[Porsche-O-Phile]

I haven't seen these credentials really hold much value based on my experience with interviewing and hiring candidates for various positions and projects over the last several years. A particular individual's practical experience with developing, administering and maintaining rigid adherence to schedules and budgets (and employing meaningful metrics to show it) is vastly more important than a lot of theory about it. Sure, it's nice if someone understands the theory, but it's no substitute for a portfolio of successful, well-run projects.

Your mileage may vary, but I've found the candidates that strut in wearing these credentials on their sleeves to be (usually) very wonkish and apt to attempt to lose themselves in the sea of corporate bureaucracy rather than actually be effective PMs. Maybe it's less pronounced in other manufacturing industries but in mine (capital construction projects) if someone can't get in immediately and start proving their own value through what they produce, they don't last too long. If it's not self-evident and a person needs lots of pie charts to "prove" they're an asset, they usually aren't. If their projects run smoothly and track spending projection curves and schedules closely, their effectiveness speaks for itself and they usually find success and refine the tools of managing the budgets and schedules along the way based on their experiences and discussions with their peers.

One of the things I get into is making sure that PMs aren't giving themselves too easy of a time by padding schedules and project budgets at the outset to guarantee their own success. In that sort of role, theory is certainly helpful but again, it comes down to a practical approach - looking at available empirical data on similar projects and comparing that to the schedules and budgets that are being put forth for new projects of similar complexity, type, scope, etc. Not every PM needs to know or care about all that.

I guess if depends what you expect to do but personally I haven't been all that impressed with the people who hold these credentials - they come off as (very) expensive clubs to belong to and little more. As with a lot of these sorts of certifications they appear to involve a lot of buzzwords and jargon and mystical spins on what really is just common sense. Then again, maybe other industries see more value in what they represent but I've been largely underwhelmed.