Boston University’s Metropolitan College is one of a limited number of schools worldwide that are accredited by PMI’s Global Accreditation Center.  This opens many unique opportunities for our students – one of which is the GAC Scholarship.  Here is info about that scholarship – just announced and with a short application timeline:

(from the GAC website)

“The GAC scholarship is open to all students enrolled in a GAC-accredited program, in project/program/portfolio management.

The purpose of the GAC scholarship is to support students who are studying project management, with the objective of using project/program/portfolio management to meet the current and anticipated needs of an organization, thereby increasing awareness of project management and strengthening an organization’s success.

The Global Accreditation Center for PM Education Programs (GAC) is an independent academic accreditation body with policies, procedures and standards for project, program and portfolio management and related programs at the bachelor’s, post graduate and doctoral degree levels.

Two scholarships will be awarded in the amount of US$2000, each. These scholarships are awarded annually. “

Click below for the details, such as eligibility info, and required application materials.  Applications are due 10-September-2021 (not that far away!!!)

https://www.pmi.org/learning/academic-research/academic-scholarships/gac-scholarship

Thanks for reading – and best wishes if you apply!

PMI Austin is hosting a free event on 8-July-2021, 5:30 to 6:30PM (BOSTON TIME).  Sign up here:

https://pmiaustin.org/calendar-of-events?eventId=8278

Description below:

Presentation Title: Resume Building: Insider Tips and Tricks

This workshop will help you build a professional, clear, and concise resume optimized for any recruitment software and applicant tracking system. We will discuss proper formatting, how to tailor your resume to any job description, keyword usage, and more! Come prepared to take notes and ask questions to get your resume seen by real recruiters and pass the sneaky digital roadblocks of modern-day applicant systems!

Objectives:

• How to express the best skills of a person in concise formatting
• Utilize language to best peak interest of the person and software reading/analyzing the resume.
• Learn how Applicant Tracking Systems accept or decline your resume based on certain criteria

Key Takeways:

• For participants to have mindfulness when creating specific resumes for positions, how to relevantly express experience on paper, learn keywords that recruiters and ATS systems use to find the right match.

I’m very excited about a course that we piloted last year and is now being opened up to full enrollment.  The course is AD782, Project Value Strategies.

Here’s the description:

This course will introduce students to Project Value – a unique perspective on classical Project Management that is focused on assuring that a project delivers value that is aligned with the mission, vision, and values of an organization. This increasingly popular framework with which to view projects and project management strategically is derived from current research, standards, and thought leadership from PMI and other international bodies.  In fact, the new 7th Edition PMBOK® Guide will take on this holistic view of projects, project management, and importantly, its expectations of project managers.  Better to get on board now with this thinking, then to wait until it rolls out to the PM population!

 Students will learn how to create and measure value in projects even in today’s disruptive, turbulent environment, using recently-introduced schema. They will learn how to apply the framework of benefits realization management (BRM) and to use recognized and emerging tools to manage a portfolio of programs and projects strategically with an aim of sustainable project value.  Value in Agile projects will be discussed.  The element of the Triple Bottom Line and a focus on sustainability covered.  Case studies and real life experiences, illustrated with guest lectures from academics and portfolio/program/project/PMO practitioners, will be intertwined with current research in project and value management.

Unlike other PM courses which are Group-oriented, this class will reflect your individual work - although a ton of learning will take place between students, if the pilot is any indication.   Students will work on an organizational transformation for a real or imagined company.   It seemed to click, as the pilot of this class had student feedback scores that were the highest (at least I have) ever seen.

I’ll be teaching this course for its first appearance this Fall on Thursdays, 6PM to 8:45PM.

It does have prerequisites (AD642) and is for those students who are interested in a more holistic, long-term, strategic view of project management.

Are you one of those folks?

Join me, won’t you?

