TOPIC: New to PMP

Hello fellow professionals!

I'm currently a university student finishing up my final 1.5 years of college with a B.S. in Technology Management. I've had a few bumps in the road during my college career, which had landed me toward moving away from university and working full-time while attending online classes full-time.

While my hope is to become a project manager as soon as I am able, I am currently an implementation consultant contractor for a large healthcare firm in my area. The problems that I'm running into with this are that:
1) The company I'm currently with doesn't give me enough hours throughout the year (I've been scheduled twice for three months of employment)
2) My current company doesn't offer me any experience pertaining to project management (it's more of a go-live type project, which I am not in a leadership position).
3) Other companies in my field require a bachelors or 3+ years consulting experience topped with the financial project management tasks.

I'd like to move forward with this and it seems that my very downfall is that I don't quite have the degree yet, which I won't be able to afford finishing until I can get something within my area of expertise that pays well enough for me to get by. Are there any positions that I might be able to apply for that contain this type of experience so that I can move forward with my career?

Thank you for all of your help!

-Sarah

Project Coordinator is a good place to start. Our company, as an example, hires Project Manager "want to be's" for this as an entry level position. You get basic project "busy work" type duties, but work side by side with project managers and learn what they do and how they do it. Some companies will also give you very small projects to get your teeth wet. The goal is to find good employees that you want to keep. Therefore, you invest in your employees to help them in their career path. Hence, you then promote them into Project Managers when they are ready.

If you are asking for specific job openings, this isn't the place. I'd say use a job board (indeed, Monster, etc).

Sarah,

I agree with Scott. Look for project coordinator roles with your current employer or in some other area / company of interest. Keep persevering in pursuit of your degree and be sure to document your project management involvement, roles & experience as you go. It will be important to capture this experience in detail so that you will have it available when you get to the point of completing your PMP application. Best of luck to you and don't hesitate to post your questions to this forum.

Cheers,

Mark