Career Transitions and Project Management

Project Management: Your Ticket to Career Mobility

Beyond the PMP® to Hands-on Project Management

Cheetah Spots Club: Cheetah Success Story? Win Prizes!
Attention Cheetah alumni! It’s not too late to submit your Cheetah Success Story to become a member of the Cheetah Spots Club and win prizes. Tell us how you’ve used Cheetah techniques to improve your work or personal life. In exchange for allowing us to use your story in our marketing materials, we will award you 50 Cheetah Points and a Cheetah t-shirt for your entry. And we’ll be giving away one $500 cash prize for the best Cheetah Success Story we receive each month. Click here for more information. Submit all entries to jen@cheetahlearning.com. 

We are on the GSA Schedule -- Special Rates for U.S. Government Employees
Cheetah Learning is a global leader in Project Management training and professional development. We're dedicated to offering U.S. Government employees Project Management expertise by using accelerated learning techniques that produce powerful results for project managers.

If you are a government employee and would like more information, or to register at special GSA pricing, please contact Pam Gieras at pam@cheetahlearning.com or (860) 869-4767, or visit our dedicated web page for government employees. 

Cheetah Negotiations classes go public 
Cheetah is offering two Cheetah Negotiations courses, in Cleveland-Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, on May 25th, and in Hartford-Windsor, Connecticut, on June 8th. There will be two hours of pre-work in the form of an online assessment, and one day in a classroom environment.

The Cheetah Negotiations course helps you to learn how to get what you want, FAST!  It is a course developed by Project Managers for Project Managers to help you learn to be more effective in the day-to-day negotiation situations that you most likely find yourself in all the time.

For more information, and to register, please visit our Cheetah Negotiations site.   

April, 2006
17-21: Sacramento, CA  
17-21: Philadelphia, PA 
17-21: Englewood, CO 
20-24: Weekend!-Fairfax, VA 
24-28: Washington DC-Fairfax, VA 
24-28: Houston, TX 

May, 2006
1-5: Tampa, FL  
1-5: Richmond, VA  
1-5: Austin, TX  
1-5: Atlanta, GA 
1-5: San Francisco-Burlingame, CA 
8-12: Seattle, WA 
8-12: Hartford-Windsor, CT 
8-12: Cleveland-Cuyahoga Falls, OH 
15-19: Charlotte, NC 
15-19: New York, NY  
22-26: Parsippany, NJ 
22-26: Kansas City-Independence, MO 
22-26: Chicago, IL 
 22-26: Washington DC-Columbia, MD  
22-26: Laguna Hills, CA  
22-26: Columbus, OH 

June, 2006
5-9: Middleton, Wisconsin  
5-9: Cleveland/Akron-Cuyahoga Falls, OH 
5-9: St. Louis-Chesterfield, MO 
5-9: Seattle, WA 
5-9: Atlanta, GA 
5-9: San Diego, CA 
12-16: Englewood, CO 
12-16: Fairfax, VA 
12-16: New York, NY 
12-16: Philadelphia , PA 
12-16: Raleigh-Morrisville, NC  
19-23: Sacramento, CA 
19-23: Phoenix, AZ 
26-30: Dallas-Addison, TX 
26-30:Washington DC-Herndon, VA 
26-30: Santa Fe, NM 

June, 2006
10-14: Chicago, IL  
10-14: Hartford-Windsor, CT 
17-21: Tampa, FL 
17-21: Seattle, WA 
17-21: Los Angeles-El Segundo, CA 
17-21: Austin, TX 
17-21: Detroit-Plymouth, MI 
24-28: Washington DC-Columbia, MD 
24-28: Englewood, CO 
24-28: Richmond, VA 
24-28: Dallas-Addison, TX  
24-28: Atlanta, GA 
31-August 4: Washington DC-Fairfax, VA
31-August 4: New York, NY 
31-August 4: Columbus, OH 

August, 2006
7-11: Philadelphia , PA  
7-11: San Francisco-Burlingame, CA 
7-11: Parsippany, NJ 
14-18: Kansas City-Blue Springs, MO 
14-18: Sacramento, CA 
14-18: Seattle, WA 
14-18:  Salt Lake City, UT 
14-18: Hartford-Windsor, CT 
14-18: Dedham, MA 
21-25: Chicago, IL 
28-September 1: San Diego, CA 

September, 2006
11-15: Charlotte, NC 
11-15: Raleigh-Morrisville, NC 
11-15: New York, NY 
11-15: Phoenix, AZ 
18-22: Washington DC-Columbia, MD 
18-22: Atlanta, GA 
18-22: Houston, TX 
25-29: Hartford-Windsor, CT 
25-29: Portland, OR

For a complete list of upcoming classes, check out our website at www.cheetahlearning.com.

