How To Earn Your PMP Certification, And Why It Matters, With Tamara McLemore

Earning a PMP certification can certainly open doors to new career opportunities and elevate your credibility as a project management professional. Experienced project manager Tamara McLemore joins J.R. Lowry to discuss the true value of the PMP certification and why it is more than just a piece of paper. Tamara explains why the PMP is essential for project success in any industry, providing practical advice on preparing for and passing the exam. She emphasizes why PMP is a valuable skill set that brings your career to the next level and vastly improves your project outcomes like never before. Be inspired by Tamara’s insights on agile methodologies, ongoing learning, and how one certification can strongly boost your career.

Check out the full series of “Career Sessions, Career Lessons” podcasts here or visit pathwise.io/podcast/. A full written transcript of this episode is also available at https://pathwise.io/podcasts/tamara-mclemore

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How To Earn Your PMP Certification, And Why It Matters, With Tamara McLemore

This is the show brought to you by PathWise.io. My guest is Tamara McLemore. Tamara is an experienced project manager having spent over twenty years in varying industries with her certification, including tech, aviation, and the US government. As a speaker and coach, she teaches people how to successfully study for and pass the PMP certification through her two-week intensive PMP certification program. She has not only figured out the key to passing the exam but also how to pass quickly. She has coached hundreds of students to success, enabling most of her students to pass the exam the first time they take it. We’re going to be diving deep into all things project management and into the PMP certification and the exam in particular. Let’s get going.

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Tamara, welcome. Thanks so much for joining me on the show.

Thank you for having me. I’m super excited to be here with you and share some nuggets and gems with your audience.

Understanding PMP Certification

Project management is a topic that a lot of our audience is interested in. It’s a core skill that even if you’re not a project manager full-time, you need to be good enough at it because there are project aspects in pretty much every job out there. Let’s start by giving our audience a brief overview of the Project Management Institute and the PMP certification. Can you do that for us?

Absolutely. The PMP certification is administered through the PM  Institute. It is a global standard for how every industry should manage projects. The PMP certification is the exam. Once you have those credentials or the organization feels that you can manage a project from beginning to end regardless of your education, industry, or how many years of experience, they know that you can come in and deliver.

In what industries and roles from your experience is having that PMP certification pretty much a must?

If you had asked me this a couple of years ago, I would’ve said IT, technology, FinTech, government, and industries like that. However, every industry is starting to require project managers. Healthcare is one of the largest industries that are requiring PMP certification education. Believe it or not, I’ve had pharmacists and doctors. You name it. I’ve had people from every industry that require the PMP certification.

What does going through the prep work and earning that certification enable you to do better if you’re in a project management capacity? How is it particularly useful?

I’m glad you asked me that. Think about the toolbox that you have in a closet and take out the project management tools, whether it’s quality, risk, and communications. The PMP curriculum has twelve knowledge areas that you can pick and choose from. Once you have that arsenal or the skillset, that is what’s so attractive to organizations.

If you look at it as your toolkit, you have your hammer, wrench, and Allen screwdriver. Every once in a while, you get that drill with the different bolts and you’re like, “This is so much easier than doing it manually.” Think of the PMP certification as upskilling yourself and giving you the skills to implement a project, not a piece of paper. That’s what I tell people. It’s not a piece of paper. It is the skillset that you’re going to get to deliver.

Who can take the PMP? What’s required as a prerequisite?

I’m going to say everybody. I know that’s not what most people want to hear, but everybody is. You need 35 course hours. That is easily provided by myself. There are other people that you can go to to get the 35 hours. That’s the easy part. For the experience, if you have a degree, you need three years of work experience. If you do not have a degree, which half of my constituents don’t, you need only five years. Some people cringe at, “3 or 5 years? I don’t have that much experience.” You do. A lot of people’s car notes are more than 3 to 5 years. You have work experience. You don’t have to have had the title. That is one of the myths. If you have managed or planned a project, you have the experience.

