In each issue, Cheetah News features an individual who shares his or her ideas, insight, and experience with Cheetah Learning's Methodology.

If you are a project manager and would like to be featured in a brief interview with Chief Cheetah Michelle LaBrosse on her EverydayPM blog, please click here to send us your contact information.

A Professional Requirement Becomes a Personal Goal
It started out as a professional requirement for Hugo Martinez to earn his PMP^® certification – but it became a personal goal. Hugo, an administrative manager in the micro-finance industry in Mexico, started a PMO in his organization and needed to earn his PMP^® certification. “At that time, Project Management was my biggest challenge, so the certification turned into a personal goal for me,” he explains.

Hugo took two other PMP^® exam-prep courses and never passed the exam. Then he came to Cheetah. “In that first course I took, I heard about Cheetah’s exam-prep course and how it totally prepares you – with studying, diet and good sleeping habits – and I was interested. Then, when Alpha Consultoria (Cheetah’s licensee in Mexico) was working with us to help develop our PMO, I decided to include Cheetah’s Exam Prep^® for the PMP^® exam course as part of the project.”

Cheetah’s approach was different from the Inter Software and TenStep Mexico prep programs Hugo tried. “The difference was the accelerated methodology as well as the total discipline and concentration that the course required,” Hugo explains. “It was intensive, but I knew I was well prepared when the four-day class ended.”

For Hugo, the repetition of the concepts throughout the course was a great help. “We reviewed the same topic three – even four times – reading about it, taking the practice tests and listening to the information on our MP3 players. To be honest, I also reviewed all the material at home every day and over the four days between the end of my class and my scheduled PMP^® exam.”

There are always challenges to overcome when you set a goal as demanding as becoming PMP^® certified. “When you have a wife and children, it’s very difficult to pull yourself away from them to devote yourself to the course,” Hugo explains. “Plus, since work never ends, there are always problems and complications that I tried not to let distract me. Even more important was making the personal decision to pursue PMP certification and not stop until I reached my goal.”

With his PMP^®, Hugo says he now has “security, authority and credibility” that have allowed him to gain more experience. Today, with the knowledge he’s gained, Hugo manages projects with confidence and skills he didn’t have before.