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Beyond the PMP® to Hands-On Project Management 
You are one of those people who is always looking for the next challenge. You follow each success with: "What’s next?" You’re probably a PMP®.

You have your certification and now you want to further apply what you’ve learned and take it to the next level. You are the reason we developed the Project Management Master’s Certification program.

This comprehensive course embeds hands-on Project Management experience in the curriculum. It's online. It maximizes your time. It shows that you can get results fast.

The Cheetah Project Management Master's Certificate Program is one of the only programs in the industry that demonstrates both knowledge and skill. Beyond studying, you use actual projects to apply the skills you're learning while you're learning them. You end the program by demonstrating you can deliver results with a project. We’ve actually had people get promoted while they were enrolled in the program because of the results they achieved real time! 

Right now, over twenty universities around the country are offering this online program, and corporations that we meet with consistently tell us the value of 
demonstrated knowledge in action.

Are you ready to be hands-on? Learn more online at http://www.pmmasterscertificate.com or contact Chris Fleming at www.cheetahlearning.com. If you’re a Cheetah PMP® alumnus, be sure to learn more about the special accelerated PM Master’s Certificate program reserved exclusively for our former students.

For more information about the Environmental Project Management Certificate Program, click here, or go to www.cheetahpm.com.

What Can Being CAPM® Certified Do For You? 
If you are new to Project Management, or have recently changed careers, you probably want to look at becoming CAPM® (Certified Associate of Project Management) certified. By becoming certified, you differentiate yourself from others at your level -- and the certification shows you are dedicated to the field of Project Management. There are many people submitting resumes for the same position in which you are interested. Think about how an employer sorts through the multiple resumes. How would you sort through them? 

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PMP Certification: Your Ticket to a Thriving Career 
PMP® certification is as strong as ever. 

If you're planning on looking for a new job, and especially if you're a consultant or self-employed, you need to consider becoming PMP® certified. If you're in this category, try surfing the web for any job site, such as Monster.com. Enter "PMP" and see how many jobs return requiring certification. Without the certification, your resume can get overlooked, as very often employers will use the certification as the first filter when looking at resumes. Additionally, many government contracts are now requiring that a PMP certified project manager be assigned to the contract. You greatly increase your chances of obtaining that new job by becoming certified. Last year, about 80,000 project managers became certified. PMP certification is on the top ten list of the most sought after certifications. 

You have many choices when looking for PMP certification classes. At Cheetah Learning, we've set the standard for quality, reliability, customer service, results, and classes world wide. We support our 96+% pass rate with statistics drawn from every person who comes to class. They report back to us whether they passed or failed, and we double- check the PMI registry for names. 

We support those that don't pass, as we are focused on helping people attain their goal. Our guarantee provides continued support via a trainer, and also repayment of your re-exam fee. Other vendors simply say you can take the class for free again. We believe that 99% of the people who fail the first time don't need another free class -- they need one-on-one help for a very short period of time to reach their goal. 

If you're truly interested in accelerating your career, register for Cheetah Exam Prep for the PMP®. We offer classes around the world and in a city near you. For more information on our course, or to download Cheetah’s free Exam Prep Toolkit, please visit www.cheetahlearning.com.  

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Are You Seeing Spots? 
If not, we have a cure for that. Check out our newest stores for the latest and greatest in Cheetah-wear, Project Management books including those written by Cheetah authors, and Cheetah’s famous flat water kayak that you can build yourself and then enjoy all summer long. 

The Cheetah Store at www.cheetahstore.com has recently been redesigned and restocked, so even if you’ve visited the store before, you’ll want to visit again to see what's new. Be sure to watch the Cheetah Kayak slide show and download the Cheetah screensaver. Through June 15th, use promotion code "cheetahcard" and receive 10% off your entire Cheetah Store purchase.

You will also want to stop by Cheetah’s new Ebay store at http://stores.ebay.com/Cheetah-Store. You never know what will be offered at great prices so check back frequently. See something you like? Buy it now! 