Last but not least, I have to say this. In the application requirements, i t never said you had to have been paid. A lot of people use their volunteer or voluntold work as I call it. Let’s say you did a 5K at your organization or different community service. I’ve had people use some work experience with a combination of volunteer experience to beef that application up to get approved. Reading is fundamental. When you really look at the requirements, most people meet the requirements.

What’s the exam itself like?

BC or Before COVID, it was really difficult because you had to do a lot of memorization, formulas, and things like that when I took it. After BC or after COVID is what I call it, the exam is situational, like, “What would you do?” The situations on the exam make sense. They’re a series of questions and they’re testing your knowledge so that you understand what to do first, second, and third on a project, the significance, and the consequences.

It is a really practical exam. The hardest part is the four hours that you have to sit. I t’s like going to the gym. If you haven’t been to the gym in a while, it’s going to take some time. It’s going to hurt a little bit. Once you get going and get the muscles warmed up, that’s how the exam is. Once you sit for a couple of mock exams and get your rhythm, it’s fairly easy.

There are other project management certifications out there. I don’t know if you have a view on what makes PMP more relevant or better than some of the others.

I can only speak for the PMP because that is the certification that all my corporations want. I have been working for over twenty years. I don’t want to date myself, but I have been working for a minute. All the corporations want that PMP certification. A lot of organizations are going Agile or at least a hybrid. A little bit of waterfall, a little bit of Agile. We call it Wagile or the Wild Wild West. I have that one. That is a really good certification to get. It is the hallmark or cornerstone of certifications.

Last but not least, I can’t forget the Lean certifications. I have the first couple of bells. Most people who work in the automobile industry, healthcare, and IT have Lean in addition. It makes them so much more marketable because they really understand how to eliminate waste, which is a huge part of project management.

Project Management, Lean, and Agile are all coming at somewhat similar things but from different angles. Certainly, they all have their place and provide you with a toolkit that can be really useful. I can’t remember the name of it off the top of my head, but we have over here in the UK a different regime. The PMI, at the outset, is an international organization and is probably the best known, but a lot of people over here take the more locally based one.

Correct. I am somewhat familiar with it, but I can’t really speak on it because all the organizations that I’ve been a part of have required the PMP.

What about pursuing PMP versus going after an MBA?

I tell people, “Get your PMP.” Every time I say that, people say, “You have an MBA. You’re going to say that.” The MBA helps you think broadly. It gives you a bird’s eye view. It gets into the financials and the hood of the organization. The PMP is a tool that you can use immediately. I  don’t know if you’re familiar with Strengthsfinder. I’m a Learner. I would tell people it depends. I never want to prescribe somebody medicine like, “Everybody needs to take this,” but the PMP will get you further and the benefits are so much more. With that MBA, I know for a fact that I think differently. I think more strategically with that MBA. The two work well together. I love education. Get them both.

PMP Certification: The MBA helps you think broadly and gives you a bird’s-eye view. The PMP gives you tools you can use immediately. The two work together really well.

Any other misconceptions that you want to try and correct in terms of people’s understanding or misunderstanding of PMP certification?

Yes. People think that you have to have the title of project manager. Think about how many jobs we’ve had that we’re doing pretty much the same thing but each organization is calling something different. I have been fortunate enough to have the title in most positions, but I’ve been implementation manager, program manager, IT, global technology, and all these fancy terms. It is project management, managing a project from beginning to end of a unique product or service. That is the first myth.

Another myth is people think you have to do different types of projects. I’ve been doing project management for over twenty years in telecom, IT, airline healthcare, and the federal government. I’ve even done project management for a law firm. Guess what? It was the same project. What made it different was a different timeline, a different customer, or a different technology but I’m managing a budget, a schedule, and a team of technical people. For a lot of people, the myth is that you have to get somebody from space in order to put it on your application. That is not accurate.

Choosing Project Management

Fair enough. Let’s talk a little bit about you and your background. What inspired you to make project management the focus of your career?

My aunt told me so. I come from an era where you do what your family and friends tell you to do. At that time, I had a journalism degree and I thought I wanted to be a reporter. I realized before I graduated that I didn’t want to be a reporter. I did it because I was good at it and I did it in high school. All my friends were going to med school or pharmacy school. I took one of those assessments and they said, “You should be an attorney.” I was like, “Gosh.” They said I was very rational and logical.

