Scared of the work experience section of the PMP application? After reading several blog posts it sounds like a lot of people are. Documenting 4,500 hours of Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing is cumbersome, but I have developed a couple of tricks that helped me get started and I hope will help you.
Trick 1: Create a template for yourself.
I created my template in Word and started with a general section which included all of the basic project info (i.e. — start date, end date, and total number of hours). Below this section I created a simple table:
| Process Group | Summary of Process Group Hours | Hours |
| Initiating | ||
| Planning | ||
| Executing | ||
| Monitoring & Controlling | ||
| Closing |
After creating this, I copied and pasted these two sections (the “General” section and the table) a few times, creating one for each project I am including on my application.
Trick 2: For each project, start by just typing key words.
This will help get your writing juices flowing before turning these key words into meaningful (non-industry specific) descriptive sentences.
I hope these simple tricks help! Remember, all of this hard work is worth it!