Hides to speak at local BCS ASSIST SIG event
Posted on | September 7, 2010 | Author: | DanS | No Comments
Michael Hides of Arras People will present before London and South East branch delegates of ASSIST 22nd September.
Arras People project management consultant Michael Hides is scheduled to speak at the London and South East branch of the British Computer Society’s The Association for Informatics Professionals in Health and Social Care (ASSIST) specialist interest group event 22nd September. The event, entitled “Facing the dark clouds and winning”, will take place at the BCS London Office on the First Floor of the Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street.
The day-long conference commences at 9.30, with Michael scheduled to speak around 1.15pm. Michael will talk to ASSIST delegates about Market trends in the Healthcare IT jobs sector, honing in on what skills candidates will need to be developing now in case trouble ensues down the line. As a senior consultant with Arras People, Michael will use his experience to show how candidates can make best use of the experience and maximise opportunity in their current and future roles.
Michael has presented before a variety of project management and recruitment-related conferences and events before. In February, he and Arras People colleague Gary Holmes both presented for Arras People at the APM Aberdeen local chapter event, as both met individually with delegates to help them develop their individual job skills face-to-face. Michael is a chartered engineer that has worked on projects and in organisations both large and small. He joined Arras People in 2007, bringing with him relevant skills and experience from project management and in sectors including engineering and manufacturing.
The event is open to both to ASSIST members and non-members, who are invited as guests. You can book a slot at this networking event on the BCS web site. You can also learn more about ASSIST and its events.
DETAILS
Who: Michael Hides, Arras People consultant
What: Speech on market trends in Healthcare IT jobs sector
Where: BCS Assist local branch meeting
BCS London Office, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton St, London WC2E 7HA
When: Wednesday, 22nd September, around 1.15pm
How: BCS ASSIST members and non-members can both book a slot online
Tags: Arras People > Assist > BCS > Healthcare jobs > IT jobs > job market > Michael Hides > Project Management
Project Management Book Reviewers Wanted!
Posted on | September 6, 2010 | Author: | lindsayascott | 12 Comments
Fancy getting your hands on a free project management book? Arras People is looking for book reviewers – but don’t sweat it – we’re looking for amateur book reviewers who are project professionals! Each month we have a book review in our monthly newsletter – and we also publish a few on the Camel too. We have a number of great books to review right now:
The Contract Scorecard – worth £66
The Project Success Method- worth £16
The Project Management Communications Toolkit – worth £66
The Project Manager’s Guide to Making Successful Decisions - worth £25
How to Save a Failing Project – Chaos to Control - worth £30
Thinking Harder – Being Smart about Transformation – worth £12
59 Checklists for Project and Programme Managers – £28
So what’s the deal??
If you’re interested in giving it a go – leave a comment letting us know which book you’re interested in – you’ll be asked to enter an email in the comments box but don’t worry this isn’t visible to anyone but us.
We will then get in touch via email to make sure we can get the book to you.
You can take up to three months to read and review the book – we need a 500 word (about a side of A4) review from you.
Take a look at previous book reviews to get a feel of the types of reviews we’ve had.
So what you waiting for; an opportunity for a little CPD for free could be yours 
Image © striatic and used with permission.
Tags: free project books > project management book reviews > project management books
Finding a project management role when you’re older
Posted on | September 3, 2010 | Author: | lindsayascott | 1 Comment
In this month’s PMI PM Network magazine I had a question from a reader;
I’ve been out of work for a while and I suspect I’m having no luck with my applications because of my age (I’m in my late 50s having been a Project Manager for a number of years), what proactive steps can I take?
I’m going to make the assumption that the suspected age discrimination you have experienced is not blatant because there are Age Discrimination laws to protect you and avenues to pursue if you would like to take that further. I will concentrate on the element of the question where you are looking for advice on proactive steps to take to make your job search more fruitful. The setbacks you are experiencing could just as easily be a product of the general economic downturn we have experienced in hires over the last two years and there are four areas I want you to think about and take action on.
