Career In Project Management: An Easy Guide in 3 Points

Introduction

How is a career in Project Management? A project is a complex initiative related to a business strategy that is agreed, planned, and executed to achieve a specific goal. A successful project needs people with the right skills and knowledge at its heart. It involves planning, management, organization, and communication Working together, a well-managed motivated team with clearly defined roles and responsibilities will carry the project to its conclusion.

Behind every successful project, there is an unsung hero, the project manager who gets everything and everyone on track to ensure the delivery of the desired result without compromising on time, cost, and quality. To put it simply, project management is about getting things done. It is a very challenging yet satisfying and rewarding career.

In this article let us look at:

1. What Do Project Managers Do?
2. Scope of Project Management
3. Why Study Project Management?

1. What Do Project Managers Do?

The project manager is the owner of the project. They are accountable for the project’s success. For a project to be executed successfully, he needs to achieve a specific goal of the project within the prior agreed time and budget constraints. Some of the roles and responsibilities of a project manager are: 

• Role of a leader: Project management is not just about the execution of a project, it’s more about taking responsibility and lead and driving the project team to execute. One of the most important project management skills is to have a genuine interest in people, to be able to align them on the same objective make them do things and do it well.

• Role of a facilitator or a negotiator: A project manager is required to facilitate the conversation between all the stakeholders and customers of the project. They are responsible for the work of all the people involved in the project, such as team members, vendors, support functions, and other stakeholders. The manager needs to have full visibility and control over all project-related work.

Some of the day to day responsibilities include: 

• Planning budgeting, and forecasting

• Keeping a close watch on the project status, milestones, issues, and exceptions, if any.

• Maintain project artifacts like documentation, project plan, project charter, test plans, etc. 

• Running meetings, facilitating workshops if required.

• Conflict resolution between different stakeholders or team members.

• Capture details coming out of the projects and ensure daily, weekly or monthly reporting on the project.

• Presentation of the reports or the project status to all the stakeholders.

• The project manager may need to interact functions with finance, procurement, legal, technology, HR, etc., which are outside of project space. 

2. Scope of Project Management

The right attitude and professionalism of project managers are paramount to a project’s success. In addition to this, a person needs to have certain traits like people management skills, analytical skills, presentation skills, organization skills, and clear communication.  

A career in project management is an excellent career choice because:

• Regardless of the market or industry, the role is always in demand. By 2027, there will be 22 million new project management work openings.
   
• Project managers are needed in a wide range of industries from IT to finance to manufacturing to engineering and many others.
  
• Project Managers’ pay scales are very lucrative. The average salary of a project manager at an entry-level is $59,680 as per Glassdoor data. Experience and specialization can significantly increase the amount.
  
• Project manager jobs could be the stepping stones to more senior positions.
  
• There are a variety of skills that project managers use and gain while managing the project. They also get to do a multitude of tasks to get the job done, which adds to the skillset. 

3. Why Study Project Management?

Project management is not a natural trait. It is imperative to understand the fundamentals of project management. The project manager’s skills evolve with time and experience. To begin with, by taking up formal training or a course on project management, one can acquire the following skills:

Project Management and Business Knowledge- This includes fundamentals like project life cycle, business analysis skills, business acumen, industry standards, tools, and documents, etc.

People and workflow management skills- This includes skills like business analysis, efficient organization, people skills, and issue resolution skills.

Strategy and Leadership Skills: This includes portfolio management, negotiation, working towards the strategic objective of the program, influencing shareholders, and promoting the values and benefits of the project to the business.

Conclusion

To have a career in project management, business administration degree is a good start. One can also go for a diploma course or certification course in project management at any point in their career, like PMP (Project Management Professional) certification provided by the Project Management Institute. Having a PM certificate always helps advance your career in project management field. There are a number of online programs or courses on project management that one can opt for. One can always learn on the job and rise through the ranks within the organization.

Work on an ongoing project as an associate project manager and learn the tricks of the trade to work your way up. However, project management is more about experience, soft skills, and a positive mindset to get things done than it is about technological skills. Self-improvement, self-learning, and a desire to grow as a person throughout one’s life are essential for maintaining a successful career in project management.

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