Hello, I’m Cesar Abeid. As of May 3rd, 2010 I’m also a certified Project Management Professional.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Cornelius Fichtner for his great product, the Project Management PrepCast. The PrepCast was an incredible value and was very important for my passing the PMP exam on my first try.
Learning the basics of Project Management from the PrepCast was so valuable to me that I decided to promote it as an introductory tool for learning PM concepts, even if you are not planning on taking the PMP exam.
When I first started looking for alternatives to fulfill the required 35 contact hours, I must admit I was a little disappointed. As the project manager for a small family business, I did not have access to enough resources to pay for some of the more popular online training products. I remember “googling” something along the lines of “affordable PMP preparation courses.” This took me to a message board forum where somebody recommended the PM PrepCast. After visiting Cornelius’ website and checking the contents of the course, I was a bit skeptical when I saw how much it cost. I remember commenting with my wife that I would have to do some more research as it sounded too good to be true.
After some Internet research, I found more and more testimonials vouching for Cornelius’ product. When I saw his resume and involvement with PMI I decided to give his product a try and purchased the PM PrepCast.
The PM PrepCast unpacks the contents of the PMBOK guide in a way that is easy and entertaining to follow. Cornelius is a great speaker and his tone and quirky accent kept me engaged and interested in the material. The contents are split into lecture numbers that follow the PMBOK guide organization system, making it very easy to watch the PrepCast while taking notes and using the PMBOK guide as a reference.
As a project manager with some experience but no formal training, I found the concepts contained in the PMBOK guide as explained by Cornelius to be very useful in my work as well; this was something I was not quite expecting. I purchased the PM PrepCast to fulfill a requirement for a credential, but some 40 hours later I felt like I had really learned valuable information, tools, and techniques that I could indeed apply in my company. It also made me very excited about learning more about project management.
Another incredible value of the PrepCast is its portability. While I watched most of the episodes on my laptop, I also used my iPhone while on road trips, and sometimes I’d listen to the audio feed while I was driving. While some episodes of the PrepCast are best enjoyed when in video-mode (such as the explanation on the forward and backward pass), most episodes can be played in audio-only mode without any issues.
Cornelius’ customer service was exemplary. I had to contact him about three times and without exception I was replied to within 48 hours. All my technical difficulties were addressed and attended to promptly.
Finally, I would like to address the only negative criticism I found when I was doing my research prior to purchasing the PM PrepCast. I believe I read on a message board that products such as this cheapens the PM training method and focus too much on simply passing the test and not on promoting good PM practices. After using the PrepCast and passing the PMP exam, I can attest to the fact that indeed it helped me pass the test. However, it did much more than that. It gave me the opportunity to learn and apply PM best practices in my small company and spring-boarded me into the worldwide PM community. Without the PrepCast and its affordability, that would not have been possible.
Thanks again to Cornelius and his great product.
Cesar Abeid, PMP.