we all know experience is the biggest factor for winning a job, but certifications like CAPM or PMP are what qualify you in the first place.
in order to qualify for a position, most employers want to make sure they have some tangible evidence (eg, certification) that says you follow by the generally accepted standards for a particular industry.
what this means is employers would prefer somebody that speaks the same PM language as they do.
SFU or sauder PM diploma/certs teaches you the philosophies behind PM, how to understand it, conduct, etc., but they're limited to just that. plus, they might even teach different or even contradicting philosophies! PMP reinforces those core principles, but adds
structure which is consistent amongst all regions.
structure in this sense is like language. an example is: in a company with multiple PM's, in order to measure the performance of a PM, there needs to be a standard way of conducting projects. there is no bigger standard than the PMP way of doing things. also, communication, terms, vocabulary, objectives, etc etc, must be carried out in a common way in a team environment. put a sauder PM guy and a waterloo PM guy together and you get chaos.
without an industry standard to follow by, you might as well measure your room layout with your feet and hands. my room is 25 feets long and 14 hands high.
before you quote this and say "well its just a paper, doesnt mean you'll actually do it that way, let alone be good at project mgmt" with all things aside, the certification just proves you have deonstrated the
capacity to do things a certain way. like with any certification or diploma, it doesnt guarantee anything (except a foot in the door at project management
)