Few will go far In terms of salary, promotion or career prospects if they don't have basic skills and talents—and the ability to deliver projects successfully. However, the secret to a successful and profitable career in project management could be as simple as adding a few new letters after your name.
Gains can vary widely depending on the country, and in some, project management professionals may get little or no salary benefit for having a project management credential. But overall, credentials increase earning power and can open doors to better opportunities.
Project management certification signifies to employers that you have the right knowledge to increase success rates. Of course, attaining and keeping a credential such as PMI's Project Management Professional (PMP®) or the newly revamped Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM®) isn't a simple endeavor. But research shows that various forms of certification do have a correlation with better salaries. Representing data from nearly 2,600 project management professionals in 15 countries, the PMI® Project Management Salary Survey—Third Edition found that median salaries in 11 countries were higher when individuals earned PMP credentials.
In France, surprisingly, median salaries were lower for those with PMPs, but salaries in the 25th and 75th percentiles were higher with a PMP, as was the average salary. In Sweden, median salary was equal for PMP and non-PMP project managers, although the 25th percentile, 75th percentile and average salaries were higher for PMP-holders. In only two nations were salaries in all categories lower for those with PMPs: Germany and Japan.
Salary Snapshot: How It Works
The PMI® Project Management Salary Survey—Third Edition uses a purchasing power parity (PPP) factor in its calculations, rather than simply converting all countries’ figures to U.S. dollars using standard exchange rates. This accounts for the fact that in some countries, the lower cost of goods and services compensate for raw salaries that are considerably lower than others. So, for example, while China has a median project management salary of US$15,100 using standard currency exchange rates—compared to the median U.S. salary of US$83,500—the PPP conversion gives the median Chinese salary a practical equivalent of US$65,789.
Using the PPP conversion, India was shown to have the highest increase in median salary with PMP credentials, being the equivalent of US$16,026 higher than the median salary of professionals without PMPs. Canada had the lowest increase, at US$1,923 using the PPP conversion. In the United States, from which the largest number of survey respondents hailed, PMP-holders made US$5,000 more at the median salary figure than those without PMPs.
In Germany, where the news was worst for PMP-holders, professionals with PMP credentials made the equivalent of US$18,000 less at the median salary level than those without PMPs, based on the PPP conversion factor.
PMI members can perform a customized salary survey query by position and geographic location at no charge by visiting the Members Area of the PMI Web site at www.pmi.org.
“Based on our salary survey, looking at the PMP credential, it is clear that people who have project management credentials make more money than those who do not, with the median salary difference overall being an increase of about $4,600,” says Denny Smith, Ph.D., PMI manager of certification.
The View From Outside
There is other evidence that project management credentials—and the PMP in particular—do matter in terms of salary increases.
Certification Magazine provided the biggest corroboration for PMI's findings with its 2004 salary survey, geared toward the information technology industry, in which respondents who held PMI's PMP credential earned one of the top five average salaries, at US$89,630.
“Even at the entry level, pay in the knowledge-heavy, education-driven IT marketplace floats above averages for other industries,” wrote Tim Sosbe in the magazine's December 2004 issue. “But if you're really looking to score, certifying yourself in certain specialties within the IT world offers bigger payoffs and better long-term career solutions. Based on salary figures from the 2004 Certification Magazine Salary Survey, you might want to consider a career in either Cisco networking, telephony, project management or IT security.”
Writing an article for Certification Magazine in August 2005, PMI's Dr. Smith cited the magazine's 2004 survey but also noted that the Certifications Pay Index completed in 2003 by management consulting and IT compensation research firm Foote Partners showed gains from project management credentialing. Specifically, New Canaan, Conn., USA-based Foote Partners indicated that project management certifications such as the PMP showed the greatest growth in premium pay among professional technology certifications during the previous two years.
The Center for Business Practices also finds that project management professionals can profit from credentials in their field. “Based on our report on the value of project management in 2003, 34 percent of organizations formally recognized that PMP certification was important—and how you formally recognize a credential is by increased pay or some other kind of reward,” notes Jim Pennypacker, director of the Center for Business Practices, the knowledge center for Havertown, Pa., USA-based project management consulting, training and research firm Project Management Solutions. “And we have seen interest in and recognition of project management certification growing since then.”
Beyond Salary
Project management credentials also may have an impact on boosting a career in other ways, such as in gaining more satisfying assignments, being promoted and receiving bonuses.
“As far as other aspects of career improvement, from just being hired to getting promoted, we only have anecdotal reports to go on, and what we have seen is that more and more job postings are calling for ‘PMP preferred’ or ‘PMP required,’” Dr. Smith says. “We know that in the profession, when you tell someone you have a PMP, that means something.”
Of course, the PMP isn't the only option. PMI also offers the CAPM credential, which provides a professional certification for people who work on project teams in non-managerial roles, those who are just starting out in the project management profession and students. For project managers, a team of various functional members with CAPMs ensures that everyone will be on the same page when it comes to best practices.
“Anecdotally, we see that certification in project management matters in terms of things like salary and advancement,” Mr. Pennypacker says. “There are a few organizations, of course, that don't treat certified people any differently or who cannot reward them for whatever reason. But even then, certification can be effective in helping project managers to do their jobs better and have more satisfaction, even in the absence of financial rewards.”
Matters of State
In addition, project management credentials are becoming increasingly important for government-related and government-funded work. In 2004, more than 700 IT projects at U.S. government agencies, representing approximately US$21 billion of the total US$59.3 billion 2004 IT budget requests, were listed as “at risk,” according to officials at the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB). This had prompted many to speculate that OMB would issue strict guidelines requiring certification of IT project managers at government agencies. That didn't happen, but in April of this year, the OMB did direct agencies to file plans for bolstering their ranks of IT workers trained in project management skills.
India went a step farther when, in an attempt to reverse problems with major projects going over budget and over deadline, the government decided earlier this year to require project management certification of all engineers and officers who oversee large government projects.
“Countries like the USA and China have increasingly used certified project managers to run their major projects … we feel that projects should be handled by such engineers and technical officers who have done certified management courses from reputed international institutes,” Oscar Fernandes, head of India's Statistics and Programme Implementation Ministry told the Economic Times in May.