Is PMP Helping Your Job Hunt?

Whether you’re employed right now, independently consulting, or unemployed, we’re all really looking for a job, right? 

No job is safe in this economy so if you’re employed you can’t afford to raise any flags for fear you could lose the job you have. 

But we’re all looking just in case.

Or looking for our next gig.  And even if you’re independent, you’d still probably take a W2 position – especially in this uncertain economy – if the right option presented itself to you, right?

So, here’s my question.  For those of you who have the PMP certification after your name… are you finding that it is helping your job hunt?  I actually had one recent comment to one of my articles from a reader who stated that the PMP designation actually hurt his job hunt.  He started getting interviews based solely on the PMP certification (insert my comment here about lazy HR reps) only to have the interview end early when they found out that he had very little experience.  Sometimes that hadn’t even bothered to check out his actual PM experience – they only included him in the interview process because he was PMP certified.

I’m interested in hearing from any project professionals who are actively looking for positions right now – both consulting gigs and W2 positions.  Is having the PMP in this economic time proving to be an asset in landing the interview AND is it proving to be an asset in landing the job?

As always, I am looking forward to your responses and feedback.  I also think this would make a good survey topic for later in June or possibly in July.  It appears that the economy is not going to recover tomorrow, so the job market is going to be difficult for sometime to come. 

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for responding.