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

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Don't Sell Yourself Short
The reality of today's unemployment situation isn't simply the number of people who are unemployed; it's also the many who are underemployed. That's something Becky Hartman didn't want to do -- "settle" for a position in her job search. Instead, she decided to make herself more marketable by pursuing her PMP^® certification.

"I'd talked about getting my PMP^® certification for about five years and knew in the current economy, not having a college degree meant I needed verification of my Project Management skills to be recognized as a professional," Becky explains. Her experience is in the health care industry in St. Petersburg, Fla., along with support and IT included in her background.

Becky was in the process of taking another online PMP^® exam-prep course when she found Cheetah's Exam Prep^® for the PMP^® exam online class. "Needless to say, I did not go on to do the second part of that course. It was nothing close to what Cheetah provided in any way."

Becky knew she needed help to pass the PMP^® exam but also knew a five-day boot camp would not work for her. "Cheetah's very unique approach, support model and guarantee really convinced me this course had been well thought out and developed," she explains. "The pre-class assistance to get my hours documented was really outstanding. This part of the process was just as daunting to me as the test itself."

Cheetah's four-week online exam-prep class offered Becky the chance to learn the information at a comfortable pace. "The course was interactive with a holistic approach to learning the information and providing feedback -- lots of it in my case. I asked my instructor Norma Ribich for a lot of support, and she gave it to me. This gave my brain every opportunity to learn the information, not just remember it."

The webex sessions helped Becky reinforce what she'd read and mind-mapped in the chapter, and she found it very helpful to be able to complete an entire lesson all at once. Becky's biggest challenge was being confident about learning all the information, but she was able to master that.

"Be committed to the Cheetah process 100%," she advises others. "This is your best chance to learn the material and interact with a PMP^® professional while still having the convenience of planning your study time."

Now, with the PMP^® designation after her name, Becky is finding responses to be quite different during her job search. Over the past six months, she had hardly any hits on her resume and found recruiters to be luke-warm about her prospects. "Once I had my PMP^® certification and sent e-mails updating those recruiters, every single one of them called to congratulate me and showed more interest in my resume than they had before. It's still slow, but there is a different level of respect when I communicate with them now. I'm more confident and am looking at the types of positions I want to interview for not just those that would accept my work experience."

At a recent Suncoast PMI^® Chapter Board of Directors meeting where she was asked to take the Director of Programs position, Becky couldn't resist talking about her experience with Cheetah's online PMP^® exam-prep course. "I found myself gushing about the positive experience it had been. I feel like a cheerleader, but I cannot say enough good things about Cheetah."

'PMI', 'PMP' and  "The PMBOK^® Guide – Fourth Edition" are registered trademarks of The Project Management Institute, Inc.