How PRINCE2 Boosts The Power Of Your CV

There’s been some debate about what PRINCE2 can really do for your job prospects. While it won’t guarantee you a job, it will certainly improve your chances as recent reports reveal.

1. Meet job specifications. Look in the job ads for project manager posts and find one that doesn't specify PRINCE2 as essential or desirable. How many did you find? Me too. Even when not stated, certification is often a given, in fact some recruitment agencies won’t even consider you without it and some interviewers may wonder why you didn't formalise your experience by tackling the training and the exams. Don’t give them the chance.
2. Move from the academic to the real world. For undergraduates or graduates familiar with an academic environment, PRINCE2 could be your door to the real world as it tells employers that you've thought seriously about your career progression path and that you’re ready for business. Once they've passed their PRINCE2 Practitioner, many people go on to do APMP for PRINCE2 Practitioners to round off one element of their professional project management life.
3. Get your foot in the door – or get it open, even! Trying to get into project management can seem daunting even if you have employment experience. Put PRINCE2 on your CV, though, and it says: I’m interested, I’m committed and I’m across everything that’s behind it and its application. It makes you more likely to be considered for any project management opportunity that fits you best: work experience, internship, associated role and for a trainee as well as junior project manager post.
4. Go global with your job prospects. PRINCE2 can not only help open doors it can keep them open. If you’re a professional who has landed a job with project management competencies, its proven methodology will give you the confidence to back up decisions when challenged (you will be; everybody’s an expert!); if you’d love to get that kind of job it’ll instill the competence and confidence to go for it. If you’re a getting to be a good, unqualified project manager, anxious to consolidate your position, PRINCE2 on the CV will rate you as an all-round professional; if you want to move on for tough times are limiting options, it could be your passport out as it’s not tied to any type of project, company, industry or culture. PRINCE2 is totally portable and acknowledged across the global job market. Think of it as one element of your back-up plan in case things don’t shape up as well as you’d like.
5. Show employers you've still got it. Older or experienced car drivers can scoff at any idea that they could learn anything from refresher courses or modern, advanced tests. Put them through their paces, though, and all sorts of sloppy or risky habits can show up! It can be a little like that with project management. So having PRINCE2 on your CV demonstrates that along with years of unbeatable experience you’ll be bringing potential employers today’s recognized best practices that improve project success and not yesterday’s tired and failed methods.
6. Credibility for contractors. Freelance operatives are like mini companies and like all companies they have to sell themselves, their reputation and their skills. Much easier to do that with PRINCE2 on your resume. It is evidence that you’re using a proven and consistent methodology that they can understand and that you know that project management is all about delivering. Result: companies feel reassured and in control.
7. Employers see PRINCE2 as the safe bet. In times of crisis we all head for safety. For HR and training and development departments that means PRINCE2. Faced with the need to spend less whilst still ensuring that staff get top-class training so they can deliver projects successfully, they see PRINCE2 as the de-facto standard for project management according to a recent report. Doubtless they have taken into account worldwide research demonstrating its benefits. Certainly, these organisations all use and therefore benefit from PRINCE2.
8. Value for money employee. Ask yourself this: since training budgets are tight what will a company offering openings in the project management field think if you turn up already trained in one of the foremost, international project management qualifications? No brainer!

Useful Links: PRINCE2 Training Information

• The ILX PRINCE2 site gives details of qualifications, training options, subject matter and a whole lot more. For a summary of all our learning options try our course guide, Training with a difference.
• ILX Connect holds companies’ hands as they implement e-learning and Support guides individuals through training.

  The rich learning environment ILX has created around PRINCE2 includes: a PRINCE2 Forum, Twitter, Facebook, Downloads, Games, M-learning, E-learning, and Live Virtual Classroom - a new interactive platform that combines the benefits of e-learning and classroom interaction in real time from anywhere in the world.

• Background information on PRINCE2 can be found at the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) PRINCE2 site. Have a look too at the Best Practice User Group (BPUG). It has been set up to assist users to adopt, use, share and shape the application of the OGC’s P3RM products, PRINCE2, MSP, M_o_R AND P3O.

  The APM Group (APMG) provides comprehensive information about accredited training companies and about PRINCE2 qualifications.

• Go to the Association of Project Management (APM) website for information about the APMP for PRINCE2 Practitioners and other qualifications and for accredited training providers.PRINCE2 and Project Management Job Market and Information

• An Arras People report illustrates that PRINCE2 is the de-facto standard for project management in the UK market.
• BBC News this year has reported that job market growth rose and revealed the value given to project management skills.
• The APM Group, OGC and TSO sponsored research carried out by Queensland University of Technology makes for informative reading: Creating Value in Project Management Using PRINCE2.
• For a picture of the PRINCE2 jobs market try IT Jobs Watch, Total Jobs and Job Stats. IT JobsWatch, for instance, looks at the demand for PRINCE2 skills in IT jobs advertised in the UK and gives average salaries.
• The following list links you to some of the many agency job sites: Arras People is a specialist project management agency. WorkHound, IT JobsOnline, Reed also include project management in their portfolio. Agency Central lists recruitment agencies who have registered themselves on it as recruiting for UK Project Management Interim Management jobs. All Jobs UK.com lists some of the UK’s top job sites.
• There are many resources to mine in getting that perfect job. Arras People offers a range of useful information. Monster gives some excellent advice on everything from interviews to negotiating salary. Recruiter is aimed at recruitment professionals but it’s a great way to see how your recruitment agent’s mind works! As its name suggests, Work-related Blogs and News, this is what you get from this compiled site of blogs on these areas from around the world. Good luck!