Professional certificate in Project Management or Green Belt in 6 Sigma

What professional certificate for project management is she looking at? If it is a http://www.pmi.org/Certification/Certified-Associate-in-Project-Management-CAPM.aspx, I would put it at the same level in effort as a Green Belt in Six Sigma. If it is a http://www.pmi.org/Certification/Project-Management-Professional-PMP.aspx, I would put it at the same level in effort as a Black Belt in Six Sigma. I'm not sure any other professional management certification is worth her time. Otherwise, I'm not sufficiently familiar with the banking industry to suggest CAPM/PMP versus Six Sigma. If no one else answers, feel free to memail me for my opinion; I just consider it too unqualified to post.

Six Sigma belts generally don't carry much weight outside of the company you got them in, so if she's considering a company change at any time, she should be aware that a Green Belt is going to be a big fat nothing on her resume anywhere else.

Thanks! I'll run these by her. She didn't mention whether the PM Certificate would be for a CAPM or a PMP.

It's hard to answer this kind of question without knowing what your SO does and what her goals are. Personally, I've found employees who pursue these kinds of certificates to not be very impressive but perhaps there are roles for which they are suited. What are your SO's career goals, and how does he or she see these certificates as enabling him/her to achieve them?

PMP is the best most portable certification. It's also screamingly expensive. Since your SO's bank is willing to pay, I'd go with that one! I see PMP in job ads way more than I see Six Sigma.

Either CAPM or PMP are way better regarded than Six Sigma, but they're also different types of certification. Project management and process improvement are certainly overlapping circles at times, but neither really are a replacement for the other. Six Sigma also really have no standard of qualification, which is why not only do they not port over well from company to company, but they have a significantly non-zero number of people who think that Six Sigma consultants are a huge waste of time. PMP is a tried and tested professional program - Six Sigma varies widely and often seems like an arbitrary set of techniques and buzzwords, depending on the consultant.

I have both and agree with most- the PMP was much harder to test for and far fewer in my organization have it. Lots of people have the Green Belt for Six Sigma.

Again, thanks everyone for the great responses! This has certainly helped a ton.

i am (at least nominally) a project manager. Headhunters are all over me even though I'm not looking for work. I have a number of Green Belt friends for which this is not true. This may differ between profressions, but I am in pharma, medical device and biologics. I'm also a consultant who can't remember the last time I wasn't working.