Hi Anthony,
I hear you; don't let the official "PMI-speak" intimidate you. They make it sound complicated to ensure rigor, but the barrier to entry is actually quite binary.
Here is the plain English breakdown. You fall into one of two buckets based on your education level:
Bucket A: You have a four-year degree (Bachelor’s or equivalent). You need 36 months of unique, non-overlapping professional project management experience.
Bucket B: You have a High School Diploma (or Associate’s degree). You need 60 months of unique, non-overlapping professional project management experience.
Two critical things people get wrong:
Titles don't matter. You do not need the job title "Project Manager". You just need to prove you were the one leading and directing the project work. If you were the one herding the cats,
managing the timeline, and owning the delivery. That counts.
The 35 Hours. Regardless of your education, you need 35 contact hours of formal project management education. This is usually a boot camp or a prep course; but it can be any
PM training you had in the past, no matter when it was.
My advice: Don't do it just because of FOMO or peer pressure. Do it because it standardizes your vocabulary and proves you understand the framework behind the chaos. If you have been working for a few years, you likely already qualify.
Check your resume against those timelines. If you have the months, the rest is just studying.
BR