Interested in project management as a career?  Check this out!

https://pmiaustin.org/calendar-of-events?eventId=7650

https://enactususa.cmail20.com/t/ViewEmail/i/4F55D0732CBC0A0F2540EF23F30FEDED/77B8A823ACD226B2025DA65DC0D0F53A

Boston University's PM  Student Club is a chapter of Enactus (see video below).  In fact, we're the only Boston area University which has a chapter membership, yielding all sorts of benefits... have a look at some upcoming events - and keep tuned as the Student PM Club will soon be re-introducing itself to BU MET College!

2021 Enactus US National Exposition: We just announced the dates for our national competition! We hope you can join us April 12^th-16^th online! Because of COVID-19, we will again be hosting this event virtually. Please stay tuned for more information on programming and competition requirements.

The Jules and Gwen Knapp Scholarship: Enactus United States students can apply for this scholarship of up to $10,000. Please see this page on our website for details and requirements.

Design Thinking Training Session: Enactus US is putting on a training session with Intuit to discuss design thinking and how teams can use it to address project challenges and develop new project ideas! Join us on December 4^th at 3:00 PM CST. You can learn more and register here.

Meeting for Student Leaders: The Enactus US Student Advisory Committee is hosting a student-led discussion on Enactus challenges and best practices. The meeting will take place over Zoom on November 22nd, 2020 at 7:00 PM EST. Enactus students can fill out this form, and then the SAC will send them the Zoom meeting details: https://forms.gle/H9BQXg96iPZFnRvx9

Mark Your Calendars!

Project Management Community Event

Date: November 13, 2020, Time: 10:00 – 11:30 AM EST

Agenda:

• Welcome: Associate Dean Lou Chitkushev, welcomes the Project Management Community
  Faculty Team Presentation: Careers, Credentials, Internships, and Jobs. (Moderator: Dr. Vijay Kanabar, Director of PM Programs, Panelists – Professor Ginny Greiman, Prof. Steve Leybourne, and Prof. Rich Maltzman.
  • Research Presentations – Student Presentations guided by Faculty
    1. Starting a Jira Project
    2. Role of Scrum Master in Agile Innovation Lab (January 2020)
    3. PM 200 –Live Demo of Advanced PPM Tools (Recent Graduates/TAs)
    4. Internships – How to get an Internship and What I learned. (Current Students and Recent Graduates)
    5. How I got my PMI PMP® credential (Recent PMP graduates)
    6. Opportunities to be active, Conferences, PM Club, Agile Labs, Research Projects.
  • LOGISTICS:
    Location: Zoom: https://bumetcollege.zoom.us/j/96873126483?pwd=YTk5bUpXQlBhSnZKbjFSTXNQcmZrQT09
  • Passcode if prompted is: 00cwr_Proj
    Passcode for anyone dialing-in: 4954215135

BU's Student PM Club is the only Boston Area school which is a chapter of Enactus USA.  This gives our students an unmatched opportunity to participate in great activities, shown below...

Enactus United States has lots of opportunities this fall semester. Check them out below. (Each title is a hyperlink you can click to learn more!)  

1.     Virtual Career Events 

• Virtual Career Fair - September 16th 2-5pm Central
• Resume Review - September 18th 12-2pm Central 
• Mock Interviews - September 21-24th 
• LinkedIn Reviews - October 6-9th 

2.     Fall Reverse Pitch 

• The Fall 2020 Reverse Pitch Competition is a 6-week program wherein teams of Enactus students will come up with pitches in response to relevant challenges our world is facing today. Register by September 16th to participate. 

3.     BNY Mellon Enactus Student Fellows Program 

• The BNY Mellon Enactus Student Fellows Program is designed to help top Enactus students strengthen their capacity to create and deploy higher quality projects that have sustainable impact and to better prepare students for successful careers. This three phase program spans the academic year and is self paced. Apply by September 27th to join the program for the Monday, September 28th kick off! 

4. Other events

Enactus will be releasing short training video clips throughout the fall semester. Enactus will also be having a few one hour training sessions to learn about specific topics related to team success hosted by Enactus staff and other Enactus teams! Make sure you add teams@enactus.org to your address book to receive our email updates.