Firstly, many experienced project managers who have gained valuable real life experience and skills (and are generally “older”) find that contract or consultancy opportunities are much easier for them to secure at this time in their career. The opportunity to take contracts for a fixed number of months allows them to; choose opportunities that fit their experience and skills; be rewarded specifically for those skills built up over a number of years; choose work but also leave time to pursue other interests in their lives. Many employing organisations are using contract hires to get important projects delivered, especially in these times when corporate headcount freezes are making life difficult. If you’ve just been looking for permanent employment up to now, change tack, seek out the contract opportunities and remember you can always look for permanent employment when the market picks up again.
Secondly, you’ve been working for a while so make sure you use the contacts you have made along the way – most people still find their next work opportunity through someone they know. This is especially valuable for you because the person making that hire will either already know you or been told about your good work.
Thirdly, make sure your profile and work history in your CV or professional profile is clear, concise and highlights your successes and “specialism’s” within project management which are relevant to the role for which you are applying. Project professionals who have worked many years in the project field often present a hefty CV which makes it difficult for a prospective employer / recruiter to easily see what they’re getting if they hire you. Your CV should not run to more than 3 pages; so organising a 25 year plus career into that space can be difficult but it should prove to be a useful exercise for you.
Fourthly, after speaking to a number of organisations about their views on hiring senior (older) project managers, the outcome was, “What is important is not how old you are but rather, how fresh and relevant you are”. Hiring managers are looking for candidates to pass not only the usual selection criteria (qualifications, domain experience etc) but also the fit within the organisation or project team. Being fresh, relevant and as one employer commented, energetic, at the interview stage is applicable to everyone, regardless of age. Do you think your own attitude and approach in interviews needs to be revived and refreshed? It’s not uncommon in the job hunting process to feel defeated and negative and this will come through in interviews whether you believe that to be the case or not. Take time to reflect on your performances and ask yourself – were you energetic and positive?
Just one final point, make sure you remove your date of birth from your CV. You need to make sure every opportunity remains open to you to the point where interviews and face to face meetings take place and your “energetic” performance will be the judge, not a CV screening individual’s prejudices.
Taken from my careers column for PMI’s PM Network magazine – August edition, if you have a question you can submit it via pmnetwork@imaginepub.com
Image © AlphaTangoBravo and used with permission.
Tags: Age Discrimination > older project managers > Project Management Careers
APMP – The Arras Study Group
Posted on | September 2, 2010 | Author: | GaryH | No Comments
Well, after several weeks in the classroom my fellow Arras colleagues and I have finally been released into the wild from the safe haven of our fortnightly Study Group. The majority of us are due to actually sit the exam in November with one exception in September (good luck, Mick!) but as a group we have now completed the syllabus – now to the revision!
Over the last few weeks we have been aligning ourselves with the APM’s worldview of project management by learning and re-assimilating all sorts of subjects such as Governance, Project Planning, Requirements Management and the dreaded Earned Value Management! I say dreaded because from a personal perspective the only exposure I have had to EVM previously was a 45 minute seminar I attended a couple of years ago, and I have to say at the time I found it all rather confusing. Now I’ve actually sat down and learnt how the techniques work in a practical setting though, I have to say I’m feeling much more confident (I’ll probably regret saying that when it comes to exam time now).
Our final session today focused on the people aspects of project management, which in the real world I have found to be one of the most, if not the most important aspects of the profession. We learned an extensive amount about self assessment techniques such as Belbin and Maslow and it got me thinking, how does this work in a real live project recruitment scenario? When searching for candidates for different types of roles one of the major factors we here at Arras consider is how a candidate’s personality would fit in at our clients’ organisation. This is something we pride ourselves on and regularly spend up to an hour vetting candidates in an interview situation to make sure they are a good fit for the post. Using Belbin’s model for example, a good quality Technical IT Project Manager would need to have a combination of attributes, but I imagine that ‘Implementer’, ‘Completer Finisher’, ‘Shaper’ and even elements of the ‘Plant’ dynamic would be evident. A Project Support Officer on the other hand might need to be more of a ‘Monitor Evaluator’, ‘Coordinator’ and ‘Team Worker’.
Interesting stuff anyway and something I’ll certainly be considering in the future when speaking to candidates.