I started studying for the LSAT and then I got into law school, but I couldn’t do it. My aunt at the time worked in technology. She was like, “You need to get in technology.” I’m going to date myself. This is when everybody did not have cell phones. This was when only the rich and the C-Suite had cell phones and they were pretty much in that bag or in the car. I started off really early in tech and I loved it. It’s not even work. That’s how I got into technology. It was because my aunt told me to.

What was your own experience like getting the PMP certification?

I failed not once but twice. It took me a long time, three years, going back and forth from Atlanta to DC. I  ended up getting a Master’s certificate from George Washington University through the federal government. I failed. What we realized, all my tutors and instructors, was that I knew it. It was answering those questions. I was a journalism major. I write extremely well, but test-taking was not my jam. They went over how to take tests. Once my tutor did that, I passed. This time, the exam makes sense. A lot of people come to me and say, “This is too easy.” They’re waiting for the gotcha. My experience was that it was very difficult. However, I understood the benefit of getting it. I am not a quitter. I’m always going to try again. I took it until I passed.

That’s perseverance for you.

I understood the importance of a PMP certification. It is not preferred here in the US and a lot of tech companies. It is required. I knew that if I wanted to stay in tech, I had to get it.

If nothing else, sometimes, companies use these certifications as a sifting and sorting mechanism when they get hundreds of applications for a job. It gives them some way of winnowing it down to the people they think will at least have some level of street credibility.

That’s exactly why I got it. When I was interviewing for a multi-billion dollar company here in Atlanta, they brought me back in to say they really wanted to hire me. I had all the SAP experience. I had the technology experience working with the engineers, the logistics, and everything. The only thing that I did not have was that piece of paper. The person that got the job didn’t even have a degree. I had an MBA but he had a technical certificate in the PMP. I was told over and over that I needed to get this certification, so I did it. I had no other choice if I wanted to stay in technology.

Working Across Industries And Projects

You’ve talked about some of the industries you’ve worked in. Where do you really feel like you came into your own as a project manager?

That is a very difficult question. I used to say the federal government. I started off in the private sector. I grew up there in the private sector in telecom doing switches and cell sites for Ericsson. When I went to the government, that was a whole new alphabet soup that I had to learn. I had to learn their language, acquisition, and then all their customers. The agency I worked for, GSA, was the Walmart of the government. It was a whole new ball game.

I thought I grew up in the federal government, but then I went to Delta Airlines where I knew zero about the airline industry. I was very successful because I knew project management and I did not understand the airline industry which made me an asset because I asked a ton of questions and I did not do my projects business as usual. I realize that what people think is your weakness is your strength sometimes, like not knowing the industry.

Sometimes not having deep familiarity is an advantage. You have to know when those situations exist and take full advantage of them.

I do feel like I grew up with the federal government and then at Delta Airlines.

Do you feel like there was a particular project that was really challenging for you where you learned how to work through those tough problems?

A lot.

I would say the same thing.

One in particular was Delta Airlines because I helped them set up a whole new subsidiary. I didn’t know the airline at all. I collect passport stamps. I am an avid traveler. I’ve been to over 25 countries. That’s what I knew about the airline. As far as below the wing or what gets a plane off the ground, that part I was clueless about.

Helping Delta set up a whole new subsidiary, Delta Material Services, where they buy and sell airline parts, learning all the parts, and learning the sales process from beginning to end with the SAP software part in addition to the warehouse component was a very challenging project because we were a small but mighty team, but the success that we got from that project was amazing. That was one of my huge success stories.

Establishing A Consulting Business

That’s great. What led you to ultimately go out on your own, establish this consulting business, and start your two-week intensive PMP prep program?

It was an accident. I have to give credit where credit is due.

Is this another aunt?

No. You could call her a big sister. I had coworkers who were program managers and general managers at Delta. They knew that I was teaching through PMI Atlanta volunteering in the evening. If I think things could be done a little better and a little different, I’m not a person to talk about it. I’m a person to volunteer and do it. I was volunteering with PMI Atlanta and my coworkers knew. They had a study group at Delta during lunch and in the evenings. They asked me to teach their study group or their boot camp. That was my first boot camp. I fell in love. I got the bug. I was like, “This is it.”

