Is (Certified Protection Professional) CPP Certification Worth It?

 

Recently I was asked by a friend to give his opinion regarding whether the person should attend the local course to earn the CPP Certification

 through the Institute of Project Management. I did some research and wanted to share my findings with you here, in hopes it may help someone else to lay out $1,750 for this worthless certification...Oops, did I say that out loud? Now that you know what I feel about the CPP Let me tell you the reasons I would not recommend spending even a penny on it.

Let me first define the things I am referring to and what I don't consider the CPP an unimportant certification. I'm simply not knowledgeable sufficient about CPP's curriculum or process of certification and the rigor in CPP to be able CPP program to make a judgment on it from one of these viewpoints. It could be excellent training and requires lots of work to get it. I am not sure. However, I do know that the CPP will not aid you in obtaining employment, not within the next few years. I believe that's the most important benefit of the certification: will it aid in making Military Veterans more competitive in the job market?

I've never ever heard of the CPP certification.

While I'm not an expert in the field of civil project management in general, I've been on the block at least a couple of times within the last eight years. I've also seen a number of certifications that project managers ought to take into consideration. The CPP isn't among the most sought-after. It's true that I've never had the chance to hear about it doesn't mean that the CPP isn't worth anything however, it definitely caused me to doubt it and I set out to investigate and see whether my suspicions are justified.

CPP's CPP online advertisement is faulty and is deceiving

Another reason that raised my doubts regarding the validity of CPP's credentials was that CPP credentials were flagrant mistakes in their advertisement which I used as the header image of my blog entry. The advertisement tries to draw comparisons between its credential with that of the Project Management Professional (PMP(r)) but it has several mistakes. The first is that the ad spells on the qualifications for the PMP to be "4-year degree & 4500 hours experience 35 hours' project management education". It's not entirely true in that, in addition to the 4500 hours you need to prove that the hours were completed over a period of 36 months in the past 8 years. It is also possible to be eligible for the requirement of a 4-year degree with 7500 hours over 60 months in the past eight years. If you're planning to compare your credentials to other ones it is best to inform people about the full story. This advertisement suggests that you need to be a college graduate with a 4-year degree to become PMP. This is completely false.

The second mistake in the advertisement is the amount of time to complete the PMP Exam. PMP Exam. It states 3 hours However, the PMP exam is actually 4 hours long.

The final mistake is that the advertisement declares that"The PMP Exam consists of 200 theory-based questions. Although they did get the right number of questions, however, the usage of the word "theory" is a gross understatement. The PMP test-taker definitely must be aware of the concepts of project management. However, the most difficult part of the PMP Test is how to evaluate scenarios and make a judgment on how to apply the theory to get the best results for your project.

A number of false statements are included in the online advertisement. It is a lie to say that the PMP Prep Course is solely focused on passing the exam is an assumption that is not true because it is true that the Project Management Institute, which is the owner of the PMP credentialing program, does not offer preparation courses. PMP Prep classes are conducted by third-party trainers who are able to teach anything they like in a course that is as lengthy and as robust as they wish to be. The second misleading assertion or implied statement could be that a membership fee annually for the PMP credential is not true. PMI does offer memberships, however, you are no longer required to become a PMI member to become a PMP. If you choose to become a PMI member, your price is $139 for a basic one-year membership or only $32 for students. This is a lot less than the $80-$250 that the CPP advertises online.

The final false statement I'm going to call out in the CPP advertisement includes "Why do employers prefer CPPs?" Anyone looking at the ad will think that CPPs are a must. CPP certification is sought-after by employers...I discovered that this claim was unsubstantiated from my own research. I'll present in the next section.

"If you want to be mistaken for a Certified Payroll Professional, and never have to work at improving your project management skill-set to maintain your professional status, then go ahead and spend $1,750 on the Institute for Project Management's CPP credential."

I'm unable to find any employers that are hiring Project Managers who have the CPP

I searched my top two job sites, LinkedIn and Indeed, to see what could be found on a search for CPP. On LinkedIn, I searched for CPP resulted in no job listings specifically for project managers. There were plenty of opportunities that required Certified Payroll Professional, another certification that uses the CPP acronym, but not a single one for Project Managers. A search for PMP or PMP-MP, which the CPP advertisement compared itself to the PMP, produced more than 16,000 results, the majority of which included Project Manager as a job name.

The same results for Indeed found ZERO post-job ads for project managers However, there were a lot of jobs for Professionals with the certification of Certified Payroll Specialists. The PMP search found more than 14,000 job opportunities for project managers.

Google isn't aware of the CPP, either.

Try me on this one to see whether I'm doing this in the right way. I typed in "CPP" as my search keyword in Google and, after checking the first five pages I stopped trying to find any results regarding the designation of a Certified Protection Professional. If Google isn't able to find it, what would make anyone think that employers know about it, or are they hiring project managers who have that certification?

The only thing I could discover on the Google results for "CPP" were many entries for Certified Payroll Professional, Certified Photography Professional, and even Certified Protection Professional, none of which have anything to do with managing projects.

"If you want to be marketable to over 16,000 potential project manager job openings and participate in a rigorous program of self-improvement, then pursue your PMP."

The inherent quality issues in the CPP certification process.

Look over the advertisement in the header carefully and note the absence of a test, which most people consider to be a good thing. But, let's look at what they substitute it with: A "Project Reflection" consisting of an unwritten report on the project along with a 10-minute presentation and 10 minutes of question and answer time likely conducted by a project management specialist. Consider whether it's a global certification as the ad suggests and will they (Institute of Project Management) make sure that each CPP certification holder gets rated in the exact same manner in the exact same way to meet the exact standards in the classrooms, hotels conference rooms and maybe even meeting rooms for webinars around the globe by thousands or hundreds of facilitators?

The PMP credential helps the effects of the quality issue by the requirement that all PMP holders must pass the same standardized testing procedure everywhere in the world.

The other issue with the quality can be found in the fact that CPP does not require ongoing training for maintaining the certification, which means that a person can become a CPP without ever updating their skills to the latest in methods of managing projects or even work an entire day as a manager of projects, yet still be a "Professional" in the craft. I find this to be laughable and completely absurd. Contrarily, PMI requires that PMPs attain sixty Professional Development Units of continuous education, mentorship, and participation in the management of projects every three years in order to maintain their PMP certification.

Conclusion

If you'd like to be branded CPP, and not have to think about improving your skills in project management to keep your professional status, you should consider spending $1,750 for an Institute of Project Management's CPP certification.

However, if are looking to market yourself to more than 16,000 possible job postings for project managers and be a part of a strict program of self-improvement take on a PMP.