Careers advice/ Project Management

piggeh

BM - I work in a PM environment. It can be very stressful depending on the industry. At my work there are several sites around the country at any one time, and you are on call for a fair amount of time that can lead to many getting stressed if things go wrong a couple of hundred miles away!

However, if you are well organised I think it would be quite satisfying to see the end results and to see everything go smoothly with no snagging etc.

I would imagine in an IT field this would involve installation of IT systems so an MCSE would probably be the most relevant qualification.

You could always do this whilst building up PM experience in a construction type industry (shopfitting, events management, construction itself, etc).

If you have any tips on how to use MS Project I would be grateful by the way lol As I couldnt figure it out when trying the other day!

Ewarwoowar2

Big Mortgage,

When I started my first legal job (after giving up a well paid job, handlings millions of pounds and being taken out to lunch by clients in top London restaurants) was to ring people up and ask them if they'd posted out their remortgage forms for 8 hours a day. I then spent a fortune on law school. Fresh out of law school I got a paralegal job at a big firm. I thought I'd be handling claims or working on deals; insted I mended paper files so the documents didn't fall out and I photocopied for a year.

Don't give up. In a typical office, the experienced poeple get all the best work and the least exdperienced gets all the worse work. Therefore, as you progress you'll get more interesting work and be able to give all your !!!!!! to the new starter.

big_mortgage

Piggeh,

yes I agree it would be nice to see some end results for a project I worked on and was involved in: just that I dont feel invovled, well I am not, i am just drip fed work, like some work exp kid.

I can't seem to get into the construction / shop fitting areas. Don't know why, even if I am not that interested I can see that it might be a useful thing on my CV.

Tips: well your sentance suggested you had only just started using it. I guess strat out on a fairly simple project like making breakfast, using predecessors etc. Also have a look at all the 'views' ie network diagram. I dont have Project at home so can't really go in and look.

Ewar:

well that interesting work i am still waiting for, and no new starters, not likely to be. It's just such a waste and you have demonstrated it, why have a legal graduate fix files?:o In 2 years time they could have 2 years experiance, not just the one!! I despair sometimes

big_mortgage

Thanks Zazen for the help