Are you wondering what a project management career
path may look like? By the end of this video, I'm going to share with you how people become
project managers and the potential roles they may find themselves in.
And if you need help with some skill building when it comes to project management, I have a fantastic
free training for you to go from zero to hero in project management. I have the
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if you are interested in project management career paths, guess what? Let's get to it.
How to become a project manager. Generally speaking, there's two ways how to become a
project manager. The first way, and probably the most common way, is that you fall into the role
based on your professional career choice. So what I mean by that is, for example, engineers.
Engineers constantly do projects. Why? Because they usually have initiatives, activities that
have a definitive start and a definitive end. That's what projects are all about. They're
calling in other individuals, they're usually installing new things or creating new things.
And as a result, that professional role really lends towards doing project management.
Another one could be a marketer because they're doing initiatives, they have product launches.
Again, that role leads to a lot of project work. Scientists, because of clinical trials.
They have hypothesis. They're trying to find results. Again, definitive start, definitive
end. Usually working with people in order to get to a deliverable. Really, doing project work.
Policymakers. You can see the list goes on. A lot of professions just naturally do project
management work. That's kind of actually how I got into it with engineering, is I fell into project
management because of my professional role. Now, that being said, it's really important
that organizations teach these professional roles how to do project management because it is so
integrated into what they do. A lot of times, when you're doing your theory and you're doing
your schooling, you're sometimes not taught those fundamental skills like project management that's
going to give you what you need to be successful. You're taught all the theory that you supposed
to need from your role perspective. So on that part, it's definitely important to learn about
it because you're not taught about it, and your role just naturally fits into project management.
The second way to get into project management is that some people actually plan to do project
management. They're like, "I want to be a project manager." So they'll actually go and get
some certification courses from post-secondary institutions. There may be some online courses
that they do in order to get that information. They may also even go as far as getting their
designation. Now, there's a little bit of catch-22 when it comes to getting your designation. Because
a lot of times, you need to have gotten or have done some project management work before you
can even get or apply for your designation. So even though you can do schooling for it,
I would say, my personal opinion, the best way is to fall into it. I know I talked about those other
professional roles that are just naturally in it, but there are so many other roles that actually
will do projects too, or they're sometimes called initiatives. They're much smaller in scale.
So the key is get some professional experience. If you're working in an organization, ask them,
"Can I be a part of this initiative? Can I be on that team to help them get that deliverable out?"
That's project work. And that's a wonderful way to get your feet wet and see if you like it and if
you're going to be good at it. So then you can do the online course and get your designation after.
Related positions. Some people don't get into project management right away. They get into
related positions that are actually assisting the project manager. So what are some of these roles?
One could be a project scheduler. So this is when the individual's really in charge of the schedule,
ensuring things are on time, probably some follow-up. Some really good
assistance and help for the project manager. Another one is a project coordinator or a
project assistant. So this is truly the official role of being the right-hand
person to the project manager. This is where you're getting into even more in-depth. You're
probably setting up meetings, doing a lot more follow-up, double-checking
documentation, probably even executing a lot of documentation. So you're really going to get
into the weeds of what project management is all about in this particular role.
And another role is project lead. So this gets interchanged a lot with project manager,
but there really is a distinct difference. A project manager actually has the ability to do
a lot of complex projects. They use a lot more skills, tools, and techniques than, let's say,
majority of people would. And they usually have a designation associated with that particular
title. Project lead is someone who does projects, maybe they don't realize they're doing projects,
or they're much smaller in scope. And so they do relatively the same activities as
a project manager, but they don't officially have a designation, the title, or go in-depth
with tools and techniques. So project lead is a really great way to get some experience too.
Project manager education. I know in the previous tip, I talked about education. So I just want to
just summarize it really quickly here for you on the three core fundamental ways really to
get project management education. The first one is formalized where you can get a certificate from a
post-secondary institution in project management. There is a lot to learn about project management.
And these certificate courses actually are quite extensive. For majority of people though,
they probably don't need all that information. The second way is to get it from an online source.
Now, I'm going to do a little shameless plug, Slay Project Management. Really great course.
It's under the link below if you want to check it out. Very practical. All the templates you need.
And then the third way, third way is getting real-life experience at work. I find that to be
an excellent way because you don't realize you've actually done projects. You don't
realize you were a participant. You may even lead some initiatives. And that gives
you a really good idea and experience around project management and how to motivate people
and ensure that you deliver to time, scope, and budget. All that fun project management stuff. So
from an education standpoint, those are the three basic fundamental ways in order to get educated on
all that fun principles, skills, and techniques. What can you do after being a project manager?
Well, I just want to say project management is exciting. There's always something new going
on. And for some people, they're project managers forever. They just get higher,
more profile, more in-depth complex projects as they kind of move up with their seniority.
Now, what else can you do? There are portfolio and program management that project managers
can get into. And so that is where they go in and they look and oversee a whole bunch of different
projects. Some that relate, some that don't. But linking more to strategy and dealing more
with executives to ensure that the strategy and the portfolio or program are in synced
and ensuring that other individuals and project managers that report into them are executing.
Another one is PMO office lead or director. That's another role that you can kind of get into. And
interestingly enough, this is why I love project management, is any managerial role. The cool
thing about project managers is if you're really good at it, you're good at motivating people who
do not report into you, you're going to be an amazing manager. You listen, you probably have
good leadership skills, disciplined, you know how to do things, you look at things strategically.
It is a natural fit to get into some other managerial role. Hence project manager,
right? You're managing. So those are some other alternative things that you can do
with project management, which is why I always highly recommend this particular career path.
Now, don't forget to save your seat to my free training that I mentioned at the beginning of
this video on how to go from zero to hero in project management. I'm going to give you the
link below this video, so you can go down there in order to sign up. I highly recommend you do
it. There's some really great golden nuggets. Now, on that note, I want to thank you for
watching this video. If you have any questions, comments on career paths for project management,
love to hear from you. Please put it below. Until the next video, see ya.