For example, PMI’s 2011 annual salary survey indicates that getting a PMP  will earn you an average of 16% more (approximately US$14,500) than if you were not PMP certified as a project manager.  If you take into consideration that it costs around $600 to apply, about $900 – $1,500 to take a decent PMP prep class and about $200 more to buy books, additional prep material, etc., that’s a cost of around $2,000.  If we buy into PMI’s survey, that means for $2k you can expect to increase your return to be around 625% in the form of a salary increase.  In my own case, I spent around $2k total for my PMP and I got an increase of $30K going from technical lead to project manager which means my return was 1400%!  Both the PMI salary survey as well as a survey by ZDNet Tech Republic indicate that PMP certified project managers earn on average $102,000.

 

Let’s contrast that with what the return would be to graduate from a top tier MBA program like Harvard, where it costs around $112,000 to make an average of $102,000 which comes out to a -8.9% return on investment!...  it is a combination of soaring tuition costs, glut of MBA graduates entering the workforce and general dilution of the graduate degree... in the short run, if you are a mid-career professional and a project manager by trade, it might be better to get a PMP and hold off on or maybe entirely write off the MBA.  But with any certification or degree that’s in flavor at the moment, you have to decide if what you invest in time and money will allow you to rise above being perceived as just another resource commodity and to differentiate yourself from the crowd.

 

To read more: http://goo.gl/vIlNO

 

-Don Kim
Projectation.com