Right, back to the revision…
Tags: APMP > Arras People > Belbin > Earned Value Management > Gary Holmes > project management certifications
Project Management Recruitment Ideas – Strength Based Interviews
Posted on | September 1, 2010 | Author: | lindsayascott | No Comments
In this Project Management Recruitment Ideas, I’m going to cover a new kind of interview technique – the strength based approach. In an article in this month’s Recruiter, the strength based approach covers an interview technique that some organisations are turning to as they turn away from the “competency based” approach. Many of you will be familiar with the competency based approach – the kind of interview where the same question can be asked of any candidate regardless of their previous experience, allowing organisations to make a comparisons across a shortlist of people. We covered this in a previous Project Management Recruitment Ideas.
What Do I Need to Know About Strength Based Interviews?
The strength based approach is the exact opposite to competency based interviews and “aims to assess and recruit people based on their natural skills and abilities”. The idea is that an employer can “distinguish between what people can do and what people love to do”
The strength based interviews consist of rapid fire questions that go beyond just work based examples (which is the competency approach). The approach, which will include questions designed to bring out the interviewees personality may sound like a nightmare to some people but is it really just another new fangled approach to something which ain’t broke?
The strength based approach consists of about fifty questions – asked and answered quickly – so there is limited time to probe answers. Early adopters of the approach however will still rely on competency based interviews for subsequent interviews; only using the strength based as a quick sort for a long shortlist (yes, an oxymoron I know!)
Feedback from early adopters have also shown that strength based interviewing is only really useful for graduate recruitment and entry level roles – so as a project management candidate you can probably breathe a sigh of relief that this technique will never be “used on you”.
The strength based approach would be pretty useless for the project management industry – apart from of course the areas which are designed to determined personality and cultural fit. The quick fire questions – some of which include scenarios of “made up” projects – would not bring out the depth of experience, management ability, technical aspects, skill levels required, the level of competency – and of course how you have brought all these together on “real life” projects.
The typical project management interview will continue to use the competency based approach, however the feedback on this approach has been compelling from the strength based adopters;
- Competency based interviewing makes it difficult to distinguish between candidates
- Candidates know how competency based interview works and “often know the answers by rote”
- Competency based interviews feel tired and candidates can “draw on skills that they no longer possess”
It begs the question then, if competency based interviewing is old hat with candidates able to pull the wool over the interviewer’s eyes by just being a practiced interviewee – what is the optimal interview technique when interviewing project management candidates?
In the project management field wouldn’t a combined approach of assessment testing (against other shortlisted candidates), theoretical knowledge and a presented work example be a more rounded interview process? A three stage thorough process that tests and assesses the project candidate could be carried out in one session with a second stage being more focused on organisation orientation and indepth project understanding. This seems more like a strength based approach to me.
It is just a thought, but it seems organisations may want to reconsider their project management interview processes if they really do want to find the right employee, but would that be too much effort, time and change for the human resources function to set it up?
What do you think – is it time for an interview rethink? Have you attended an interview which was different to the norm? What did you think – good idea or new fangled idea better consigned to the bin? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Tags: Competency Based Interviews > Project Management > Strength Based Interviews
Back to Arras People
How to Manage A Camel
Recent Posts
- Hides to speak at local BCS ASSIST SIG event
- Project Management Book Reviewers Wanted!
- Finding a project management role when you’re older
- APMP – The Arras Study Group
- Project Management Recruitment Ideas – Strength Based Interviews
- Project Management on Twitter? Let’s meet up on the 12th November
- The Camel is Back!
- Clinically sound: Arras People’s careers clinic evolves
- Project Management Recruitment Ideas: The Security Check
- Tipoffs Preview: Pawel Brodzinski on “Why So Unhappy?”
Recent Comments
- Gary Holmes on The Foundation of a Project Management Career
- Stanislav (Stan) Yanakiev, PMP on The Foundation of a Project Management Career
- Project Management on Finding a project management role when you’re older
- Stanislav (Stan) Yanakiev, PMP on Twittering about Projects Part III
- lindsayascott on Project Management Book Reviewers Wanted!
Tags
Chewy Camel Archives