That’s how it started because I got to see my coworkers. I have to say these people are beasts in their industry. These are some heavy-hitting engineers. I could see the change in them in managing projects and using these tools. I was like, “I have something here.” Delta was my first corporate client, and I would teach quarterly. Then, COVID hit. We know what happened with COVID. Everybody wanted to upskill themselves. I went into teaching randomly quarterly to every month. That’s how my business started by mere accident.

I know you said it took you a few tries to pass the test yourself. How did you translate your own experience into the way that you developed your program and helped your students pass the test?

I am a learner. I learned and paid attention to what worked and what didn’t work. I used all the materials like the instructors, throwing all the books, guides, study schedules, and all of that. I really listened to what my participants said was working and what was not working. I love reverse mentorship. I tell everybody, “Get some Gen Zs in your life because they’re straight shooters with no sugar on it.” They told me why they were comprehending the material quicker, a better quality of comprehension, what was working, and other things and tools that I was giving them that they weren’t using. I listened to what the participants were telling me and shaved off what wasn’t working.

PMP Certification: Get some Gen Zs in your life. They are the straight shooters.

What does the program look like, your two-week intensive?

It’s a two-week intensive in the evenings. We go through the curriculum. Since I’m a learner and I listen, we don’t do the case studies in the book. Since I help everyone in the boot camp with the PMP application, I get to know what you do every day on your job. For example, I get a lot of people from the same organization, but guess what? They all do a different job and they do it in different ways. I make my examples relate to you. That’s one thing. I don’t use the course examples in the book. I use your everyday examples.

I then make sure that I’m really paying attention to how everybody’s comprehending and making people outline what they would’ve done differently on a project today or tomorrow and how they would use the curriculum. If they can’t do that, guess what? They didn’t get it. That’s what we do during the week. Our brain rests on Friday. You need a day of rest. On Saturday, we get up, get our coffee and our tea, and go through the questions. That way, people need to see the questions and how they’re worded. I consider that reverse engineering.

A lot of people say, “We haven’t gone over all the curriculum.” That’s okay. Sometimes, in some of the curriculum, you’re seeing the questions first. For instance, we go through quality and risk in the 2nd week but you’re seeing the quality and the risk questions in the 1st week. When I’m teaching, you’re like, “I remember that from the question.” It’s reverse engineering. I stay with you until you pass. We have study groups. We have a baseline where we baseline everybody to see what they need to study after the boot camp. My boot camp is really geared toward the individual adult learner.

Is this virtual or do you do this face-to-face?

Both. I do it virtually most of the time, but organizations do have me come in like the federal government. They have to do their classes during their duty times, so I do go in person to the federal government.

Communicating Well

Let’s talk a little bit about project management itself. If you had to pick one, what do you think the most crucial aspect of successful project management is?

Communication. I know that’s probably not what you thought I was going to say.

Everybody’s got a different answer.

It is communication because most people don’t communicate well or effectively. You have to be able to communicate with the tech team, the C-Suite, the logistics, the customer, and the public. Communication is so important. Even before imposter syndrome came out, I had it probably many years ago. I was told by management that the reason why I was getting promotions not every year but every six months was because a lot of people who work in this field are introverts. I am an extrovert, so my communication style is different. I’m going to make sure everybody really gets it. I know that is my superpower. I would say communication and then second, being very proactive. You have to be 2 or 3 steps ahead of everybody.

With communication, it’s making sure people have all the information, that you’re not hiding things from them, that everybody’s talking to each other, and you’re getting in front of things. I would’ve said getting the problem statement right, like what problem are we trying to solve and what does success look like. That’s because a lot of times, you’re not in sync on that at the beginning. You only find that out halfway through the project.

You’re correct. That’s part of communication because people are scared of that. What we do is we have a meeting with our customer and then we have the meeting after the meeting. They’re scared to say, “What I think his team wanted was XYZ.” Tamara’s asking the hard questions. Everybody’s like, “Did she ask that?”

