoping to get CAPM/PMP   added to my name and am interested in the LEED AP exam as I am in California and green buildings are big business here .          Anyone have recommendations for data centers certification from stand point of electrical power ? I have heard there is BICSI certification which may be valuable .                     Regarding Control Systems , I am also interested in exploring either a Control Systems PE or ISA CAP in the future . Which one is better and why ?

 

[cupojoe PE PMP]

Skip CAPM, go straight to PMP, if you have enough project experience to get a PE, you should have enough for the PMP. Remember, you don't need to have the specific title "Project Manager" for the experience requirements, you probably are already doing the functions for a small piece of larger projects.

 

[glockjacket P.E.]

I agree with @cupojoe PE PMP you should easily be able to find the experience even if it means going back to the college senior project.

Im still waiting on results but if i did pass i think ill try the CSE PE exam, dont know if thats better than ISA CAP but its my non-educated plan.

 

[NYCProjectEngineer PE PMP]

Go right for the PMP. Most project managers have no idea what the CAPM is.

 

[cupojoe PE PMP]

I agree with @cupojoe PE PMP you should easily be able to find the experience even if it means going back to the college senior project.

Im still waiting on results but if i did pass i think ill try the CSE PE exam, dont know if thats better than ISA CAP but its my non-educated plan.

If you have 4 years of experience working on engineering projects, you likely have enough to qualify. Most of your project experience can be in the Execution phase. And you can consider a project within a project. So if you are on an industrial plant project, that project might have a subproject of procuring a widget. You are given a project charter from the PM (i.e. e-mail saying get this done in this time frame with this budget aka initiating), you formulate a plan to procure that widget (determine what specs, drawings, etc. aka planning), you do those things (execution), while you are doing that you are watching out for road blocks and letting management know the status and how many hours you have spent (monitoring & controlling), finally you close out by making notes of your lessons learned, documenting conversations, archiving tools (closeout). Boom! You have just managed a project.

The hardest part is making sure you have experience in all phases of the project, but surely you can come up with something for a small side project. Even if it is a side project like creating a company standard or putting on an event.

If you are engineer: Skip the CAPM. 

 

[thecityofjoy]

Please suggest some good courses and books for PMP . I have PMBOk ... What other references will help you pass exam? I don't want to shell out $550 again and line up PMIs pockets.