The Facility Management Professional, or FMP, certification from the International Facility Management Association (IFMA):
From IFMA’s website, on the FMP certification:
IFMA’s Facility Management Professional™ (FMP®) designation is a knowledge-based credential for FM professionals and industry suppliers looking to increase their depth-of-knowledge in the core FM topics deemed critical by employers. By earning the must-have FMP credential, you will join over 10,000 professionals worldwide who have improved their knowledge, enhanced their skills, and gained immediate credibility with employers, clients and peers.
This is not an easy certification. It requires a good bit of study, with a lot of material (each course has a 300+ page manual that goes along with it.) The courses are offered in Self-Learning mode, or Instructor-Led mode. The differences are very simple: Price – Instructor-led mode costs more, and Style – Self-learn mode means you are all on your own.
I went the Self-Learn mode, which I personally do better at anyway. I don’t do good listening to instructors and trying to keep their pace, I’m usually a chapter or two ahead because I’m a crammer. I also like to learn then test, sometimes all in the same day. So for me the Self-Learn mode was much better. I generally tend to find the “shortcuts” to learning as well. Sometimes instructors will teach you these things, generally they do not (escpecially when they are employed by the organization/association you are certifying with.) So for me the Self-Learn was the best option, and it seemed to work out.
My wife, on the other hand, gets her certification free through her work. Not only that, but they give her the Instructor-Led option. The path for learning is fairly simple, study each course then take the exam for that course. Once you pass a course, then you move on. You get 3 tries at each 30 or so question exam (TIP: all 3 tests use the same questions!), and if you pass you move on. If you fail all 3 tries then you must wait 30 days to retest.
After 3 months of studying for the first course (Finance and Business) I finally decided to take the exam. It turns out it was much easier than I thought and I was able to complete it fairly quickly. I did test twice as I missed 1 too many questions on the first pass. Being that it is open-book, I was able to correct my mistakes and move on.
I had also studied the other 3 courses offline (PDF) over my 3 week vacation to New Zealand (link) and was ready to take those exams as well. As it turns out, those were easier than the F&B course.
I didn’t pass all 3 on the first try (one of them logged me out when I was only 10 questions in, so I had to use an attempt on that) but I did pass all 3 within 2 tries. The one that logged me out prior to finishing picked back up where I left off and I was able to pass it on the second try.
IFMA states it can take up to 21 days to process your application after your pass all 4 exams, but I think it was within 24 hours, maybe a little more that I had received my application back as approved and received my FMP certification.
A few days later I received my Credly badge for FMP as well.
Overall the FMP turned out to not be quite as bad as it seemed. At first I was overwhelmed with all the manuals and the loads of information I was being given (IE: think lots of terminology!), but the material they give you is very comprehensive, and being that it is an open-book test you can easily reference the materials to find most of the answers fairly quickly.
One thing I did not like about the exams is that they use a lot of “real-world” questions. So they may or may not have a direct answer in the material. I get that they want to test your overall knowledge and understanding of the materials, but some of the anwers are so close to being possible right answers, sometimes it’s hard to distinguish the right answer out of 4. And when you can only miss 4-5 answers on a test before you fail, those fuzzy answers can sometimes add up quick. Just something to be mindful of as you test.
Now to move on and display my FM knowledge to our clients at Proactive Facility Solutions, LLC!
Brandon Lord, FMP
