Getting Started In Project Management

4 Secret Weapons in the Battle for Your Project Management Career

by Josh

Every time you contemplate what you need to do to further your project management career, do you get a sinking feeling in your stomach?

Do you worry that it won’t be enough, or that you don’t know what you don’t know?

It’s a fear that many beginning project managers know well; the fear that you won’t be prepared when opportunity comes.

Fortunately, there is a process you can follow to combat this fear. It’s going to take some work…are you ready to start?

Describe the End State

Just as with any project, you should create a crystal clear picture of what the end state should look like. You won’t know all of the specifics, but you can pick out a handful of things that are very important to you.

“If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
— Zig Ziglar

These are your anchor points. Document them somehow, in some way that you will see them often as a constant reminder of the goal you are trying to achieve. They will change over time, and that’s OK. As you learn more, you will discover new desired goals to conquer.

Consistent, Sustainable Action

Baby steps.

If there is one thing I’ve learned over the years through organizational change management, personal productivity studies, and continuous improvement methodologies, it is this:

Consistent, sustainable action is what creates progress. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

Set aside 15 minutes a day that is solely reserved for doing something to progress you towards you goals.

Don’t try to conquer the world in a day. You’ll be surprised how much progress you’ve made when you look back a year from now.

Limit Work in Progress (WIP)

Fighting on too many fronts at once will result in failure.

You can’t read 10 books, do project management training, and go for your PMP certification while attending night classes all at the same time. Trying to do so will result in a less sustainable and less powerful effort on all of these battle fronts.

Remember your description of the end state? With that in mind, prioritize the things you want to do on your way to success. Start with the most important one, and work your way down the list.

Seek Inspiration

This isn’t just about gaining knowledge and experience in project management.

You also need to stay inspired. You need someone who will ‘get your motor running’ when it comes to the goals you are going after.

The sources of inspiration are many. In the early years, I gained inspiration from sources like the Project Management Podcast and interacting with project managers from around the world online through this blog, forums, etc. Other sources of inspiration included my exuberant professor and friends who were just as passionate about project management as I was.

I was so inspired, you couldn’t get me to shut up about project management. (Oh wait, you still can’t)

Now that I’ve been doing this for many years, I gain inspiration through helping budding project managers through my project management training and interacting with them via this blog and the many forums and other blogs I frequent. My teams also serve as a great source of inspiration as I work with them on tools like Kanban to get better and better at what we do, every day.

Little by little.

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15 Ways to Hook a Gig as a Project Manager

by Josh

Mike Clayton recently responded to a question he receives often from his audience, “how do I get into project management?”

I really liked what Mike had to say, and so this is my riff on his ideas.

seize opportunities – any opportunities. Take any chance you can to get involved in a project and then look for a chance to take more responsibility

Absolutely Mike. I was recently coaching someone through this process, and you can see what happened and the actions they took in this project management career case study.
At the end of every project, reflect on what you have learned

Definitely. A lessons learned file is important both professionally and personally.

Keep a notebook of useful things you learn – tips, ideas, tools, insights – and keep it with you

This probably works for many people. I’m not much of a fan of carrying around notebooks though. For me, blogging is a key method for helping me retain important information and think through it carefully. That, and responding to forum questions and posing my own.

Get training – not just in project management, but in any business, management, communications, or personal skills – make notes about what you really learn in your notebook.

Training is so vital, and something that unfortunately, most organizations seem to undervalue. Shim wrote a post the other day on The Importance of Training and Coaching to Organizational Growth that I left a comment on. Too bad most companies can’t see the need for training like the military does.

If anyone is interested in training for new project managers, I’m producing that for you.

Get qualifications. No amount of formal training and exams will make you a great PM, but they will do two things: they will stretch your thinking, and give you a badge that people will recognise

True. In How and Why I Passed the PMP Exam I discuss my reasons for certification, even though I completely agree that no amount of test-taking is going to make you a good PM.

Additionally, you need to approach these certifications with the right mindset. I answered an email from someone yesterday who was thinking about paying thousands for a CAPM training course. NO! This is why I hate boot camps of any kind, they only teach to you to memorize and pass a test. If you’re OK with that, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.

Read insatiably. Particularly useful are Project Management magazines, like the APM’s Project, or Project Manager Today, but these days, there is a mass of comment, information, ideas, and formal learning available on websites and blogs.

Absolutely. And besides print and online reading materials, there are YouTube channels out there dedicated to project management, podcasts, and so much more.
Connect people together. By linking people up, you become a valuable team member who is able to get problems solved.

Absolutely critical Mike. Leadership is about facilitation and bridging the gap between people to establish and maintain good communication. It doesn’t mean you are the most important part of the system; you should be the grease that makes the system run well.

Don’t be a prima donna. If there is a dull, simple task; take it on with the relish of a major challenge and do it remarkably well. Get known as someone who can and will do anything to get things done.

When looking for a mentor in your organization, go find a project manager and ask them if you can take over these dull, simple tasks of theirs for them. They may be dull and simple for them, but you can gain a lot of experience and insight by taking these things over.
Talk to people and ask their opinions. This will build your people skills and grow your store of ideas and knowledge.

This is great advice and I have found that this is one thing social media in general is really great for. Leaving comments on blogs, interacting with people on LinkedIn, and so many other resources are out there.

Observe what makes the best of the people you work with great, and what makes the worst so bad. Model yourself accordingly.

Empathy and the ability to alter your perspective and look from outside your head is so important. Self-absorbed people who only see the world from their own myopic viewpoint never get too far from what I’ve seen. Treat the stage of your organization as a science lab, and you are an observer.

Be curious – investigate the environment you are working in and learn whatever you can.

When I started my current role I spent many hours over the weekend pouring through design documents, operations concepts, etc. I spent a long time being a newbie and proud of it, not caring that I may be asking stupid questions. In fact, I preface many of my questions with “let me ask you a stupid question” – just so they know it’s coming. It brings defenses down and makes people more willing to share with you.

Review your CV. A lot of what you have done has contributed to projects, so bring that aspect front and centre.

Absolutely. Projectize your resume and enhance it even more.

Volunteer for teams, task forces and working groups at work and in your social life.

Volunteer at work, in non-profit organizations, online, wherever. Volunteer and over-deliver.

Become an expert. Get known as an expert in something, no matter how detailed. Once people get in the habit of going to you for one thing, they will want your perspectives on other things.

Be careful about this one. Choose the ‘thing’ you will be an expert in carefully. People can tend to pigeon-hole you too, so that whatever you are recognized for can become a burden if you want to branch out. So you may be a great programmer, but if you are only known for your technical skills there, people may not even think of your name when an opportunity for a new project manager comes around.

Instead, I advise that you are known as being interested in whatever your goal is. If you want to be a project manger, make sure everyone and their mother knows it.

Focus on quality. Present your work really well, so that it gets noticed for the right reasons. People are like moths – we are attracted to the brightest flames.

Over-deliver, over-deliver, over-deliver.

Thanks Mike, good stuff! And thank you for linking to my blog. One blog you missed that focuses like I do, on new project managers, is Stepping into Project Management. Soma is awesome, check out her blog!

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