Which project management certification should I go for? There are many certifications available in market for Project management career like PMP, CAPM, PRINCE2, CSM, PMI-ACP and so on.

PMP, CAPM & PRINCE2 primarily focus on Waterfall methodology.

PMP (Project Management Professional provided by PMI) has a great reputation and also readily tells you that you got the required experience, education and also the right exposure to end to end fo Project management. This is considered to be a global certification since almost every industry employees PMP Professionals. Very popular and widely known across HR managers too. Almost for every 100 jobs posted across the world 80-85% will be primarily looking for such certification.

CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management provided by PMI) has also good standing in the market for entry level project rookies. This primarily focuses to ensure only on the knowledge part and does not account on the industry exposure. For entry level, for every 100 jobs posted it is observed to see around 20-30% jobs.

PRINCE2 (provided by OGC, UK) also is a good certification for someone specifically going into Information-communication-technology related projects in UK region. This is more of a limited certification and also easy to attain. Since it is also easy to attain, there are professionals who really fear that they lack PM knowledge and hardship involved in PMP, they prefer this certification. Not so popular across HR managers, unless the business/client demands no-one requests for PRINCE2 certification. For 100 jobs posted there may be 5-10% jobs looking for such certification.

CSM & PMI-ACP focuses primarily on Iterative Methodology(Scrum/Agile).

CSM(Certified Scrum Master provided by ScrumAlliance) as is evident is primarily for individuals considering Scrum/Agile work in their career paths or office. It is primarily for professionals who want to lead Scrum related projects/implement Agile. Though this can be applied across many industries, primarily, it has been observed only IT/Software has been contended for Scrum projects. Accordingly, for 100 jobs posted there may be 40-70% jobs across the world.

PMI-ACP(Agile Certified Practitioner by PMI) is upcoming certification which focusses on certifying individuals who are already leading Scrum/Agile related projects. Again like CSM, this certification also is looked up primarily by IT/Software due to the nature of iterative product development. For 100 jobs posted there may be 20-40% jobs across the world.

Ps: All numbers above are only indicative based on the job portals and is not an exhaustive research oriented figures.

If you have any concern, feel free to think your numbers win.