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Cheetah Spots Story Winners Announced  
Thanks to all of our Cheetah alumni who submitted their Cheetah Spots Success Story this past month. We had a ton of great stories come our way, and we had a wonderful time reading them. All of you who have submitted stories have received 50 Cheetah Points to be used toward future Cheetah classes. You should also soon be receiving a Cheetah t-shirt (if you haven’t already.) 

As promised, we chose three winning spots stories out of the entries we received. Congratulations to our 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners, who will win cash prizes ($500, $250, and $100, respectively). We hope you enjoy their stories as we did.

We’d love to hear your Cheetah Spots Story. Tell us how you have used the techniques you learned from Cheetah in your work or personal life. Each month, beginning May, we’ll pick one lucky winner who will win $500. All who send stories will receive 50 Cheetah Points and a t-shirt. Click here for more information.

1st Prize Winner: Gordon Young, PMP 
For me, the Cheetah PMP® Prep workshop came at a good time, both professionally and personally. Professionally, my work group had determined that a requisite for remaining employed in our team was the PMP® credential. After researching several companies that offered prep workshops, I chose Cheetah because of its promise to deliver. Other vendors hinted that they would help me success. Cheetah promised.

Personally, I was working on a goal of losing weight. I chose an out-of-town session and stayed at a suites hotel so that I would have better control over my food situation. In the Cheetah class, my instructor, Kelly, described the regimen we were going to follow the next four days and suggested we take a walk several times during the day in addition to our stretching. This helped me reach my personal goal, as well. Walking 40 minutes in the morning while rehearsing my day's assignments cleared my mind and got me ready to learn -- as Kelly promised it would. While the days were long, the frequent stretch breaks, healthy balanced meals, and lack of caffeine -- (surprisingly enough, this wasn't as tough as I thought it would be and I felt MUCH better) -- made the workload tolerable, even a bit pleasurable, as I felt myself cleaning out physically, and filling up mentally.

As promised, on the fifth day I took the exam. I was amazed at the amount of material I knew! I forced myself to get up from the computer, stretch and take short walks. Boy, was my past experience fighting with me. "Stay put! Plow through the whole test," my conscience was telling me. No, Kelly said that this would work. I've dropped six pounds this week, so this test is merely gravy. Five breaks I forced myself to take. My total exam time was less than 2 and 1/2 hours. And I passed the test!

So, would I recommend Cheetah? Absolutely. It's a great way to capture the credential. You may even lose some of yourself in the process.

2nd Prize Winner: Sandie Stewart, PMP
For the past three years I've been involved with Cheetah and its courses; the PMP® Prep Course helped to focus my skills toward passing the exam, while other courses encouraged a broader mindset toward project management and my use of it.

Recently, I took the PM Master's course. At the time, I moved and changed jobs, discovering after the fact that my new role wasn't what I had anticipated. Far from it, actually. I was disappointed, discouraged, and overall very unhappy.

About midway through the Master's, I found myself becoming refocused on my PM skill set, what was important, the kind of PM I wanted to be. My journal entries included phrases such as, "Why am I doing this? I prefer..." and "Perhaps I should try to change..." As I neared completion of the course, I was asked to write on my perfect career, shape a resume toward the same, and then search to see if any positions matched -- or if I would have to compromise. At the time, I promised myself that I wasn't going to compromise again -- that I wanted my next role to exceed my expectations.

In the last two months, I have left my old position for one that truly exceeds my expectations, and I couldn't be happier. My PM focus has returned and I feel very happy and content with the situation. The last two sections of my Master's were incredibly positive and I successfully completed the course with much more than a certificate and PDU credits. Thanks to Cheetah and the encouragement of the Master's course instructors, I now find myself in an opportunity to excel at what I do best, equipped with a positive, and concentrated, mindset and attitude.

Thanks Team Cheetah!

3rd Prize Winner: Phyllis Ferguson, PMP
Overview 
I passed the PMP® test on the first attempt with very high scores. I score 100% in several of the categories. 

The Challenge
I was concerned about how I could pass the test, given all the PMBOK® Guide information I had to learn in one week. 

The solution
Cheetah's memory mapping and study techniques helped me learn and retain the information I needed. But most of all it was fun learning. Areas that I was concerned about before taking the Cheetah class (i.e., statistics) were easy with the accelerated learning techniques. 

Results/How did Cheetah's training help you achieve success?
I followed the instruction of Cheetah, and created the memory map the first fifteen minutes. I took the stretch breaks and PASSED the TEST. I am now PMP® certified. Thanks Cheetah!