I like to use the smart TV remote. I always say I want an HGTV button where I can push one button and get to my channel. There are so many apps on streaming services. I love hot pink. I  have a hot pink golf ball. I say, “Can I make it hot pink?” When I talk about this in class, I’m like, “We need to be very clear on what shade of pink. It’s not pale pink or soft pink. It’s hot pink.” It is making sure that everybody is on the same page. I have no problem with those difficult or hard conversations. They have to be had.

Common Mistakes And Challenges In Project Management

That’s very true. What are some of the common mistakes that you think PMs make, and how can they avoid them?

Project managers seem to think that you have to be perfect. That burns me up. People are so afraid of failure. That’s why I really love Agile because the cornerstone of Agile is to fail fast. It is quickly failing. Most of the multi-billion dollar companies know you want to fail fast, fail quickly, learn from it, and move on. Many project managers are so scared to fail. They don’t understand that that can be a superpower.

Especially if you get comfortable with failure. You talked about learning many times in this discussion. It is learning from failure and adapting. If you do that enough times, you’ll get better.

Another problem I see with project managers is they don’t ask questions. They want to appear a certain type of way. They feel like project managers have a certain look, appearance, or action. Not understanding project managers is like a crayon box. We come in different flavors. You cannot be afraid to ask questions. Raise that hand and be like, “We’re not going to talk about the elephant in the room?”

When people say, “Meeting adjourned,” you’re like, “Should we set up another call or another meeting or do we have time to talk about XYZ? You have to do it. That’s why they pay us the big bucks. We have to ask questions and not be afraid to look dumb or incompetent because there’s no such thing if you’re asking a good question.

What are some of the other challenges or roadblocks that people commonly run into?

I would say themselves. I coach a ton of managers, directors, and VPs. A lot of this is in our heads. They perceive certain personality types. Project managers are proactive, but some people perceive somebody else’s reaction so they already make their decision. I can go down a rabbit hole. It’s a roadblock, and a lot of times, it’s themselves.

I coach them on, “Send them an IM or, “How about pick up the phone, get that voice, and get that feel?” You cracked a smile, so you’re like, “I thought JR was going to clobber me and he chuckled.” You can’t get that from an email or IM. A lot of times, those relationships and me coaching people through what seems to be very difficult, to me, it’s not.

Why You Need A Project Manager

Some people believe that everybody should be able to manage their own project, so you don’t need project managers as a function, the people with project managers as their title. What’s your take on when you do need a project manager and when you should look to somebody to do it themselves?

I like that question because I love projects that have failed or the projects have run over budget or over schedule because then, the leaders get, “My people are good at XYZ. However, they’re not good at managing the budget and managing the schedule.” I want people to bump their heads a little bit because once that happens, then me and my team can go in and implement it and they’re like, “Whatever you need.”

I tell people in that situation that sometimes, we need to look at how we’re pushing project management and maybe not call it that. An example is Agile. That is a buzzword. A lot of people know what it is. A couple of years ago, in some organizations, it was a bad word because they were like, “We don’t need another tool. We’re doing fine.”

Instead of forcing it, pick a tool that will benefit your project and slide it in. Let’s say it is doing the daily standups. You don’t have to call it a daily standup. You can call it a daily check-in or every other day. You are sliding the tools in without force-feeding them to your organization because a lot of times, that’s what happens. I tell my people, “You have the tools but your boss doesn’t,” or, “Leadership doesn’t understand. You can’t force it down their throat.”

Some people worry that if you have project managers, it absolves the ultimate business leader of having responsibility. When things go badly, it’s the project manager’s fault and not the business leader’s fault. That’s something, at least in the company that I work for, that is a real thing that we really focus on. We are making sure that we’ve got an accountable person in the business area who’s driving the work so that the project manager is not hanging out there on their own.

That brings me to another point. That’s why organizations require other people than the IT or the technical person to be the project manager. Let’s have business project managers. Let’s have sales and marketing project managers. That way, they know their expertise and they know how to deliver projects. That’s what I see a lot of organizations doing, to that point.

