Here are the things that you should consider before starting a project management career:

• What does being a project manager actually mean? – the basic personality traits of a good project manager
• A project manager’s skills – find out if you have the skills needed to be a part of the project management field
• What does a project manager actually do? – an analysis of the most common project management responsibilities on the current job market
• What’s the secret of a project management career? – tips on becoming better in the project management profession
• How to become a project manager– education and the most important PM certificates you can get out there
• Project manager salary – know how much to ask for according to your experience level
• Project manager career problems – find out how project management experts dealt with problems when they were beginners and prepare to successfully face any issues you might encounter
• Ways of managing projects and product development – Agile, Waterfall, PRINCE2, PRiSM, Six Sigma, Critical Path, and many more
• Tools and resources – collaboration tools, video chat systems, project management software, and all the apps that project managers need to start a project

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What does being a project manager actually mean?

Are you always the leader of your group who likes to keep everything and everyone organized and with a goal in mind?

If your answer is yes, you could be on your way to a career in project management.

Project management is one of the most complex fields of work out there. Be prepared for a true adventure you’ll never get bored of. There is no space for dullness in this profession. A project manager (PM) is responsible for leading an entire project through initiation, planning, execution, control, and completion.

Project managers always work in a team. They are most often sociable and great team players. As a PM, you will need to adapt to different people, cultures, environments, and situations. Being flexible is key to team communication since you’ll be the builder and controller of the team.

To be a great PM, you have to be a team leader, co-worker, and supervisor at the same time. This is one of the most challenging careers as no day will be the same and you will need all of your project management skills to solve every problem. Also, you’ll be the first person your team goes to when a problem occurs. They might expect you to hold the answers to any inquiry. But, this is what makes the project management career path interesting.

You’ll deal with both formal and informal interactions. If you believe that you’re a person that knows people well from the second you meet them, this might be the right career path for you. Essentially, project managers are similar to psychologists. They know exactly what problems, desires, and expectations employees and clients have. However, despite being a people person, a PM won’t get emotionally involved in their projects.

Some of your duties in your career as a project manager will include: taking part in the creation process, executing the project, preparing communication methods, finding solutions to recurring issues, monitoring the project’s progress from start to finish, ensure your team is actually getting things done, and many more. To put it briefly, you’ll be responsible for connecting each project to the business world and to its clients.

You must be aware that the entire responsibility of the project’s success will fall on your shoulders. You will be held accountable for any mistakes that your team makes or for any client complaints. In this position, you’ll focus both on the accuracy of your work and that of your team.

This profession is always changing and facing new demands. If you’re the kind of person who prefers diversity, this is the type of career you’ll never get bored of. You can always switch the project you’re working on, the team you interact with, the industry you’re involved in, and even the processes and tools to ease your work. No project is the same. Yet, your expertise in this field will prove helpful whenever you’ll come across similar situations and issues in the future. Similarly, your past experience will be essential to solving problems quickly.

If you’re looking for an efficient way to manage your project or your employee work, check out this list of task management software.

A project manager’s skills

Knowledge of project management is sometimes just not enough for you to become a great PM. As discussed above, you need soft skills as well. Being a good communicator and an open leader is not enough. Tackling daily project management challenges also requires accountability, adaptability, analytical and strategic thinking, decisiveness, a stress-resistant personality, and even a bit of love for risk-taking. Being a multitasker with great written and oral communication skills can place you among the top project managers in your sector.

When it comes to hard skills, you should be aware that there is no specific project management skill. In fact, depending on the project, you’ll have to know a bit of everything. General business knowledge is highly desired. Don’t worry though, you don’t need to be an expert in technical skills such as coding. However, being able to give accurate and detailed tasks to your developers is important. Leading a project is all about making sure that your team members lack no information that’s crucial to successfully finish a task and delivering the final project. 

Another important skill is understanding resource allocation, being able to determine the proper timing of the resources needed within the project schedule. Regardless if you run a small business or a large one, choosing the best online resource management software can ease your work a lot.

You should have an adequate level of knowledge to spot an issue and suggest possible solutions. At the same time, you should know that many project managers have had previous other jobs such as software developers, marketing managers, accountants, designers, and so on. This means that they hold the required solid knowledge for projects related to their previous fields of interest.

If you’re one of these people, you might be one step ahead of the others; but you must keep in mind that you’ll also need to develop your own knowledge of project management processes, frameworks, and people management. You might be used to working individually, but project management is all about teamwork. Don’t panic if you end up realizing that working in a project manager position is not a right fit for you. This profession creates many new opportunities and pathways for other future careers.