Cheetah Alumni Dinner: You're Invited 
If you're a Cheetah Alumni, you are invited to a dinner the evening of June 1st, 2006 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fairfax, Virginia. We'd love to connect with you again and help you connect with other Cheetah Alumni. 

You'll have a chance to meet the developers -- all those who create the Cheetah Learning experience -- and talk about what you'd like to see in future classes, meet the founder of Cheetah Learning, talk with the CEO, and engage in some learning activities. The evening is designed to invigorate, captivate, and enlighten, while earning PDUs. If you know someone who isn't a Cheetah Alumni, we'd love for you to bring them along. 

To register for the event, visit www.cheetahpm.com and click on Alumni Dinner in Virginia. There will be a cash bar and buffet dinner. The price for the evening is $35 per person payable by May 22nd. For more information, contact Linda Fitzgerald, PMP at linda@cheetahlearning.com.

Cheetah in the Spotlight

Dave Maule, Business Development Specialist/Accounts Manager 
At Cheetah, Dave is one of the main contacts for all customer service related issues. He is responsible for all the payment processing and reimbursements for the entire United States. He also handles invoicing for all Cheetah affiliates, as well as for the Cheetah Licensees globally. He responds to all incoming catalog requests from around the world, and assists students in registering for Cheetah’s Exam Prep for the PMP® course. 

Prior to coming to Cheetah, and from the time he was nineteen, Dave was in the banking industry. Dave worked his way up from being a bank teller to a branch manager for the third largest branch out of thirty-five. He was considered the "go to guy" within the bank. 

Dave trained and mentored over approximately 400 employees. He was also sent to various branches to rectify any branch day-to-day operational procedures. 


CN: What are some of the projects you've been working on?

DM: I have been working, along with some other Cheetahs, to create an easier invoicing format for Cheetah’s affiliate program.


CN: When did you get interested in the work you do?

DM: Project Management is completely new to me. I was in the banking industry for eighteen years. I left because I had had enough of all the acquisitions and mergers. I had known Michelle and Jean as bank customers since Cheetah was established. I just happened to run into Michelle one day and told her that I wasn’t all that happy in my banking job, and now here I am. It was a great decision on my part, and a nice transition. 


CN: What is the most challenging part of your job?

DM: Learning what Project Management is all about. I had never heard of it up until this point. I feel I have learned quite a bit, and over time I intend to learn more.


CN: Is there anyone who has been a mentor to you, or someone who has influenced you?

DM: Here at Cheetah it would easily have to be Pam Gieras (Cheetah's VP of Sales). She is a bundle of knowledge in many different aspects of Cheetah, and is my "go-to" person.


CN: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

DM: I hope to move back to California, and hopefully a lot sooner than ten years. I had moved there previously for about a year, and now I'm wondering why I moved back.


CN: What do you do for escape?

DM: I like to watch TV -- mostly sports and some other specific shows in the evening. I like to read my favorite authors, Stephen King and James Patterson. I collect their hard cover novels. I walk four miles every day, or every other day. I also love the beach, going for drives, hiking, and listening to music.


CN: Is there anything you'd like to be able to do, something you've dreamed of?

DM: I love music. A long time ago, I used to write song lyrics. So far, I have a total of about twenty-five written. I have never done anything with them, though. 

I love to sing as well, but never pursued it to see if I actually have a good voice. Unfortunately, I'm too old for American Idol! 

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Dear Cheetah

Q:  I have found, by way of some not-so-great experiences, that we need a definite "Lessons Learned" procedure within the framework of each project our team completes. Do you have any suggestions that would help us to organize our "Lessons Learned" at the end of each of our projects, so that we can use them to help us in our projects yet to come?

A: When any project is done, in addition to celebrating, you and your team members should evaluate what you learned in the process of completing the project, as you have indicated in your question. A good place to start is with the initial project agreement. Your team should go through the project agreement with a fine-tooth comb, and the project leader should record what you learned from completing the project for each section of the agreement.

The next thing to do is to review the lessons-learned log that you have kept throughout the project and assess how your implementation of the process worked. You can also solicit feedback from the customers about their expectations and experiences with using the final deliverable.

There are three other traditional ways project teams record lessons learned:

• Placing lessons learned information into a company -run knowledge base

• Writing a paper for people in their industry about what was learned

• Creating a story of the key lessons the team and their company learned from the project; "war stories" are an age-old custom of sharing lessons learned.