Oduwa Osagiede, PMP®

Oduwa Osagiede is an excellent student here at Boston University Metropolitan College. Originally from West Africa, he currently lives in the Boston area.  Already holding  a bachelor's and master’s degree in engineering, Oduwa, like many of our Metropolitan College students, is a practitioner, currently employed by Schneider Electric as a product manager.

In that role, he is able to navigate the intersection of engineering, marketing and sales.  As one can tell from his certification, his current academic passion is in the arena of project management and its extension into program and portfolio management.   In fact, Oduwa is one of the students in the pilot offering of AD782, Project Value Strategies.  Oduwa enjoys traveling and spending time with his wife and kids.

I spoke with him about his accomplishment, and here's what he had to say:

"Passing the PMP Exam was a personal achievement. I’m currently pursuing a master’s degree in Project Management, with focus on Program and Portfolio management. In my journey as a student, I have had the pleasure of being taught by some of the best instructors in the field of project management: The foundational AD642 Project Management course was taught by Professor Maltzman, AD644 Risk and Cost Management was taught by Professor Carl Belack, and AD646 Program Management was taught by Professor Kanabar. Teachings in these courses have been instrumental in shaping my knowledge and the understanding of effective project management, and it certainly helped in passing the PMP Exam.

Preparing for the PMP Exam wasn’t as stressful as I initially thought. First, I assessed myself to determine my strengths and weaknesses in the various knowledge areas, and then I created a plan that was tailored to my study habits and availability in order to be well rounded for the exam. Overall, I believe I spent about 100 hours to prepare for the exam -- spanning a period of 2 months. It’s important to be well rounded for the exam as the exam questions are random and it could sometimes be weighted towards certain knowledge areas. I read some online resources, but my best-bang-for-the-buck was Rita Mulcahy’s PMP Exam Prep book that I purchased, and I would recommend this book to anyone that is preparing for the PMP exam. Professor Kanabar’s PMP Exam bootcamp was also very useful. The bootcamp met, virtually, once a week and we went over different knowledge areas and concepts, including how to decipher questions in the exam.

A week before the exam, I focused on taking lots and lots of practice exam questions. Overall, I answered over 2,000 exam questions in preparation for the exam. For the exam, it’s important to establish a good pace and train yourself enough to avoid mental fatigue."

Congratulations and well-deserved, Oduwa!

Aliya Yabekova, PMP®

The PMP® (Project Management Professional) Certificate from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Aliya Yabekova has a lot to celebrate!  She was recently married and is finishing off her Master's Degree in Project Management, and based on her experience she qualified to take the PMP(R) Exam (you need three years of experience for this*).

I had a chance to talk with Aliya about this great accomplishment, and asked her just how she did it.  Here's what she said:

The classes I took for my Masters, including yours, were the foundation for my preparation, since I already knew a lot of the material. I registered 2 months ago, but taking a summer class and getting married left me with limited time to prepare! Professor Kanabar also helped me with the application process; I got approved from the first submission.

Here are a few of the things I did to prepare:

- I participated in Professors Kanabar's PMP preparation classes, which was very helpful! I got most of the structure, materials, and resources this course.

- I would recommend taking a Risk Management class with Professor Belack, it covers Risk, Cost, Schedule, Procurement and Quality- so already 5 chapters from the PMBOK(R) Guide®. It might be good to make this a core course.

- I read Rita Mulcahy's book once and wrote down all of the concepts that I was not familiar with. I watched various Youtube videos about those concepts, to make them more solid in my mind. Mulcahy has an online process chart game and that was very helpful.

- I memorized the sequence of what should be done in the planning process by hard using the Mind Palace technique (I imagined my apartment back home in Almaty:)) and scored above target, because of that.

- I also watched Udemy Joseph Philips videos. I found them only 1 day before the exam, but they were incredibly helpful!

- I also took one practice exam, so I really recommend at least to take one. I did better on my exam than on the practice exam.

*BU MS-PM graduates get a 1-year equivalency, reducing the requirement for them to two years!