11 Years In, I'm Finally Getting My PMP. Here's Why I Waited.
If you've spent any time in project management circles, you know the PMP conversation well. Someone brings it up, the room divides, and suddenly everyone has a take. Some people swear by it. Others think it's a piece of paper that says nothing about whether you can actually run a program. Most experienced PMs have a complicated relationship with it.
I've been in the field for 11 years. I'm only now studying for my PMP. And I have some thoughts.
I Was Always Too Deep in the Work
The honest answer to why I waited is simple: I never stopped long enough to do it.
That's not a humble brag. It's just the reality of agency life, which is where I spent most of my career. When you're managing 10 concurrent projects, running sprint ceremonies for three clients in the same week, and fielding a scope change on a Friday afternoon, studying for a certification exam is not where your brain goes.
The work always came first. There was always another launch, another migration, another retainer to manage. The PMP was the thing I'd get to when things slowed down. And as I mentioned, things never really slowed down.
Over 11 years I managed programs at Samsung, Fenty Beauty, Capital One, Universal Music Group, and dozens of other brands. I built cross-functional teams, developed PMO processes from scratch, and led programs from $10K website builds to $50M+ enterprise portfolios. I was doing the work. I just didn't have the credential.
What I Thought About Certifications Back Then
Early in my career, I'll be honest, I didn't think I needed it. The agency world I came up in didn't require it. Clients hired you based on your portfolio and your references, not your certifications. The work spoke for itself and I trusted that.
I still believe the work speaks for itself. A credential doesn't make a good PM. Judgment does. Experience does. The ability to read a room, catch a risk before it becomes an incident, and make a call with incomplete information that's what makes or breaks a program. No exam tests for that.
But here's what I've come to understand: the two things aren't in competition. Having 11 years of hands-on experience and a PMP isn't redundant. It's additive.
Why Now Feels Right
There's something that shifts when you've been in a field long enough. Early on, you're building instincts. You're learning what works and what doesn't, mostly by doing. The formal frameworks feel abstract because you haven't lived them yet.
After 11 years, studying for the PMP is a completely different experience. The methodology isn't foreign to me anymore. I'm not learning project management from a textbook. I'm finding the formal language for things I've been doing by feel for over a decade. And that's genuinely useful.
When I work through a section on hybrid delivery frameworks, I'm not reading theory. I'm recognizing the decisions I made on programs at CQL, Tomorrow Agency, and UMG and understanding why they worked in a more structured way. The certification is deepening my methodology knowledge, not introducing it, and that distinction matters.
There's also the practical reality of the current job market. More and more senior PM and program management roles list the PMP as a requirement or a strong preference. After 11 years I have the experience. Having the credential too means fewer conversations where I'm explaining why I don't have it and more conversations about the actual work.
The Version I'm Studying For
I should mention this isn't the PMP most people in the field currently hold. The 8th edition goes live in July 2026, and it's a meaningful update. It incorporates AI integration, updated hybrid delivery models, and a stronger emphasis on adaptive leadership the kind of content that reflects where the profession is actually heading rather than where it was ten years ago.
Waiting for the 8th edition wasn't a strategic decision. The timing just worked out. But I'm glad it did. If I'm investing the time and energy to earn this certification, I want it to be the one that's built for the current landscape, not the previous one.
What I'd Tell a PM Who's on the Fence
If you're an experienced PM wondering whether the PMP is worth pursuing, here's my take.
If you're early in your career, get it sooner rather than later. Building the formal methodology foundation early gives you a framework to hang your experience on as you accumulate it. You'll learn faster and communicate more clearly about the work.
If you're mid-career or senior and you've been putting it off the way I did, the study experience is actually pretty rewarding at this stage. You'll spend less time wondering if the concepts are real and more time recognizing them from your own work. It's a different kind of learning more consolidation than discovery.
And if you've been on the fence because you think the experience is enough on its own I don't disagree. But experience plus the credential is better than experience alone. It's not about the letters. It's about the depth it adds to what you already know.
Eleven years in, I'm glad I'm finally doing it. I'm just glad the version I'm doing for is worth the wait.
The Execution Edit is where I write about project management, program leadership, and the real lessons from 11 years in the field. Connect with me on LinkedIn or reach out through my contact form.