Project Management is utilized in almost every domain in the world, from software development to the health industry. It is an integral component of most job positions, across all domains.
Project Manager deploy project management practices to ensure quality and accuracy in projects, as well as meeting your customers’ expectations. While you may already know the importance of project management, starting a career in the project management domain can be confusing and mindboggling, if you don’t know where to start.
This article aims to set a simple and effective guideline for starting your career as a project manager.
Project + Management = Project Management ! right?
First thing first, starting with basic, what is project management?
A project is a temporary work undertaken to achieve a particular aim in certain duration and budget. Project management is utilizing a set of people, skills, processes, and tools to complete all the tasks require to achieve that project goal.
Sounds simple right!! You may be already managing some sort of project on daily basis as Project Manager (knowingly or unknowingly). It could be as simple as buying an office chair or as complex as launching a vaccine development program. Project management demand both hard and soft skills to manage a project and achieve its objective.
Every project is unique and different in some way. Based on the number of projects, site location, team size, project value ($), and project complexity, the level of effort and knowledge increases for managing the project.
However, the basic principle of managing a project still remains the same and pretty much valid.
Project Manager, as a career for everyone?
Well…mostly yes. It doesn’t matter what is your profession or technical expertise, you will need to manage some sort of project in your professional journey. In fact, you might be working as a project manager without realizing the role itself.
Remember, we all are managing some sort of project on daily basis. it could as simple as buying a car for your wife or launching a rocket for NASA. If you want to manage these projects efficiently and successfully, you will need some sort of Project Management knowledge. Depth of Project Management expertise would depend on the size and complexity of the project.
5 Key elements of a successful Project Manager Career
- Project Management Concepts: Studying Project Management principles are crucial for any individual who wants to develop his/her skills for managing projects or become a project manager. It helps the aspirants to inculcate expert knowledge on setting project goals and take synchronized actions to achieve the aims.
- Professional Certification/Degree: There is no pre-requisite for learning project management. However, once you enter into the professional world, you will need to prove your knowledge. Having a sound knowledge of Project management helps Project Managers to handle all the processes, methodology, skills, and knowledge to achieve specific objectives.
- Project Management Tools/Software: Project management software helps the project team to complete project requirements in a specified time, budget, and scope constraints. They centralize all data and allow users to track progress, assign tasks, and give feedback. It plays a crucial role in project controls and project performance measurement.
- Domain Expertise: Project Management knowledge, degrees, and tool skills are good to support your claim of having knowledge of project management but not enough for a successful project management career. Please note that the projects are always specific to the type of industries and no two projects are the same ever.
- Project Work Experience: The last but most important element of a project management career is actually working on projects. Working on a project provides hands-on experience of project management process, tools & people. It is linked to significant improvements in individual performance, learning, and engagement.
7 Steps strategy to develop your Project Management career
So let’s define the goal to develop the strategy. And the goal is you want to become the showrunner of project management that is the “Project Manager”.
Step-1: Well, that’s an awesome objective. Before initiating your learning process let’s first understand what is the current status of your professional journey?
Step-2: Depending on if you are a student, job seeker, or working professional, you will need to define your starting point. To find your starting point, refer to the below table.
| If you are a | Where to start your Project Management journey | |
| 1 | Student- pursuing high school or below |
Article, Vlog Online courses (Coursera, Udemy, YouTube videos). |
| 2 | High School Graduate/ Diploma holder |
Study through Online courses (Coursera, Udemy, YouTube videos) Enrol for Certified training courses (Offline as well as Online mode). |
| 3 | Bachelor (Fresher / Looking for an entry-level job) |
Certified training course (Offline or Online) Learn basic Project Management Techniques The best way to learn is to start working on small projects. |
| 4 | Bachelor with Experience (1-5 years) |
Certified training course with accredited certification Pursue full time/online University course in Project Management Learn advanced Project Management tools & Software Through working on medium size projects |
| 5 | Bachelor /Masters with Experience (+5 years) |
Certified training course with accredited certification Peruse specialised University course Learn about domain-specific Project Management Methodology Work on medium to complex size projects |
Step-3: Based on the starting point you can decide where you can study project management.
Step-4: Once you know where you can study project management, you need to identify which course or degree is best suitable for you. This will depend on the type of profession, available time, and aspirations. You will check Which qualification is most common in your industry? Which one do you see listed most in the kind of job descriptions you’re interested in? Which one is best suited to your available time and budget? Which one will better fit the kind of processes your company uses? Where in the world do you want to work?
Step-5: Once you zeroed out the right course, you will need to spend time and effort studying the curriculum. Again, the duration and effort will depend on the type of course that you have chosen and your current professional status. This process may take from months to years.
Step-6: Next step is getting real project work experience. Even though you do not have any formal project management training, certification, or degree, you start working on projects if you get the chance. Learning by doing is the best way to learn about project management. Trust me within a couple of years of working experience and a Project Management degree or certification, you would be ready to handle a significant size of projects as a Project Manager.
Step-7: Once you become a Project Manager, remember that is not the final destination. You should continuously learn things and the latest happening in the Project Management field of your industry. You should develop your career as a thought leader.
Conclusion
If you ever wondered what’s the secret of a project management career path? Well, there is only one open secret. That is applying the learned skills and learning from outcomes. This is the secret to success in a project management career.
Follow the above seven-step strategies to develop your career in the Project Management world and shine your professional career.
Tell me, what strategy you are following to develop your career in Project Management? Let me know by leaving a comment below right now.
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