Are you hoping to start a project management career and wondering how you can get your first
project manager job? Well in this video, I'm going to share with you some really achievable ways
that you can get your foot in the door to have your first project manager job. And
if you really want to get noticed and get hired for your first project management job, well then
please check out my free training on five fabulous fundamentals that you need to know in order to be
excellent at project management. Now I'm going to put the link below to the free webinar
under this video. So definitely check it out. Hi, if you're new here, welcome. My name is
Adriana Girdler and on this channel, you're going to get the best practical project management
advice coming to you every week. Now, please consider subscribing to this amazing community.
Now, if you're really interested about what you need to do to get your first
project management job, let's get to it. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?
Now this is a really good question, particularly when it comes to your first project management job
because what happens when you're looking for a job is they always ask you, do you have experience in
project management? Well, no because it's my first project management job. So which
comes first. I'm going to share with you some things that you can look at differently in order
to stop that cycle of the chicken or the egg. Determine whether you've done projects already.
Interestingly enough, a lot of people don't realize that they've done projects.
They're so busy working and doing things and they've been giving these tasks and they go
ahead and they do them, but they don't realize that what they actually were doing was a project.
Now what's a project? I've said this before, and I'm going to remind everybody again, it has a
distinctive start and end date, specific tasks that you need to execute, and a lot of times
you're working with other individuals in order to get this done. So if you're in the working world
and you have a certain career and you want to get into project management and be a project manager,
really think about what have I done in the past that could have been an initiative, an activity,
or even a project that I've worked on? Because that in itself means you can pull
from experience. You don't have to worry about that whole chicken or the egg, which comes first.
And if you're really new and you are just getting into the working world,
well, you've probably done some projects in your post secondary schooling with
other students. That's experience. Don't discount that. So I really want you to think about
what project work have you done by looking at it slightly different. Because I promise you,
you probably have. So you need to just look at things and go, yeah, I have done project work,
even though it may be, was not officially called a project. It's still of value. And it is something
that you should bring up by analyzing how it went, what did you guys do in that initiative or
project, and pull out those experiences to help you when it comes to those interview questions.
Consider a related professional role. So to get into project management, and to be a project
manager, there's some professional roles out there that just naturally fit into it.
So if you graduated, let's say from engineering and you're an engineer, I promise you, you're
doing project work. That field is constantly doing project work as an example. Now what if
you graduated and you didn't graduate in a role or professional role that is like engineering,
which is so project based? That's okay. When you get hired, go into that professional role and say,
I would actually like to ensure that I'm part of projects because every organization has
projects. Whether or not your professional role is really leaning towards project work, you can
always to ask to be on a project team. Because one of the best ways to get into project management
is actually being a project team member. It's kind of like being a vice president of
sales of an organization. They always say that the individual who's a VP should have at least been a
sales representative at some point in time so they understand how it is to be at the ground floor,
knocking on doors. And it's the same thing with project management. You really need to
be a team member. So if your professional role just naturally falls into it, like let's say
engineering, or if it doesn't, ask to be on a project team and be a project team member.
That in itself will give you insight and valuable experience for first project management job.
Invest in your career. So if you do have project management experience,
that's awesome. Because guess what? That's like having street smarts. That experience
is going to give you a lot of information that you need in order to be successful.
But as you get into more complex projects, there are tools and techniques and ways of working
that project management education is just going to give to you, that you're not going to necessarily
get through experience. So it becomes really important to think about what can I invest in,
in order to get really better and good at project management if you already have the experience.
I highly recommend it. That's really going to help propel you to get that great project manager job.
Now there's lots of courses out there. Universities have courses, colleges have courses.
There's a lot of great web based organizations that have it and I'm going to do a shameless plug
as well. I have a course, Slay Project Management, a practical project management course. I highly
recommend you check out. Again, link is underneath this video. So that's something you really want
to consider is to invest in yourself to also help you get that first project manager job.
Now, if you're really liking what you're hearing so far, please give this video
a like as it allows us to spread it to more individuals in this community and outside of it.
Create your own project role. Now in order to get that fundamental experience you need in order to
be a project manager. And let's say, you're not given those opportunities. You don't have the
profession that is just so naturally fitting into projects. Your organization doesn't have anything
official that they've given to you. Well do not fret because you can actually create your own
role. You belong to a team, you belong to a department. So go to your direct manager
and come up with some ideas, ask to be part of initiatives. When the hand goes up and they say,
hey, we have to do this, put your hand up and say, look, I'm going to organize that.
And take some of those principles that you've learned when you've invested in your education
and apply it to what you're doing, because that's the experience that's really going to help you.
And as other things pop up, really be the go-to person. Like yeah, that person. Go
to Adriana. She actually always wants to be on projects and just come up with the solutions.
That becomes really powerful for you in order to get that experience when you don't necessarily
have anything official behind you. You're now building it for that resume for that first project
manager job. That becomes really, really key. Now, if you're also wondering, well, what other
careers can I do outside of being a project manager? I have a video. You can search in
the YouTube search bar, Adriana Girdler, project career pass. And that can give you some additional
insights on how you can look at this because you do want to plan for the future in order to get
that first project manager job. Don't forget to save your seat on my free project management
training. Remember, the link is under this video below. Until the next time, see you.