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Sierra Hampton-Simmons

Are you by any chance thinking about becoming a Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®? Well then, you are in for a treat today because the Project Management Institute (PMI)® is currently in the process of making a number of exciting changes to this exam and we review all of them.

There are some technical change - for example you will encounter two new question types on the exam - and PMI® is also making it easier for everyone who is and will be CAPM® certified if you decide to apply to take the Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam.

And here to talk us through these changes is no other than Sierra Hampton-Simmons (LinkedIn Profile). Sierra has nearly two decades of experience as an expert in Certification Management and joined PMI in late 2013. Currently, she serves as the Portfolio Leader/Head of Certification Products. This means that she is responsible for the entire portfolio of Certification Products including the CAPM certification. So she’s the perfect person to talk to about this.

Project Management Professional (PMP)® Exam Prep:

Episode Transcript

Below are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only.

Podcast Introduction

Cornelius Fichtner: In this episode of The PM Podcast™, you will learn about all the exciting updates that are coming to the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®, better known as the CAPM® Exam.

Podcast

Cornelius Fichtner: Hello and welcome back to The Project Management Podcast™ at www.pm-podcast.com. This is Episode 433 and I’m Cornelius Fichtner. And happy to have you here again.

Are you by any chance thinking about becoming a Certified Associate in Project Management? Well then you are in for a treat because the Project Management Institute (PMI)® the PMI is currently in the process of making a number of exciting changes to this exam and we review all of them.

There are some technical changes. For example, you will encounter two new question types on the exam and PMI is also making it easier for everyone who is and will be CAPM® Certified. If you decide to apply to take the Project Management Professional (PMP)®, that’s the PMP® Exam later on.

And here to talk to us about these changes is no other than Sierra HamptonSimmons. Sierra has nearly two decades of experience as an expert in certification management and joined PMI in late 2013. Currently, she serves as the Portfolio Leader and Head of Certification Products. This means that she is responsible for the entire portfolio of certification products including the CAPM certification. So she is the perfect person to talk to about this. Well then, let’s hear what’s coming to the CAPM.

Hello, Sierra and welcome to The Project Management Podcast™! Sierra Hampton-Simmons: Oh hello! Thanks for welcoming me!

Cornelius Fichtner: Well, thank you for stopping by. So we want to talk about the Certified Associate in Project Management, the CAPM® Exam. That’s our main focus here today. But first, let’s talk about you. What is your role within PMI?

Sierra Hampton-Simmons: I am the Portfolio Leader for Certification. And what that means is I head up the whole Certification Product team.

Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! So fair to say that you are the person who has the overall responsibility for all certifications of PMI?

Sierra Hampton-Simmons: That is correct.

Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! How exactly are you involved in the changes that are currently happening and coming to the CAPM® Exam?

Sierra Hampton-Simmons: Well I’ve led up the research that actually led to us making this change and the folks who actually executing that change, actually report directly in to me. So I coach them through the process.

Cornelius Fichtner: Alright! Well thank you very much for introducing yourself. But now let’s jump over to the CAPM® Exam because there are a lot of exciting developments happening at PMI. And the CAPM is just one of them. And let’s see, first of all, I think the 1500 work experience requirement for new CAPM applicants will be eliminated. So what does that mean for the candidates?

Sierra Hampton-Simmons: Well what that means is that we are basically removing one of the barriers that it takes to get the exam. We are making it a little bit easier for people to raise their hand and say that they want to take the CAPM and show that they are eligible.

Cornelius Fichtner: So that means that basically if you come out of college or university and you may not have experience yet, you can still take the CAPM already.

Sierra Hampton-Simmons: Yes, you can. Yeah, that’s right.

Cornelius Fichtner: And what is the main reason for doing that change?

Sierra Hampton-Simmons: Well interesting enough, all the changes that we’ve been making recently are based on data. Looking at our data, historical data for the CAPM, what we noticed is that most of the candidates were using instead of the 15 hours of experience, they were using the 23 hours of contact hours and the training experience that they had instead. So what that indicated to us is that most people hadn’t accumulated that much work experience as of yet.

We did some further research asking hiring managers what they looked for and what they expected of a CAPM and more often than not, they said to us that well some of them would have some project experience. They use this as a way to get their foot in the door. So they didn’t really expect them to have vast amounts of experience. So we’re actually just aligning to the actual world.

Cornelius Fichtner: Yeah and just to clarify here, it was either/or in the past. You could either have the 1500 hours or 23 hours of training. You didn’t need both.

Sierra Hampton-Simmons: Exactly.

Cornelius Fichtner: Right! And also just to be absolutely clear, this is for anyone taking the exam in the future. This has no effect on anyone who is already certified.

Above are the first few pages of the transcript. The complete transcript is available to Premium subscribers only. Please subscribe to our Premium Podcast to receive a PDF transcript.