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A career as a project manager can be exciting, varied, fulfilling, and productive. There are great career prospects for project managers.
The project manager is responsible for day-to-day management of the project and must be competent in managing the six aspects of a project, i.e. scope, schedule, finance, risk, quality and resources.
Project managers work on specific projects that have definite outcomes, have time limits and have to stay within a budget. These tasks typically include:
There are a whole range of skills you need to be a successful project manager, and they’re not necessarily all technical. They may be skills you already use in your day to day life as well as being job-specific abilities developed through education and training.
We call these soft skills and hard skills, which can range from leadership, being able to motivate and encourage others, have good communication and decision making abilities, to managing risk, budgeting and project planning.
Project management skills are transferable from one industry to another. The tools and techniques of project management are universal and a good project manager should be able to add value in any environment.
It is important to have the right balance and combination of the various skills needed to be a successful project manager, as explored within this blog.
Use our example role profiles to help focus on relevant competences. The profiles are pitched at different levels and give a general overview of the role and typical responsibilities. In many cases the profiles will share common competences.
This can be useful in identifying learning and development opportunities. There is also scope to develop and adapt the profiles to the specific needs of your organisation.
Some of the more common job titles are listed below complete with a brief explanation.
This role profile applies to project managers operating at entry level. At this level, a project manager can apply project management knowledge when they participate in a project in any capacity and common knowledge is not sufficient to perform at a satisfactory level of competence.
This role profile applies to portfolio managers operating at intermediate level. At this level, a portfolio manager can lead a portfolio with limited complexity or assist on a complex portfolio, following the appropriate governance applied, monitoring and reporting on the portfolio to several stakeholder groups, and bringing people together to achieve specified outcomes in line with strategic objectives.
This role profile applies to PMO administrators. At this level, a PMO administrator will provide support to the project, programme, or portfolio team through administrative and reporting activities.
This role profile applies to programme managers operating at intermediate level. At this level, a programme manager can typically lead a programme of limited complexity or assist on a complex programme, following the appropriate governance applied for the determined life cycle.
Spencer is a project manager in the engineering/construction sector.
"I’ve been a project manager for nearly 10 years, and started the role a little further into my working life than others (I was previously a people manager).
I remember when I first had the idea of a career change. I got together with some old friends to organise and reform my old rugby team. Turns out I needed a lot of planning and organisation skills to make this happen. It made me think: I’m good at this, and I enjoy it; could it become my career?"
A career as a project manager can be exciting, varied, fulfilling, and productive. There are great career prospects for project managers.
There are many routes to becoming a project manager, from gaining a qualification, to working your way up on the job.
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