How do you break into another industry as a project manager?

I was recently asked this question by someone coming from the film industry.  The resume I was referred to looked more like a filmography listing for this post-production supervisor.

Similarly, a few years ago I had coffee with a cousin of mine while in Denver for the PMI Global Congress and found out she is an Event Planner.  She told me a bit about what she does, I told her a bit about what I do.  She was a project manager, but didn’t think about her work in that way.  I was in the same place many years ago, running projects without really thinking of them as such…  As far as I knew, I was just facilitating a team of people towards a common goal.

Focus on the CONTENT as well as the CONTEXT

We all have something in common; a focus on the context of our industry almost solely and in exclusion of the content of our daily work.

I’ve written about project management resumes before.  I think the most important thing in this situation is to take a step back and re-evaluate your own experience in project management terms.

“I urge you to take your film experience and re-frame it in terms of project management.  I’ll bet you managed stakeholders including team members, sponsors, and customers.  I’ll bet you managed scope, schedule and budget.  I bet you can probably give a good idea of what the budget you managed was.
I’ll bet you went through initiation, planning, execution – monitoring & controlling, and closing of projects.”

Look, some people have little to no project management experience and act like they do, as in those who pursue the PMP or other certifications without the relevant experience.  (Doing projects around the house do not count as PM experience, sorry!)

Others have 20+ years of experience doing all the things that project managers do, albeit in an environment where they are called by another name.  If you are managing projects, you are a project manager….I don’t care what you call it.

Don’t undervalue or overestimate the weight of your own  achievements and experience.  One of the many topics I cover in my PM Career Coaching Course is how to evaluate your starting point accurately, set a trajectory for your career with plans for achieving your goals, and then executing on those plans.

What about you?  Have you made a transition from an industry like film or events planning into project management?  Are you trying to do so now?

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Today I’d like to share with you a great story about someone that I’ve been working with for a little bit here on their project management career.

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But it doesn’t have to be.

If you are learning about project management and trying to make it your career, join me.

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I am doing a few podcast shows right now, and we just released new episodes yesterday for both of them. Here comes another.

I am starting a new podcast with a question & answer format….

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I received a question from the newsletter asking for career tips and in response I compiled this list of articles written by myself and other guest authors here at pmStudent.

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A student of Help University College in Malaysia contacted me with an interview for an assignment she was doing. I asked her if I could share it here on the blog. Other experienced project managers out there: feel free to add your own insights in the comments!

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In episode 62 of The Project Management Podcast, Cornelius interviews Thomas Cutting on the subject of breaking into the project management profession.  This episode was helpful for me and reinforced some of my ideas on the subject.

One obstacle I’ve run into is that many of the project managers I work with now have a history where they worked in operations for 5+ years in a specific area, and worked up to be a team manager, etc. until their where either promoted or fell into a project management role within that specific department. Many don’t have project management specific education or started with a goal to be a project manager.

My situation is completely different.

While I have many years of industry experience with information systems and technology in general, I’ve never been in a specific department for any longer than 2 years. I’ve approached my career more from a focus of developing my PM skill set rather than industry expertise.

So, the formal education and PM focus is very helpful, but how do you actually get into a job this way?

One of the recommendations Thomas made was to go in as a Project Assistant of some sort. This could be a controller, scheduler, coordinator, etc. Sometimes the title would actually be Project Management Assistant. The only problem is that PM is still a newborn thing in most companies and many do not have specific project management administrative roles like this. The project manager does everything.

If you are interested in getting into the project management profession, check out this episode.

Links: The PM Podcast – Episode 062: How can I become a Project Manager? http://www.thepmpodcast.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=109&Itemid=9

Cutting’s Edge – Thomas Cutting’s blog which has a series of posts on this topic as well http://cuttingsedgepm.blogspot.com/index.html

PMP Prepcast – For those wanting to get PMP certified.

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