Spent $600 on a certification course that was completely useless in the field
Signed up for a project management cert some guys at a mixer were raving about. Figured it would help me bid jobs better and keep my crew on schedule. Cost me $600 and 8 weekends. Every single thing they taught was for corporate office types with whiteboards. Nothing about material ordering, weather delays, or dealing with a painter who shows up hungover. Complete waste. Has anyone actually found a cert that translates to real trades work?
Used to think all certs were just pieces of paper that proved you could sit still. Then I took a lean construction course that actually showed me how to lay out a job site to cut wasted steps. That one paid for itself in a week. This PM cert you took sounds like the opposite, all theory and no dirt under the fingernails. Makes me wonder if these course designers ever set foot on an active job site.
I read somewhere that a lot of these PM courses were designed by people who've never actually been on a job site, just in an office looking at spreadsheets. It's like they forget that time is money and walking an extra hundred feet every hour adds up fast. Your lean construction course sounds way more useful, that's the kind of stuff that actually saves you time and cash right away.