Project Process Review
After the project team has documented what it learned from each section of the original project agreement, it takes an overall look at their implementation of project. The following questions can help guide that review:

• What made the project move fast?

• What slowed the project down?

• What did you learn?

• Based on what you learned, what are you going to do on your next project?

Feedback from Customers
The bottom line in getting customer feedback is to find out if receiving the final deliverable from your project motivates your customer to continue to do business with you. If it does, then this is an opportunity to find out what other ways you can continue to provide them with products or services in your realm of expertise. If your customer's experience somehow hurt your abilities to continue to do business with them, it is imperative that you find out why, and use the knowledge gained as a catalyst to fix the problems.

If you want to get feedback from customers regarding their experiences with using your product or service, you will get better response if you offer them something in return for their feedback. Most people find filling out customer satisfaction forms very disagreeable unless there is a strong "What's in it for me?" attached to their providing the information. It is best to solicit feedback from a one-on-one phone call or in a face-to-face meeting. It is also better to meet within the normal course of doing business, rather than making it a discrete event where the person providing the feedback is put on the spot to provide his or her opinions. The overture can be as simple as a follow-up courtesy call to see how everything is going, or during follow-up training on using the new product or service.

Organizational Knowledge Bases
Because of the knowledge management movement, many organizations today have corporate-wide knowledge bases, where people can store their lessons learned. If this exists in your organization, follow the prescribed format and include the lessons that the project team has learned from completing the project. If such a knowledge base does not exist, you can approach your organization's chief information officer, or comparable senior management, about creating one and using your lessons learned as a model.

Publishing a Case Study
Many trade and professional organizations welcome case study illustrations about projects that people undertake within their industry. What your project team learned on your project will likely provide valuable insight to others who are making similar efforts. Further, it has been shown that the most creative people are the ones who freely share their experiences through publishing papers to their peer groups. When you publish and present your papers, others will come forward and share their experiences with you, allowing you to learn from them as well.

Storytelling
Storytelling is an age-old custom of sharing lessons learned. Creating a story about what team members experienced on the project causes closure, since working on a project can be an intense experience. It is best if each team member creates his or her own story about the project. The team member can choose to share or not share this story with the team. In the story, the team member can elaborate on the hero, the villain, the twists and turns, the suspense, the drama, the high and low points, and the lessons the cast of characters walked away with that forever changed everyone's lives. Stories are a fast and fun way to summarize what people experienced in their pursuit of a successful project.

Hopefully these techniques will help you organize and learn from your experiences with every project you complete, and will enable you and your team to leap into future projects with clarity and good judgment.

Have a problem that needs solving? Need some help with your most recent project? Bogged down and burned out? 

Let the experts at Cheetah help you get things straight - write us at email@cheetahlearning.com today, and we'll attempt to answer your question by publishing it in a future newsletter.

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Featured PMP® 

In each issue, Cheetah News features a newly certified PMP® who shares his or her ideas, insight, and experience with potential PMP®s considering certification.

Phyllis Ferguson, CDP, PMP, took the PMP® Exam on September 12th, 2005. She was motivated to pursue PMP® certification because of PMI's global industry standard in Project Management. Phyllis felt that certification was a very important part of her professional career development plan, and so decided to reach her goal of certification with Cheetah's Exam Prep for the PMP® course.

In her search for a PMP® course, Phyllis found Cheetah's accelerated approach attracted her. "Cheetah is recognized as a leader in the accelerated learning approach," Phyllis maintains. 

Phyllis' preparatory work before taking the Cheetah course was mainly some self-study. "What was most helpful about the Cheetah Learning course was the accelerated learning techniques, relaxation exercises, and creating the memory maps each day," Phyllis says. "And, of course, the group dynamics." 

Phyllis found Cheetah's memory mapping and study techniques helped her to learn and retain the information she needed. "But most of all it was fun learning," Phyllis states. "The areas I was concerned about before taking the Cheetah class were proven to be easy with the accelerated learning techniques."

And for potential PMP®s, Phyllis offers this advice: "I passed the PMP® exam on the first attempt with very high scores. I scored 100% in several Knowledge areas. If you plan to take the exam, and want to pass on the first attempt, go with Cheetah." 

Phyllis Ferguson, CDP, PMP, is in the Healthcare industry, with four years of Team Lead experience in the IT industry.