Hi everyone and welcome back to my channel.
So as I've been telling everyone in the other PMP videos that are part of this
series, June 30th is when the PMP was supposed to change.
But good news due to the current situation that all of us find ourselves in,
PMI has decided to extend that change until December 31st that means that if you
are currently studying for the current PMP as it is,
you don't have to feel stressed having to take the test June 30th you have until
December 31st and I believe they're actually going to start the new exam June,
January 2nd, 2021 so that gives you even more time to study.
I just wanted to let you know in case you hadn't heard,
because I would hate to be studying for an exam and then it changing right when
I'm about to take it or when I'm kind of not ready to take it and I need an
extra few months to prepare for it. So I think that is great news.
So please check out the video series which talks about how to apply for the PMP
as well as the way that I prepared for it and I was able to pass it on the first
try.
So what I wanted to talk about in this video is when you pass your exam and you
are officially PMP certified, how do you maintain your PMP?
That is something that you should know is that if you pass the exam,
that doesn't mean that you are a PMP certified person for life.
You have to maintain it.
And the way that you do that is you have to take a certain amount of
professional development units, which for short is PDU.
And these are one hour blocks of time that you can earn by learning,
by educating and by volunteering.
So that is something that you have to maintain in order to keep your PMP.
Because if you don't,
then you have to go through this entire process of applying, studying.
And then on top of that you have to take an exam that has changed from the time
that you took it and you don't want to do that.
So I've had my PMP since 2015 and I've been in the management field for over 10
years. So this channel is all about management,
leadership and working remotely,
which is something that I've been doing for over 10 years as well.
If you haven't done so, please consider subscribing. Hit the notification bell.
So you're notified every time that I post a new video. And that's on Mondays.
So these PDUs are one hour blocks of time where you can learn,
you can teach and you can volunteer.
And this is to help you become a better manager as well as to help the future
managers that are, that you're able to mentor while you are in your position.
So how has broken down is that you are required to have 35 PDU?
I misspoke.
It's 30 PDUs and this is the educational portion and it's broken down into three
areas. The technical, the strategic and the leadership.
And within that you have to have eight PDUs in each of those three areas.
So now you're probably doing the math and saying, wait a minute,
that's 24 if I add eight times three what about the other 11 well,
you can decide how you want to use your time and in which areas for those 11
hours, and in those three years you can have 60 PDUs.
And so we already talked about the 35 you can take an optional 25 and that can
be working as a manager.
And that's eight PDUs that you can get in the three years,
not every year but three years.
And then as well as any volunteering that you do that can be taken into account
for the extra 25 PDUs.
And I do recommend that you do that because it's always good to, you know,
give back and help others.
And as well as it's helping you as well. So how do you earn these PDUs?
So for the educational portion,
which is the required 35 hours,
you can do a bunch of courses and trainings.
These can be in class or you can do those online.
If you remember in my previous videos, if you are a PMI member,
you automatically get membership in projectmanagement.com and that has a huge
library of webinars as well as ones that you can register to attend and you know
while it's happening and those are really great like I've learned so much in
those webinars. They talk about digital transformation,
artificial intelligence, machine learning as well as things like,
like the type of soft skills project managers should have and the other stuff
that you need to be a well rounded manager.
So that is a great way to earn PD use while you have time during the day or if
you decide to do it on the weekend as well.
But I usually do it during my lunch hour and it's great because they usually
schedule it during your lunch hour.
So those are great ways to earn PD use and learn and be able to maintain your
PMP. You can also do this and other online learning platforms.
I know that in LinkedIn learning there are courses that you can get PDUs for.
So that is a great way as well as other sites like you, Udemy and Coursera.
You can also find some courses that you can earn PDUs for.
It doesn't have to be online. It can also be done in the classroom.
So there's some classroom led courses that you can earn PDUs as well.
But one thing to notice, please find out before you pay for a course,
if they do give you PDUs. This I didn't pay for,
but my company,
they had a project management course and it was an all day course.
And when I asked them for cause with the PDU, like PMI has, um,
I guess like, you know,
like a course number that you enter so you can get credit for.
And unfortunately they don't offer PDUs for that course and that kind of sucked.
But you know, I still took the course and I learned,
but it kinda sucked that I was there for eight hours and I didn't even get like
an hour of the, you know, PDU. And so that was something that I told them,
you know, that was my feedback to them was like, Hey maybe you should consider,
you know, giving PDU use for these courses.
Cause then I think that if you give people that incentive,
you'll also earn business as well because then people will be more apt to take
your course. Then another course that doesn't give you any PDUs.
Another great way is attending meetings, conferences and seminars.
That's another great way to earn PD use.
Usually in project management.com they'll put on there like the different events
that you can attend. They also have their own events and those are great.
They're online,
you join the sessions that you're able to join and you earn PDU during that
time.
And then there's also like project management conferences all around the world
that you will earn some PDUs for.
I even heard that there's a cruise and I, Hey,
well right now maybe not a cruise at this point,
but in the past or maybe in the future,
that would be a great way to relax as well as learn and get PDUs.
Sorry everyone.
I had to change my camera to my iPhone because the other one died and so I have
to charge it and it takes a while. So I decided just to continue with my iPhone.
So I apologize if the resolution isn't as good as the previous camera and that's
a great way to earn PDUs is by reading.
There are a lot of people out there who are more independent learners and they
don't want to be in a classroom environment,
but this is another great way to to learn,
educate yourself as well as earn your PDU.
And that's one thing that I love about PMI is that they do allow you to do that
and it doesn't have to be a certain book that they consider to be PMP worthy.
It can be a book as long as it seems like it's focused on management or
leadership or type of any type of technical skill that you need to have as a
manager nowadays,
PMI will allow you to earn PDUs for it.
You can also earn PD use by having lunch and learns having different
discussions. I actually did that in my previous company.
I did some lunch and learns to teach other people about different things that
they needed to learn about in order to be successful in a project.
And I was able to get PDUs for that.
So that's a great way to engage, eat good food,
and be able to earn the PDU and it's super easy.
So those are the ways that I've found that have helped in getting PDUs.
35 in three years is not hard to do.
And as well as getting the optional 25 which I do think that you should try to
get, even if it's half of that, you should try to get it.
Any of those 25 are actually being a manager,
which is super easy and you can always volunteer,
you can be part of the PMI chapter and volunteer time there.
Help nonprofits that are small and can't really have an in house manager.
And those are great ways to volunteer and give back.
So those are the ways that I've found to easily earn your PDU and be able to
maintain your PMP so you don't have to go through the entire exam process,
which can be a little tough.
So let me know in the comments below the ways that you have earned your PDUs or
you can think that you will in the future.
That will be great because maybe I'll learn a thing or two from you as well.
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So you'll be updated whenever I post a new video as well as a blog post,
which I do every Thursday, and I will talk to you next week. Bye.