Do you put all your project managers corporately in one group or do you have them scattered about the company?

I like the scatter mindset because it works really well, but it does take a particular type of person to be able to do that. When I get hired within an organization, I’m normally part of the PMO or the center of excellence. When I go to these business lines within the organization, to be quite frank, they don’t want me. I’m going to be honest. I have the capital funding and the backing, so they have to accept me. I have to come in, make them feel comfortable, and make sure that they understand I’m a part of their team.

I’ve been on projects that failed because of that. It wasn’t me, but the business should have hired the project manager. The business should have come up with the requirements of what the individual, myself, and my team needed. IT did that. I am a fan of the different business groups hiring their own project manager.

You talked about technology and the role of technology in these things. There are very few projects that are technology-only projects. Almost all of them have a business purpose unless it’s technology infrastructure where it’s maybe a step removed from the business groups. Our experience has been that when technology does projects without the right engagement of the business, they’re almost never going to work out right because they’re having to guess too much. They’re not getting the level of engagement that they need from their business stakeholders.

That’s why I’m a fan of Agile and the whole war room setup. Projects that I work on are like that. I’m with the business hip and hip 24 hours a day for the whole project. We’re not setting up meetings. We’re going to lunch together. I know they’re kids. For those projects that I was really successful in, I moved in with the business. I didn’t see my desk for two years .

To me, this is the problem with waterfall in business. They write a bunch of documents. They send over their requirements. They give them to IT. IT spends time turning them into a technical spec. By then, the business had changed their mind. The beauty of Agile is everybody has to be in the same room virtually or in person on a regular basis. It goes back to your points about communication. You can’t say, “That’s not what I meant.” It’s like, “You should have brought it up when we had the daily standup.” That’s not what you saw being built. It helps cut through a lot of the finger-pointing that goes on in a typical waterfall project.

When I have even my BA or Business Analyst and my financial team, when we’re doing projects, it’s just not me that moves in. We’re all moving in. They’re like, “Why do we have to come?” I’m like, “I’m not good at finances. I manage a $150 million project, but the person who is doing the day-to-day budget and approving time, you need to understand what they’re doing as well.” My whole team needs to move in.

What else should leaders be doing to make sure projects are delivered as planned?

They need to start with the end in mind. You said it earlier. What does acceptance look like? What is going to make the customer, the end user, happy? How are they going to use the product or the service? That is why we’re here. I tell people, “That’s what pays the bills and keeps the lights on, so we have got to get a clear understanding.”

PMP Certification: You need to start with the end in mind. What does acceptance look like? What will make the customer happy? How are they going to use the product or service?

You said it. You can’t get that from a document. You need to understand that we can only write so much and put so much in a document. When you’re really with your customer or your end user, you’re like, “The document says this, but you are saying something a little different.” That is what makes me ultra-successful in my projects.

Project Management Trends

What do you foresee over the next few years in the project management field? What trends and developments are out there that our audience should be thinking about?

N ormally, when I speak and people ask me that question, it is not the PMP certification. Even if it’s a foundation or a fundamentals class, take a project management class. Take an Agile class, Lean, and AI or Artificial Intelligence. I coach a lot of people. That’s what the interviews are about. They’re like, “If you’re a project manager, what specific technology do you know?” Whatever you’re deficient in and you’re interested in, learn about it. You don’t have to get a full-blown certification, but there are so many classes. Become a lifelong learner because I am and I enjoy learning. Everybody should.

You have people coming together for things and then they disperse and go work on something else. More work feels like it happens in temporary project kinds of constructs. To me, that means you’ve got to be comfortable with the nomenclature, comfortable enough with the different methodologies that we’ve talked about in the course of this conversation, and facile in the tools and techniques of project management. Whether you’re a leader or a participant, you’re going to be spending time on project teams more going forward.

