The most widely recognized (that I know of) is the PMP certification from www.pmi.org. It consists of a test, and a history of your work containing either 4500 hours of project management related work (for those with degrees) or 7500 hours of project management related work (for those without degrees). I haven't heard of other certifications being mentioned in ANY job interview/request.

There is also the Project+ Certification. It costs far less, doesn't have all the persnickety rules, doesn't sunset, seems more focused on IT, and I particularly appreciate the focus that Element-K and other Project+ curriculum give to the Project Manager's role in creating the project charter. PMI seems to think they always come from some corporate VP... but what if you ARE the corporate VP.

PMI gets my goat for arrogance... presuming to set standards for who should even be able to apply to pass their test and including, in their standards, clear discrimination between people with degreed backgrounds over those of us who grew up working in the field. How a bachelor's degree in Music gets you up their ladder better than an associates degree in electronics beats me.

By their standards, the people who invented PERT would not be able to to sit the test as they may have moved too far up the management ladder or moved into academia where they are coaching and mentoring project managers instead of directly acting. If Harry Gantt were to rise from the grave, he would not be able to sit the test.

The other thing I dislike about PMI is that they expropriate the English language, setting themselves up as self-appointed authorities. How the ability to distinguish between a tool and a process bears upon ones ability to manage projects defies my understanding. Procurement, as they describe it, doesn't look much like anything anybody actually does--distinguishing between solicitation and procurement documents, for example. I know a Harvard Business School graduate who thinks this will result in poorer business results due to the special language of PMI reducing transparency and complicating communications between business managers and project managers.

The GAO has said, in places, that as the requirements for project management certification in government projects are rolled out that the Project+ will be suitable any place that requires a PMP.

PMI has a pecuniary interest in promoting their way of doing things. People who work hard to pass their tests, having to learn more about PMI-isms than project management, imho, rightfully want to take pride in their accomplishments and leverage their certification for a greater salary. This results in a huge group-think situation ripe with denial.

No certification or college degree is a substitute for experience and good judgment. I suspect that those who hold certifications as most important are those who know the least about a subject area--depending upon a pedigree for a hiring decision instead of their own knowledge and abilities.

That said, I hold a few certifications. I also believe the educational process that one goes through to acquire them is beneficial and tends to sharpen one. Having taught Project+ and college-level IT Project Management classes (although I only have an Associates Degree), and having sat through a PMP boot camp, I'm convinced that the PMP does not yield value commensurate with its price and level of difficulty. Value that I would look for would be the ability of successful candidates to successfully and profitably manage projects.

Both Project+ and PMI's PMP provide a foundation upon which experience needs to be added. Three years down the pike the difference in what certification one chose is going to be less important than the kind of intervening experience obtained. Membership in PMI probably has some value as it provides a forum in which to continue learning beyond the PMP exam, but I think they would do just as well to drop the PMP and rely upon their members passing Project+ much like Microsoft stopped testing for basic networking and now relies upon CompTIA’s Network+ exam.