How project skills apply outside the ‘day job’

From charity work to microbreweries, project professionals are using their expertise on projects outside of their day jobs to great success. Why not make 2025 the year you use your sought-after professional skills to boost a community project, achieve a personal goal or just have some fun?

Don’t know where to start? Below are five examples from our ‘Beyond the Job’ series of articles in Project to inspire you.

1. Axe throwing (and flossing)

Vicki Griffiths wanted to use her work skills beyond the nine to five. As a Scout group leader, she found the demanding group of stakeholders (children!) that she was looking for.

“I have never had to write a risk assessment for axe-throwing while at work, but the same principles apply,” she told Project. “You might not immediately think being a project manager and a Scout leader have much in common, but I have found many parallels,” she said. These include the ability to be faultless in scheduling and planning and having a long-term vision.

In return for volunteering her time and expertise, she learnt how to floss (a dance move from videogame Fortnite) and how much fun you can have with an enormous bar of chocolate, a knife and fork and large foam dice.

2. Represent your country

If you’re hoping to apply your project management skills to sport, then look to Luke Peyton, who represented Team GB in the mountain bike marathon world championships.

“When I started looking into writing my own training plan, I felt overwhelmed, but the more I understood about the core theory and training principles, the more similarities I started to see with project management – specifically, the techniques for planning, monitoring and controlling training,” he said.

3. Set up a sports club

Meanwhile, Amerjit Walia uses his day-job skills to run a martial arts club in London. Walia was introduced to the Sikh martial art Gatka in his 30s and later set up a centre to teach children and adults.

“This required my project skills and expertise, not in a business context, but in a community setting where my understanding of cultural values and beliefs was key to success,” he told Project. “Personally, it has helped me grow and appreciate the importance of value-based leadership in projects,” he reflected.

4. Create an allotment

There’s also much fun and fulfilment to be had project managing personal projects. Take Gregory Brennan, who used a Gantt chart to plan his vegetable-growing calendar when cultivating his first allotment.

“It dawned on me that I should be applying project management principles to make the best use of the plot. The more I considered it, and as I started to equate aspects of it to elements of project management, the more obvious it became,” he said.

He even compiled his own risk register to help him throughout the year. “Some might say that applying so much effort to what should be a leisurely activity must surely take the fun out of it. The truth is that applying these methods has helped me continue with the plot where otherwise I might have had to give it up,” Brennan said.

5. Set up a microbrewery

Someone who might agree is Nigel Beecroft, who combined his career expertise with a lifetime hobby by starting his own microbrewery in Birmingham. He used project management techniques throughout, from defining requirements and procurement to risk identification, scheduling and quality management (a tough gig, but someone has to do it!).

“I’ve achieved my aim of developing a hobby while practising project management skills outside my normal work environment,” he reflected.

6. Become a lifeguard

Want to give back to society through charitable work? You could follow the example of Pete Lawrence, who volunteers as a lifeguard and is Chair of Surf Life Saving GB.

“Like projects, beach users have the tendency when not observed or monitored frequently to wander off and get into trouble. Dynamic risk assessments should continually sense-check the plan against the current conditions.

“A good project professional should be ready to alter the plan, communicate the changes and review the performance of the changes to make sure they have worked. If they haven’t, reassess and try again. Like the ocean environment, project environments are in a continual state of change,” he said.

“Whether delivering projects to time and cost or enabling volunteers to come together, the skills of a project manager are equally valuable and applicable.”

Enough said. So, what will you do with your skills outside the ‘day job’ in 2025?