The Chicken-Egg Problem

I know you are enthusiastic about a project management career and want to develop your career as a project manager. You would want to take a leap and jump into a project management career but project experience requirement is holding you back. Right!

To become a professional project manager, you will need project management experience, and to get project management experience, you will need to manage a professional project.

Have you ever encountered this loop?  Well, that is called the chicken-egg problem of Project Management.

And the million-dollar question is, which came first the chicken or the egg?

But, why care about this Chicken-egg loop?

Good question! why do you even worried about the chicken and eggs?

The project Manager profession is in high demand. As per PMI, demand for project managers over the next decade is going to be higher than earlier expectations. By 2027, the project management workforce requirement is expected to grow by 33 percent, or in other terms nearly 22 million new project management jobs.

This means that organizations will be continuously opening the floor for so many project manager roles! The demand is there, and so are the opportunities, and to grab this opportunity you will need to break the vicious cycle of the chicken-egg problem.

First step – where to start?

While you may already know the importance of project management career, starting a career in the project management domain can be a difficult and time taking process.

Basically, Project management career is all about managing people skills, processes, and tools to have the right information, at the right time, to make the right decision. Any project management exercise involves the management of three flows of the project. That is the flow of resources, the flow of information, and the financial flow.

While managing the project, the project manager is exposed to various difficult situations which require experience ranging from core technical to people management skills. For the relevant project management experience, you should land upon the opportunity to work on professional projects.

To have a relevant Project Management experience, first, you need to find your starting point by understanding what is your area of interest? What kind of technical skill you are good at or which domain area interest you?

Once you find your domain or area of interest, you would need to integrate it with the status of the current status of your professional journey to arrive at the starting point. It will mostly depend on if you are a student, job seeker, or working professional. Refer to the below table to find your starting point for developing or enhancing your project management career.

What next?

Once you know where you can study project management, the next step is to identify a suitable course or degree which is the best fit for your project management career.

It will depend on the type of job profile, time availability, and personal goals. You should check which qualification is most commonly sought in your industry? Which degree or certification do you see mentioned most in the kind of job descriptions you’re interested in? Which one is best suited to as per financial capability and availability of time? Which methodology will better fit the Project Management processes your company uses? What is your preferred location in the world do you want to work in?

Once you find out the right course or degree program, you will need to spend a good amount of time and effort in studying the project management skills & curriculum. The duration and effort will depend on the type of course that you have chosen and its compatibility with your current professional status. This process may take from weeks to years.

Grabbing the project work opportunity

The next step is getting real project work experience.

Project management is utilized in almost every domain in the world, raining from software, construction, services, health care, Travel& tours, entertainment, publication, and much more development to the health industry.

As you grow and climb through your career ladder, you will realize that you are actually managing some sort of project either a small or big one. It is an integral component of all senior positions in the organization, across all domains.

Even though you do not have any formal project management training, certification, or degree, you must start working on the project if you get the chance. Learning by doing is the best way to learn about project management.

Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to make a move within your domain areas, it’s possible to get a project management job without any prior experience.

But getting your first project management job can be difficult and challenging, especially if you have no prior experience in this field. Not only are you competing against others who have plenty of experience.

Often your first opportunity might be a junior-level position but trust me if you follow the above strategy then with Project Management degree or certification and a couple of years of working experience will propel your career to handle the significant size of projects as a Project Manager.

Conclusion

The Chicken-Egg Problem is very common among the newcomer to the project management profession. To become a professional project manager, you will need project management experience, and to get project management experience, you will need to manage a professional project.

Organizations will be continuously opening the floor for so many project manager roles! The demand is there, and so are the opportunities. You can follow the above stepwise strategy to break the vicious cycle of the chicken-egg problem.

Tell me, currently which problem you are facing the chicken or the Egg? Let me know by leaving a comment below right now.

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