Out of curiosity, I went through the first 100 open, remote FT Project Manager jobs on LinkedIn to understand more about PMP certification requirements in job postings.

🔍 Here’s what I discovered (unique, recent jobs only):

➡ 56% of jobs had no preference or mention of PMP certification. 
➡ 38% had a preference for PMP certification.
➡ 6% had a flat out requirement for PMP certification.

I did this same exercise about 5 months ago and the numbers broke down to 40% no preference, 55% preference, 5% requirement.

Some other trends I noticed:

💡 Most Project Manager jobs have a requirement of at least 3 years of experience, with many strongly recommendating industry-specific experience.

💡 Many jobs that did not have a mention of certification were startups or companies in tech/software, marketing/advertisting, and creative.

💡 I was surprised by the number of large companies that did not have a preference for PMP certification.

By the way, I recognize this is a VERY small sample size representing only certain job postings, but I was simply curious about what job seekers are experiencing.

What’s the takeaway?

✅ If you are searching for a project manager role and DON'T have your PMP but you DO have experience, there are jobs out there for you.

✅ If you are searching for a project manager role but lack experience, try targeting job titles like “Project Coordinator” or “Project Admin” before trying for a Project Manager role.

❓ Job seekers: is this data representative of what you are experiencing?