How PMP Certification Opened New Doors for Yoana Pavlova

Yoana Pavlova’s diverse career spans IT, creative project management, and immersive entertainment. Despite her extensive hands-on experience, she chose to elevate her career by pursuing a PMP certification.

In the interview below, Yoana reveals the pivotal moments that shaped her career, the challenges she overcame, and how the PMP course opened new doors to exciting opportunities.

Can you tell us a little about yourself – what you do, and what drew you to this career?

My name is Yoana Pavlova. I’m originally from Bulgaria, where in my 20s, I graduated in psychology. And from back at the time, I had to work to support myself financially, so I went to a variety of jobs in the IT field, such as customer experience, account manager and project manager. Still, towards the end of my 20s, my love for the moving image was so strong, I decided to embark on this career. I moved to France, where then I spent 13 years. I did everything media, and I also acted as a project manager and creative producer on a number of international projects. Some of those projects were initiated by me. Others were within large cultural or educational organisations, both with private and public funding, as is customary in this field.

I was a freelancer, but I was also a single parent, which, as you can imagine, was complicated. As my son grew up, we decided to move countries. Last year, he was accepted here at the French school in Dublin, and I started looking for a job.

Was there a moment or challenge in your career that made you realise you needed to learn more about project management? 

I was applying for all kinds of Project Coordinator and project manager roles in Dublin. I was very convinced that I had the experience, but it still felt like something was missing, some kind of credibility. At the time, I was already considering, as well, the idea of going through professional certification. But when you start searching online, the amount of options is overwhelming.

I spoke to a couple of friends who already work in the field, little by little, the choice was narrowed down to PMP, even if everybody I spoke to was telling me that it's a lot as information, the exam is very difficult and so on, it just felt that with my background, with my experience, it would bet best correspond to my journey.

What made you choose IPM, and how did the course fit into your journey?

Ironically, at the time, I stumbled upon the Institute of Project Management (IPM) on my LinkedIn feed because there was a job opening, and for some reason, the algorithm decided that I would be a good fit. This is how I first opened the website. I was impressed by the way the information was presented and structured. Everything looked very accessible. After contacting the Institute for the first time, I was once again impressed by the level of professional communication and efficiency. So I decided that a PMP Passport course there would be a good investment. And I also decided to go for a course that is in person.

After sending, ironically, after March, sending my first CV with the IPM credits and the course I undertook, I was immediately contacted by a recruiter, so this became my current full time job in Dublin as a product manager and producer at an international creative agency, which still feels like a dream, but to go back to the PMP Passport course, it was a very satisfying experience in the sense that it truly corresponded to my expectations.

I was also very lucky to meet Richard Doyle as our trainer and mentor, apart from having many major projects under his belt. He also has a great sense of humour. So we had a lovely week, and our group was very nice, too. It consists of people with various backgrounds, with different levels of experience, which opened the procurators for very interesting discussions.

What stood out most during the experience of upskilling with us? How have you applied what you learned since then?

The PMP framework itself is a powerful instrument. Of course, each project and organisation are unique. There's no formula, but this method offers structure and guidance for all sorts of scenarios, and I really using it on a daily basis.

One thing led to another, so as I'm recording this video, I'm also preparing for my first national conference here, organised by the Irish chapter of PMI. I'm very excited about it, very thankful for the opportunity that I can so easily meet and greet experts, both local and international, exchange, but also learn from them. I believe that learning and development is a never-ending process, and it's also something that I appreciate a lot in project management, this constant evolution, adaptation, and optimisation of tools and approaches. This is something very motivating for me to keep developing.

What advice would you give to someone earlier in their journey, or someone considering this course?

If I'd go back and have to give advice to someone who is at the early stages of their career, I would say, try to find the balance between your personal narrative, who you are, what you really want in life, and how the existing options fit into this. Believe me, the options are many. It just takes time, effort and energy to see through them and then decide what's best for you. The way I see things, this yields the best results when it comes to personal and professional satisfaction, and this is already a lot. Thank you.