A project management career is not for everyone.
It takes a person with many key characteristics.
Are you a strong communicator? Do you have solid decision-making skills? Do your peers say you are “cool under pressure?” Can you build an effective team?
If you answered yes to any (or all!) of these questions, you may have the traits necessary to become a project manager.
But just possessing the essential skills and traits is not enough. Project management is both an art and a science.
And (really good) project managers are essential to a successful 21st-century organization. According to the 2020 Pulse of the Profession® (a Project Management Institute annual report), “an average 11.4 percent of investment is wasted due to poor project performance. And organizations that undervalue project management as a strategic competency for driving change report an average of 67 percent more of their projects failing outright.”
Yikes.
Your project management skills are needed!
This blog post will explore how to get into project management, why a career in project management is beneficial and worthwhile to pursue, and how staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud can be used as an effective tool to help get into project management.
What is Project Management?
Project management is the process of organizing the project plan, project objectives, milestones, and deliverables of a project, as well as managing team members, timelines, and budgets to ensure that successful projects are delivered.
Project managers — individuals who, well, manage projects — are in charge of planning, managing, and executing various projects.
Effective project management entails assessing project feasibility, creating a project management plan, identifying key project deliverables — breaking them down into more manageable tasks, and assigning them to teams and staff. And finally, ensuring the project runs smoothly from start to finish.
7 reasons why you should consider a career in project management
A project management role at any organization can be challenging. It requires several unique skills and traits — leadership, communication, team-building, delegation, and integrity … to name a few.
A career in project management means you will likely be an integral part of all critical new initiatives at your company.
Projects. Projects. Projects. Project management is the lifeblood of what we do and who we are at staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud.
One thing is for sure: If you choose a career in project management, expect to be learning … constantly. Every project, every team, every task is unique. And while there is project management software (like staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud) that will make your life easier, every day is different.
A few more reasons why a career in project management is beneficial and worthwhile to pursue:
Reason #1: Straightforward career path
Not all jobs have a clear career path. Some can be dead ends — not ideal. Still, others are wavy, with lateral moves likely — okay, if that fits your personality. However, project management career paths tend to have a straight-line trajectory.
Photo by Jake Blucker on Unsplash
Photo by Jake Blucker on Unsplash
A possible path may begin as an internship during college followed by a project coordinator. That role often leads to an assistant project manager, then project manager, the lead/senior project manager. At this point, you begin managing bigger teams and often move into a director or VP position. Project managers are typically a good fit for future COOs as well, thanks to operations experience.
For tips on interview prep, read this blog covering useful project manager interview questions.
Reason #2: Good salary
According to a recent PMI report, “demand over the next 10 years for project managers is growing faster than demand for workers in other occupations.” It’s projected that “by 2027, employers will need nearly 88 million individuals in project management-oriented roles.”
And jobs in high demand tend to command higher salaries. According to Indeed.com (as of 21-Jan-21), the average project manager salary (in the United States) is $81,798 per year + an annual $13,500 cash bonus. This number goes north of $85,000/year as experience increases.
Reason #3: Lots of industry options
Some job types are specific to a handful of industries. For example, there are not a lot of physicians working at SaaS companies … nor are there many (or any, for that matter) construction workers working in the ER.
However, when it comes to project management, you can pretty much pick your industry: construction, architecture, software, software development, health care, law, finance, energy, and so on.
Reason #4: Uniqueness
Projects are unique and temporary.
Each new product development is a unique undertaking compared to the implementation of a new software system — one and done.
Additionally, executing on any strategic initiative requires a different set of initiatives this year compared to 3 or 5 or 10 years ago.
Although project managers often learn lessons from their past projects, they are continually leading and guiding a new and unique initiative every time.
Reason #5: Expand your knowledge
While a project management role presupposes the need to know a lot about coordinating (project) teams, there’s still a lot you need to learn to achieve the best results.
Learning can come in the form of seminars and books and other skills-based learning initiatives. Additionally, you can learn from your colleagues, co-workers, and other industry experts.
Reason #6: Become more attentive to details
Attention to detail is a primary requirement for most jobs.
For a project management jobs, it’s essential. The finer details have a considerable impact on the overall output.
A career in project management helps you notice these details and ultimately predict how each of them might influence the project. With this knowledge, you will quickly build strategies and hone new ideas for purposes of team cooperation.
Reason #7: Make an Impact
Many people are continually looking to be in a position that’s meaningful and worthwhile to ensure they make a positive contribution to an industry or company.
In project management, you can work with different team members and feel challenged by problems that should be solved with a job that doesn’t leave you bored. As a project manager, you will feel rewarded when you keep your project schedules on track, meet the budget, and collaborate with colleagues to ensure everything runs efficiently.
Project managers help companies improve efficiency and save money to improve the organization’s performance as a whole. Although you will have a long list of responsibilities, you could make a positive impact on people around you. It is easy for you to remain stimulated in the role because you need to create new strategies that require you to experiment with different techniques that can help you meet your stakeholder’s needs.
If you want to pursue a career that allows you to feel fulfilled, working in project management will greatly enhance your professional life. You will feel stimulated and challenged in a position that will enable you to change industries and benefit anyone around you with the unique skills you develop.
If you are considering a project management career, check out staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud!
If you are going to consider a project management career, you will need to invest in some project management software.
Project management software is the set of tools and platforms designed to help managers and teams plan, coordinate, execute, and report on tasks and projects.
While there are many piecemeal solutions available, we strongly suggest considering a complete, all-in-one option, like staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud’s Work OS.
As the screenshot below shows, a Work OS is more than just project management software — it truly is the complete package.
The staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud Work OS is one platform to manage any project:
- Effective collaboration: one shared platform helps to break communication barriers, move projects forward, and align all stakeholders
- Easy access: keep track of all moving parts — progress updates, budget approvals, etc. — instantly know the status of every project
- Customized workflow: You name the workflow (agile, waterfall, sprints, etc.) and we’ve got you covered
- Integrations: Seamlessly integrate all of your existing tools
staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud is the project management solution for every stage of your project and portfolio management.
What are you waiting for? Get started with staging-mondaycomblog.kinsta.cloud today. 14-day free trial. No credit card needed.
