teTa , teTam, imagine jaws music just before the shark bites, that is the sound of my heart beating extremely loud, I close my eyes, take a deep breath, open them slowly and see a please wait.... heart beats faster if that is even possible, close my eyes again, another deep breath, open them and ...please wait, no.... i will die soon, close again take 2 breath, open and, please answer this survery, what!!! come on give me my grade, yes i do like this testing center, yes the facilities are fine, no i didnt like the scheduling process, who cares... ok, i am slightly more composed now and even give some writen feedback, like- give the grade first, then do the survey. click End, at, heart rate is accelerating once again, close my eyes, deep breath, open my eyes, and Congretulations, oh the sensation of relief, you are now a certified project manager professional, PMP.
I have been on this PMP track for over a year, last year i took some courses to allow have the training prerequisites and recently i submitted my application which is a process by itself.
this is how it went down. you have to get information of your projects management past with exact content and divided by sub areas, who knows exactly how long things took 5 years ago, so I estimated and as such dreaded a possible audit (one in five or four is audited), so i filled the info which took me half a day to do and submitted, they say it takes up to five days to get a reply, i submitted on a Monday and checked my mail 3 to 17 times a day, finally the answer came in on a Saturday saying i was accepted and eligible to take the test, but audit, answer will come after you may. fudge fudge fudge. so i go through a similar process to the 1st paragraph to a lesser scale, pay the membership fee and the expensive test fee and this time the answer is quick, and I am happy to not be audited (that's all i need now while studding hard, to be interrupted and to go to some managers I didn't really like and have them confirm some info).
that was about 2 weeks ago and since then I was studying like a maniac, with not enough sleep and nerves approaching the breaking point with each passing day, on top of that, i am dieting and working out which actually helped control my anxiety i think. what didn't help was home work and another test in my regular MBA course, i could do without studying for those at the same time (grade is still not in).
the one relaxing activity was a scarecrow building at work, it was a day after a prep test for this PMP, i was studying lots and needed a mental break. since my head felt like rotten straw, a scarecrow was appropriate. the Idea was to use the 3 Philips internal attributes , eager to win (we had a medal on the scarecrow), team up to excel (we placed our diverse team map, with employees from 4 continents, and take owner ship (we had a sheet of tasks to do on a chart, as in taking owner ship of a project. we also had a cage with captured angry birds (to scare off would be birds), and since this is the gym group which i go to every day (at work) we gave the crow abs and muscled and made her a bad ass. well we didn't win, but it was fun. the Oktoberfest had some other activities like throw a pie in the face of your boss. i missed my 1st throw (i am bad at basketball) , so the next throw, I almost cheated, i took a step forward and before landing threw it and wham, bulls eye.
I started at Philips about 10 months ago, and for unknown reason, I didn't get a name plate, some have it, some have a printed page, but everyone in the near by work area have a name, but me (not sure about other parts). even my new neighbour of 2 months has a printed page. this week people came and swapped the pages with real name plaque, even to my new neighbour, but not for me, strange, but they asked for my name and the other day I also received a name to place of my cube.
Today, it is time to relax , go out and enjoy the magnificent fall colors
cheers
Gil Even, PMP
No comments:
Post a Comment