It’s not controversial to say the PMP is a valuable certification—I always recommend it as the gold standard for anyone pursuing a career in project management. But let’s be honest, the PMP proves you know the material. It doesn’t prove you apply it.
The same goes for experience. Working at a prestigious company for years sounds impressive—but it doesn’t tell me how well that project manager actually performed. It’s like saying, “I ran a marathon.” That could mean anything from “I crawled across the finish line dead last” to “I broke a world record.” If my goal is to learn about your running skills, the details matter—and the same goes for project management.
Real value isn’t defined by letters after your name or logos on your resume. All the knowledge and experience in the world won’t make you a good project manager unless you do what you know is right. And that shows up in one place: your reputation.
So, if knowledge and experience alone aren’t enough, then what causes project managers to veer off track?
Where Project Managers Go Awry
Knowing project management principles means nothing if you don’t actually follow them. That might sound ridiculous—after all, if you’ve studied hard enough to earn your PMP, why wouldn’t you apply what you’ve learned?
But it happens more often than you’d think. Here are some of the most common ways project managers abandon best practices:
- Gold-plating: Adding extra features or deliverables that go beyond the agreed-upon scope just because the customer wants it or asks.
- Schedule slipping without process: Letting a stakeholder push the schedule out without a formal change request.
- Avoiding conflict: Allowing team members to “do their own thing” no matter how long it takes without correction or input.
- Always saying “yes”: Saying yes to everything just to keep stakeholders happy, even when it’s not aligned with project goals.
There’s a theme here: people-pleasing. When project managers sacrifice processes and standards for short-term approval, they’re not serving the project or their teams. PMP or not, that’s not good project management. These missteps usually aren’t the result of bad intentions. But here’s the thing: real leadership isn’t about short-term comfort or pleasing people all the time.
It’s about doing what’s right for the project, even when it’s uncomfortable because a project manager isn’t just a task juggler—they’re a leader.
Leadership Means Doing What’s Right
As leaders, good project managers know that sticking to their guns and saying no when necessary is what will bring the best results to all stakeholders in the end—when the project is successful, on time, and on budget. While achieving all 3 of those goals might be a bit like catching a unicorn, I can guarantee you that people-pleasing will guarantee failure in one or more areas.
Achieving your PMP is not a destination. Your legacy as a project manager and a leader is built by doing the right things on the job, according to strong project management principles. Success in your career comes from consistency in action, not achieving credentials. Once a PMP is earned, and it is a great accomplishment, it is still only the beginning of the hard work that goes into being an excellent project manager.
And over time, this kind of leadership builds something more important than any certificate or work history: a reputation for doing the job right.
That’s why, when we talk about what goes wrong in a PM career, we have to look beyond external factors and ask some hard questions.
The Real Reason for Missed Opportunities
I hear a lot of reasons why someone has not had a successful project management career—layoffs, slow work, lack of opportunity in the economy, or company, and so on. Of course, these can be factors, but there is a hard truth that needs to be accepted—most of the time missed opportunities are because a project manager is not doing what they know is right.
This perspective doesn’t get talked about enough, but it matters. If you aren’t following good project management practices because you are trying to make one person on one project happy, you are putting the trajectory of your career at risk.
Don’t sacrifice doing what is right to make life a little easier for you now. You could be setting yourself up for failure down the road. Don’t coast your way through your job or internship or what have you. When you are given an opportunity to get experience, make it count!
Experience is Only as Good as How You Use It
As great as real-world experience is, just like having a PMP alone doesn’t make you a great project manager, neither does experience alone. Someone can have 20 years of experience as a project manager, but if they didn’t spend their time applying good project management principles, then they aren’t good at project management, period.
The value of experience comes from how you apply that experience—do you lead the project according to what you’ve learned? Have you acknowledged mistakes and tried to do better moving forward? Do you have a learning mindset and practice active listening regularly? Or are you stubborn and fixed on the idea that you know best because you have so much “experience?”
Plenty of people tout “real-life experience,” but they didn’t stick around at companies for a reason. The reputation that follows you after that experience is the game-changer.
Reputation Above All
The most valuable thing you can possess as a project manager is a solid reputation. More important than certifications or college degrees, because those don’t prove application, and more important than experience, because that doesn’t prove knowledge. Reputation is the sum of all of those parts—if you are someone who has the knowledge and applies it correctly and consistently, then you will develop a reputation as a valuable project manager.
How exactly is a reputation built, then? It is through action. Navigating conflict, Making hard decisions, and doing what’s right, not what’s easy. Avoiding tough situations or letting others lead when they don’t have the authority damages your reputation.
Certifications and experience can get you in the door, but your behavior and decision-making are what keep you there—or get you invited back. Do the job right. Lead with integrity. Let your actions define your legacy.