Two hours. A lot can happen in that time: you can go out to get the bread and come home branded a bigot by the nation’s most powerful man. You can play a football match. You can have a birds and the bees talk with your 11-year-old.
It’s also the time we set aside last Wednesday to tour the Project Challenge Spring Show 2010 at the NEC, Birmingham. Public speakers galore, slideshows, chatting up project people your keen to put a face with, squinting at name badges. People show up at public trade shows like these with their own personalised, tailored agenda: mine, for instance, was about professionalisation of project management. You’ll be able to read more about it 20th May in Project Management Tipoffs, and you can also read about our take on the APM’s 5 Dimensions on the Camel and from Tipoffs in March.
Liz Wilson of the APM talked with a standing-room only audience about the 5 Dimensions, and while the earlier links can highlight that better and at length, one thing she mentioned sparked my speculative interest – destination. Often, we hear of project managers who “fell into it”, often, like a love interest you first met in an elevator, coming to the job by accident. These people, as Liz put it, used to become project managers as a second or third destination for their career after leaving university.
Though not the sole driving force in the campaign for professional status, the rise in 1st destination project managers had become a factor. Yes, those kids fresh out of Uni like I once was: they thought they had learned everything, only to find out the hard way they were going to get taught all over again. Now, scattered among those areas of concentration, diplomas are – more than ever – featuring the words “Project Management” on them, and that’s before we even get into the Master’s degrees in this new course of study.
I needed some air upon hearing this, because I had sensed the grads might think they had the inside track. They do not. I was reminded of a conversation I once had with a law professor, who said that a pre-law undergraduate concentration meant little to law schools – wide ranges of concentrations forged a career in law: political science, economics, business, communications, english, psychology – you name it. This was straight from the horse’s mouth, and reflecting on my own original career path (yes, I am anything but 1st destination in projects), it no longer seemed a stretch. I had worked in journalism with English and Art majors, not only full-fledged Comm/Journ graduates. Even a Comm/Journ professor told me he’d willingly hired English, Art, Speech Comm and Political Science majors. Horse’s mouth again!
I could go on. Sitting across from me is a Psychology grad who used good admin skills to gain her first job, then work her way into first-hand PM and PMO knowledge box. My boss upstairs never went to Uni: he just forged ahead in the workforce, gained the experience and used his first-hand attained tools, know-how and business savvy (if I’m forgetting anything, the next performance review will no doubt serve as an opportunity for a reminder) to forge a career in project management.
The 1st Destination folk might be getting scared enough as it is. I intend to bring out their competitive nature. What you should be taking away from this is the matter are the questions of experience and talent. Consider: if I took a course on coaching football and passed, I’d be qualified to coach your kid. But wait! I’m a bitter Yank who’s never played the game on any competitive level. Still sure you want to entrust your child’s development within the sport with me? Same goes for projects: you need to have been in a situation where you can put your gifts on display. I’m not one to dismiss a diploma; I’m Usain Bolt-quick to dismiss a diploma minus real-life application of talent or adaptabile learning skills.
I’m hopeful that in the event project management is professionalised or even if it is not, the APM will effectively demonstrate to its burgeoning graduates the importance of real-time application of project management skills, be they in an internship , an apprenticeship, or a trainee capacity. Cooperation with public and private sector entities with close ties to project hiring would be crucial, and a good stable of companies should be available.
But that’s just me. What’s your take on:
- professionalisation?
- Chartered Status?
- Project Challenge 2010?
- Degrees in Project Management?
Your comments are not only welcome, they’re encouraged.
“All the gear and no idea” is a phrase that comes to mind when talking to 22-year-old aspirant project managers.
Just like sex, marriage, voting and alcohol, there ought to be a minimum age for project managers. It should be an older age than all of the above, and quite significantly, because experience in all of the above will help you become a project manager.
Project management is above all else a leadership position. Experienced workers look to a project manager to direct their efforts, and I don’t see how it’s possible to do this without some serious experience. Credibility inspires energy and drives commitment.
Certification and knowledge-based qualifications do not give you experience – they give you background from which to have your experiences. It’s a catch-22 though – how can you get the experience without managing a project? Well you can work on a few projects as a resource and you can work as project support – this will give you some solid first-hand experience of all the important things that textbooks and certification mention, but get lost in the plethora of other information. You can also lead a small and relatively safe (in business terms, not necessarily in delivery terms) project under the guidance of a mentor, or using an experienced project support officer.
Qualifications might be useful when you’re starting out, but just like learning to drive, you only really learn about how to drive when you’ve passed your test (i.e. got the certificate). Offer me a PM with a relevant degree and 1 year of PM experience, or a PM with not even a cycling proficiency to his name, but a 10 year record of delivery, and the choice is obvious.
So I vote against 1st destination careers in project management, just like I would vote against politicians who have never had a real job – you need to understand much more than just the theory.
Just another thought…. qualification-based selection for a position or role is much less effective than natural selection, when you’re looking for a successful outcome. I love the idea of people “falling into project management”, because it’s a very good means of sorting out the wheat from the chaff. When you know the people and can see their behaviours, delivery record and attitude, then you can start to take some calculated risks.
Imagine being in an organisation where the conversation goes something like: “We need to get more formal at managing this project. Who could we choose?”. “Well, Jane has great people skills, is really organised and understands the flow of a project from having worked on a number of them, and has indicated she’d like to take on a more senior role in the organisation”. “Well let’s broach the subject with her then….”. The “accidental project manager” has just been conceived!
Now compare to “We need to get more formal at managing this project. Who could we choose?”. “Well John has a Prince2 Foundation certificate, and he’s technically excellent…”
Which has the better chance of a great business outcome?
Twitter: raghunau
10 years back when I started my career, my friend advised me to do PMP…. I said, what? There may be talent in me, an emerging leader but I thought I need to go through the professional challenges before I get certified as a Project Manager. I went through the projects with due diligence enjoying green ones and fighting red ones. Every year, I improved in the way I was being part of the projects…and after a decade of experience I went through the certification to back up my education and experience for the world to identify the Project Manager in me. The biggest aspects of Project Management is not only handling resources, risks, revenue and stakeholders. The most important one would be how best you can be at problem solving… for from the problems emerge success stories. Maturity and experience comes not only with certification and years of challenges, but with a strength of time spent handling various scenarios of business. So it is ideal that we gain some amount of experience before taking up Projects with sole leadership for they would make things good for all.
Regards
Umasree
http://www.umasreraghunath.blogspot.com