Project Managment

robharper87

Hello,

I'm fairly new to the forums and require some advice, I have searched the internet to death and can't find answers specific enough to my questions. Anything at all would be helpful so thank you in advance.

To set the scene, I am a member of the military(still serving), joined at 16 and I am now 26. I was academic at school, achieving A and B grades in all GCSE's and have had a fairly fruitful career to date. After settling with my wife, starting a family and doing four 6 month+ deployments to Afghan I decided that I fancied a change.

Due to the majority of ex military moving towards security, I decided after a few months research to do something different and sit some Project Managment courses. I can already hear the 'no experience' alarm bells ringing, hear me out.

My background is in specialist communications although I feel I have a number of transferable skills that would help. Good communication skills, mid level man management and a desire(not willingness) to work, and work hard.

I have since passed my Prince2 Practitioner and have dates booked to do the accelerated APMP course. I have a number of concerns and questions, if you can just answer one then I would be extremely grateful. Here it's goes,

- My aspiration is to leave the forces in 12 months time and start job hunting. Although there are numerous Project Manager jobs I lack the necessary experience but I am struggling to categorise what the next step down would be. Team leader? Junior Project Manager?

- How can I gain more exposure to individuals in these roles, even potentially a mentor? As I said the majority of my current co-workers move into security management/close protection.

- What is a realistic salary to aim at or toward? I know I will not be able to match my current earnings but to be told I might be knocking a significant amount off may be harder to stomach.

- Lastly for any CV gurus, as a Project Manager what are you looking for(bar hands on experience obviously) as a highlight and what couldn't you care less about?

I'm all ears, be nice

marybelle01

robharper87 wrote: »

- Lastly for any CV gurus, as a Project Manager what are you looking for(bar hands on experience obviously) as a highlight and what couldn't you care less about?

Not a CV guru. Just someone who appoints many project managers - in other words, the kind of person you want to employ you. And sorry, but the answer is "the obvious". I would not entertain an application from someone with only "paperwork" and no experience. My projects are too important to trust to someone trying out whether they can put into practice what they learned in a classroom. The "norm" is the other way around - people gain project experience and then do the qualifications. The "paperwork" has some merit, but I am afraid it is limited - it does not tell me you can put it into practice and I am afraid that many "project managers" can't. I can draw you a very passably detailed diagram of the human body, and can manage field first aid... you really don't want me to consider doing surgery on you though!


The army, whether at home or abroad, is often involved in community projects - can you get some experience by finding a way of using your learned skills in a local community? Have you discussed your aspirations with your senior staff - can they find a way of allowing you to exercise those skills at work?


My other comment would be "what kind of project manager"? Many people employ "project managers", but like me, they are looking for more than project management skills. They are looking for people who have expertise in a particular field of work too, because that is what they will be managing. Many fields of employment require some ability to engage with the professional expertise being managed - so if, for example, it is an engineering project, the project manager may or may not be an experienced engineer, but they would need enough knowledge of engineering to understand the issues, opportunities, and limitations of the project they are managing.

bernina1

Hi Rob,

I have dabbled in project management but wouldn't claim to be an expert. I agree with Marybelle that practical experience is far more useful than the qualifications (although it is to your advantage to have gained Prince2 as some organisations would class this as an essential requirement).

Re your queries:
1) Roles below project manager - I expect it varies by sector. In the public sector titles such as 'project support officer' are common. As a rough estimate, this might be around the £20K mark.

2) Learning from others - you will find that organisations adopt different project management approaches. Prince2 is often construed as overly bureaucratic so you may find a diluted version in some organisations. This is not necessarily an issue, but something to be aware of. Volunteering with the local Council or Police (especially with your background) might enable you to work on a project. Voluntary working is another option as Marybelle said.

3) Realistic salary - in theory the sky is the limit. As you know from your training, Prince2 can be applied to virtually any size of project. Project managers often graduate to Programme Managers (managing a series of related projects) - as another rough estimate I would say £40 - £50K is realistically achievable.

4) Skills - obviously a variety of skills and knowledge required, depending on the project. But in my experience a common theme is that the best project managers have excellent organisational skills.

nightingalesgarden

Hi,

Not a silly idea as there are plenty with your experience working in IT or telecommunications industry.

I would join Linked-in for free - create your profile and spend a few weeks linking to people you know and joining forums. Join lots and lots of IT forums....you need this for the next step. Use these to ask the same question...

Then, either fingers crossed you get a free trial or pay the extra for a month to get the advanced access which allows you to email and search for people - then find some people who work in IT and have your background - there are a lot (look at big companies BT, BA, PWC etc) then email a couple that look friendly and ask them for some advice.

Don't worry about emailing strangers - honestly most would be very pleased to give advice or to talk about how it worked for them...