What’s Next

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

In this post, I’d like to share about my two immediate, short-term personal projects.

The first one is related to my Swedish language learning and the second one is related to my existing Project Management Professional® (PMP®) certification.

Project #1 Svenska som andraspråk (SvA) — MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! (grundläggande in early March 2023)

I’ve been enrolled by my current SFI school to begin SvA at another school—the next phase of my Swedish language study. I’ll term this as Phase Two of my Swedish language journey. Phase One was SFI, a journey I began in late October last year and completed in early April this year. I have received the notification from my new school that I will begin on April 25. This will take roughly a year to complete on a full-time basis (longer, if my circumstances change to warrant the need to change to a part-time study).

Project #2 Agile Hybrid Project Pro™ — MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! (Sep 2022)

This is a micro-credential by PMI that is aligned to the new PMP standards, which include Agile and Hybrid approaches. I view this as a great way to maintain my PMP® and at the same time update myself to align with the current standards. I have completed the course and the examination window is opened between now until October this year.

Being on a career break now gives me time to think about the areas I could strengthen further and plug any gaps on important skills such as advanced Excel and data analytics.

I’m also pondering on gaining two new PMI certifications, namely PMI-PBA® (for business analysis)— MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! (Dec 2022) and PMI-ACP® (for Agile practitioner). In my past life before my recent early ‘retirement,’ I was a program/project manager and business analyst so staying updated with these certifications seems to make great sense.

On a more leisurely side of things, I want to tackle Naval Ravikant’s reading list. I’ve read or owned some of the books listed in his recommended reading, but would love to begin reading those especially by Richard Feynman, Carlo Rovelli, Jorge Luis Borges, and Ted Chiang.