On some of the job descriptions, you’ll see that they want people to have an entrepreneurial spirit. That’s what you described, taking charge of your own career. A lot of people leave it up to their company. This is about you, your tools, and how you manage yourself and your projects. Let me say this. Entrepreneurship, meaning upskilling yourself, is part of self-care too. When I got my PMP and I learned how to manage projects more effectively and efficiently, guess what? I didn’t have that 5:00 to 9:00. I have the 9:00 to 5:00, and then I can log off and forget about it until the next morning. I do not have to work on weekends or at least worry about work on the weekends. That’s what upskilling yourself and your career means. It’s part of self-care.

What do you do to stay abreast of leading practices?

I’m always on LinkedIn. I’m in so many masterminds and different groups. Gen Z keeps you on your toes. I’m in so many different groups where we’re talking about technology and the next thing. I’m staying current with all the events. I like AI.  I like Lean. I wish I had stayed in that a little more. I lived through my clients with the Lean because a lot of them have the certifications. I like technology because it’s fast-paced. I also like cybersecurity. I  don’t mean myself coding, but understanding the layers and what’s going on in the cyber world.

What else is ahead for you?

I want to focus on making sure that everybody’s a project manager because I firmly believe that. It is evangelizing the PMP certification and project management. I want everyone to know that you’re a project manager. Did you realize that universities have a major in project management? It wasn’t when I was in school. It wasn’t even a class. I am really excited about training the next workforce in project management. This is exciting.

Episode Wrap-up

Is there anything else you want our audience to know before we wrap up?

If your audience wants more information, and not necessarily the PMP certification because everybody doesn’t need it but a fundamentals or a foundational course, on my website, IWantMyPMP.com, there’s a free questionnaire. You can answer a couple of questions and you will clearly see, “I’ve been doing projects for a minute.” When people do this free quiz, they really get to see, “I am doing project management.” I also hold free consultations if people want to go through their work experience. We can go online on Google University or the Internet University as I call it. We can go there and take classes but not speak to a person. I offer a lot of coffee chats for free to talk to individuals about their careers.

That’s a great thing. Thanks for doing this. We covered a lot of ground. This certainly helped people understand the importance of project management. That was the goal. Thank you.

Thank you for having me. Hopefully, your audience will get that they’re project managers. What I want them to do is not after they take a fundamentals course, but tomorrow, pull out some of those tools that they’ve taken classes with and start using the methodology immediately. That’s what I want people to do.

Thanks again. Take care.

Thank you.

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I want to thank Tamara for joining me to discuss project management, the PMP certification and exam process, and how she helps others get ready for their PMP exam through a two-week intensive program, which you can find out more about at IWantMyPMP.com. If you’d like to learn more about this topic and many other career-related topics, you can visit PathWise.io and become a member. Basic membership is free. You can also sign up on the website for the PathWise newsletter. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Thanks.

Important Links

• Tamara Mclemore
• LinkedIn – Tamara McLemore, PMP®, PMI-ACP®
• I Want My PMP
• LinkedIn – PathWise
• Facebook – PathWise.io
• YouTube – PathWise.io
• Instagram – PathWise
• TikTok – PathWise

About Tamara McLemore

Tamara McLemore, PMP, PMI-ACP is an experienced project manager, having spent over 20 years in varying industries with her certification, including tech, aviation, and the US government. Now, as a speaker and coach, she teaches women how to successfully study for and pass the PMP Certification exam through her 2-week intensive for PMP Certification, something that usually takes 6-8 months on average to complete.

She has not only figured out the key to passing the exam, but also how to pass quickly, and she has coached hundreds of students to success, empowering women everywhere to excel in their careers, secure their dream jobs, and increase their salaries by 30% or more. Tamara’s no-nonsense approach [enabling] means most of her students pass the exam the first time they take it, and within 30 days or less, and the course’s 95% pass rate proves her method works! She knows just what it takes to lift professional women from a negative mindset of self-doubt, lack of guidance, and study anxiety to living out their aspirations in career advancement, financial stability and gaining the recognition they deserve.

Tamara has been a guest on podcasts such as Women of Project Management®, HBR’s Women at Work, and HBR on Leadership, and she was a keynote speaker at both the Women of Project Management and AE Ignite conferences, as well as the Wonder Women Tech Summit. She has also taught project management to universities and organizations across the globe including in India and Dubai.