Any project managers?

ramirez · 26 Apr 2007 at 08:02

I want to get into Project Management - I've done the PRINCE2 foundation and practitioner qualifications (pending result for latter,) and wondered if anyone here could explain the route they took to get into the field?

Currently I work a little way out of project staff in that I work a few levels below IT project support so I can't see an easy route in my present workplace. Are there roles designed for training up, e.g. junior project management?

ta!

lozza23_uk · 26 Apr 2007 at 08:42

project managers dont have time for forums, they spend all their time running around looking important and attending meetings with free lunches

edit:
and my spelling shows why I am not a project manager.

Pookie Bear · 26 Apr 2007 at 09:05

Sorry, I don't have any immediate advice for you. I have the PRINCE2 foundation and practioner course (you mean the five day one, right?) coming up soon, so I'm keen to know what you felt about it, and see what other responses you get to this thread.

Admiral Huddy · 26 Apr 2007 at 09:11

lozza23_uk said:
project managers dont have time for forums, they spend all their time running around looking important and attending meetings with free lunches

edit:
and my spelling shows why I am not a project manager.

Wanna bet

There's no quick route.. You're best bet is to understand the business you intend to support and gain some technical experiance as well.

flump · 26 Apr 2007 at 09:22

Project Managers (in my organisation anyway) are either recruited at that level or if promoted, are required to have a significant amount of experience in "unsung project management".

ramirez · 26 Apr 2007 at 09:51

Skidmark said:
Sorry, I don't have any immediate advice for you. I have the PRINCE2 foundation and practioner course (you mean the five day one, right?) coming up soon, so I'm keen to know what you felt about it, and see what other responses you get to this thread.

Foundation was fairly easy, do as many past papers as you can. Practitioner was solid but depending on who you train with can make it an awful lot easier. It's open book and usually a case of knowing where the answer to the question is in the text book (so having some kind of mapping system is a life saver.)

Admiral Huddy · 26 Apr 2007 at 10:01

Text Book <> Real life

scorza · 26 Apr 2007 at 10:08

In my experience:

1. Get experience working on a project
2. Get promoted to Team Leader on a project
3. Get promoted to be the Project Manager.

For smaller projects 2 and 3 can be the same thing. For larger project there's probably some extra hoops to jump through between 2 and 3. E.g risk manager, development manager, that sort of thing.

reefoid · 26 Apr 2007 at 11:30

My route was via jobs that had some degree of project management role in them. These were mainly IT support and development manager jobs where I would run smaller projects (data quality, system integrations, etc). I then moved into a permanent IT infrastructure project manager role after doing my Prince 2 exams.

Unfortunately most PM jobs require you to have hands-on PM experience so it is a bit of a catch 22 - can't get a job without experience, can't get experience without a job.

You could look out for junior project manager roles, these generally deal with very small projects or work alongside a more senior PM on larger projects.