How Do You Get Into the Project Management Sector?

[tonyhe]

I've seen a lot of vacancies for Project Managers within the IT Sector recently with excellent salary prospects. How does one actually enter this arena? Each job spec requires at least 2 to 5 years experience. Yet! I've never seen or heard of any company wanting 'Trainee Project Managers'. You project gurus out there tell us your secrets?

[WoWo]

The general route for IT project management is normally via some sort of technical role. So they take people on as programmers and they then move into project managment later. Or they have general managment experince and move across into a project management role.

[Steve_Luts]

Hi Tony,

I'm an IT contractor (a techie) and have worked under various project managers in my time, of varying degrees of ability. The one thing that has struck me - none of them has followed remotely the same career path!

As WoWo rightly points out, a lot of people are IT techies go : programmer, team leader, project manager. However, for every one of those, there is say a general business person, who is good at getting things done. One of our PM's is an ex army captain, for example - he had very little IT background previously. We also get a lot of ex-accountants, who don't just want to do number crunching, so get involved from that perspective.

However, all of them can demonstrate a wealth of experience on their CV's, usually across a broad range of businesses. I would say the best have a 'can do' attitude, have a very thick skin, and at times are the best bullsh!tters known to man! I would say that the ability to 'spin many plates' is their biggest skill.

It is fairly lucrative if you can get into it though - �500 a day is about the going rate for a PM where I am - better than a kick in the nuts!

[tonyhe]

Thank you Steve and WoWo for your valuable input. I spoke to a project manager at a large telecommunications company recently who was helpful but wasn�t giving too much away in the conversation. He stated that in general the best PMs in the IT sector are those who possess more organisational and business acumen than technical. He stated that as long as you know the general difference between say -Unix, SQL, Oracle, Microsoft, Novell, C++, .NET etc, and their workings, and are able to handle and direct section managers to deliver agreed associated projects on time and within budget and crack the whip when needed; �The Jobs a Goodun.� His terminology. He also stated that in his experience �technical bods� and �mega programmers� do not make good PMs because they tend to get too involved with the mechanics� of the infrastructure they should be directing thus slowing up the project. This seems to mirror your reply Steve. Thanks mate.

Qualifications like Prince2 and ITL are usually asked for but don�t seem to be always mandatory, do these qualifications really enhance your position within the sector and if so why?

[Steve_Luts]

Not sure about the qualifications.

Obviously they wouldn't hold you back, but I'm not sure how much of an advantage they give you - perhaps they might get your CV a little higher up the list, but its the experience that counts - you can't just go on a course and become a good PM at the end of it - so much is down to interpersonal skills, which one accrues over a lifetime.

I should have added last night that a lot of people become PM's by being a good manager in a more defined role. Their talent is apparent in that role, so they will be recruited from within to manage a project; if they do well, they go on and do more projects, and all of sa sudden that's all they do - and where they are in the market for the jobs that you have seen advertised. Most will tell you, I think, that they 'fell into it' having trained in something else!

I know nothing about this organisation, but they may help you:http://www.apm.org.uk/

[ian42ian]

Hi, seems along time ago now, but did you ever succeed in finding a role ?

I'm seeking similar, although I've done IT PM in the 90's


Ian