Take a look at the skills of the most successful project managers and find out if you have what it takes to become like them and what you have to improve:

• solid understanding of business cases and risk management processes
• expert knowledge to meet specific circumstances
• proven project management and self-management skills
• strong leadership skills
• ability to monitor and control budgets
• critical thinking
• good communication and negotiation skills
• capability to make decisions under pressure
• strong interpersonal skills necessary to lead a team
• ability to define situations, document data, and draw conclusions
• strong business acumen
• ability to interpret instructions regardless of their form
• strong organizational and multitasking skills
• creative mindset
• analytical skills
• accuracy and attention to detail
• excellent time management skill
• capacity to maintain schedules and meet deadlines
• problem-solving skills
• self-motivation
• accountability
• work ethic
• working knowledge of project management tools

If you’d like to see what other skills you’ll need for your next project manager job, check out our complete analysis of 200+ project management job descriptions.

What does a project manager actually do?

Depending on the industry you work in, your duties might differ.

We have analyzed over 200 LinkedIn worldwide job postings and compiled this list of the most common project manager responsibilities:

• direct all project management phases
• set and manage project expectations with external and internal stakeholders
• coordinate and track various projects through an entire project lifecycle
• develop a detailed project management plan to track project progress
• mentor, motivate, and supervise project team members
• develop professional business relationships
• define the overall scope of the project
• prioritize the tasks of the project
• create and continuously update the project documentation
• create accurate forecasts for revenue and resource requirements
• partner with all departments to ensure work is done according to demands
• establish effective communication
• ensure team members have all the necessary information
• track work times and maintain accurate daily time sheets
• ensure project tasks are executed and reviewed within the predefined scope
• align various teams to maintain the quality of deliverables
• report and escalate issues to management when necessary
• conduct project status meetings, daily stand-ups, and retrospective meetings
• continuously follow up on the progress, risks, and opportunities of the project
• focus on customer satisfaction
• manage projects through KPIs
• manage budgets and billings
• act as the main customer contact for project activities
• make recommendations for project improvements
• conduct workshops and trainings
• obtain customer input
• measure project performance using appropriate systems, tools, and techniques
• evaluate team performance

What’s the secret of a project management career path?

There is no definite secret. Project managers are good at their job for various reasons. Thinking that you hold the secrets of this job can make you believe that you’re prepared for any situation. Nevertheless, there are many problems that could occur anytime, making it impossible for you to know how to solve them without too much struggle. For this reason, it’s better to focus on being a great professional rather than on hunting down the secrets of success. Doing what the best PMs are doing won’t guarantee that you’ll become successful like them. Being passionate and open to change whenever something is not working right though is more important. The project management world is one of the most dynamic business environments. You should be able to adapt to its changing nature and become comfortable in it.

Another tip that project managers might hesitate to share has to do with the use of project management tools. These apps can automate their tasks and help them manage projects with ease. Finding the best tools often takes a lot of time and testing. Also, the apps and techniques you’ll use can depend on your style of work.

More experienced project managers might even be able to tell you some secrets that you’ll find nowhere else. The true secrets of this profession come only with experience. Making mistakes and learning from them is a valid statement even in project management.

Meanwhile, some of the things that you can test are: making sure that you understand the client’s requirements, picking the right team members, being able to create tasks in detail, making sure you have the best tools and systems for finishing the project, focusing on the real issues, setting reasonable requirements, always taking failure into consideration, and creating backup plans.

DON’T FORGET

Testing methods and tools is vital for the project success and for your development as a professional. By testing and experimenting, you’ll be able to learn the secrets of project management on your own. This is beneficial since the tips you’ll get from another project manager might not apply to your project. You must be aware that every PM is different and every project is peculiar in its own way.

How to become a project manager

Where should you actually start your education to become a project manager?

Before you begin your project management journey you have to see if this career is right for you. Read the stories of other project managers, reach out to them, ask questions, or try a project management internship. Additionally, you can take some introductory online courses to get your first look at this subject. Usually, these courses provide tasks and assignments designed to make you interact with this business branch and see if you can handle its responsibilities.

Here’s are some websites where you can find online project management education opportunities: edX, Alison, Coursera, Simplilearn, Udemy.

REMEMBER THIS

You should never start working as a project manager without having previously discovered the processes and tools commonly used in project management. You have to know if you’re capable of using those techniques and platforms before you take part in a real project.

Before you start looking for a project manager job, write down all of the aspects that your future workplace must have and make a list of what you never want to deal with in your following career. Don’t rush into getting a job just for the sake of working. If you’re an entry-level project manager, you should find a work environment that allows you to grow through all project manager levels and learn more from your coworkers.

This takes us to the importance of having a mentor at the beginning of your project manager career. We’ve previously talked about how you could research the activity of other project managers before deciding whether this path is right for you or not. A role model can shape your entire career. This is the reason why you should find a skilled project manager who’d be able to allocate part of his time to teach you what he already knows. By working close to their side, you’ll master project management methods, methodologies, frameworks, processes, and best practices. This will also ease your process of becoming a project manager. A mentor’s purpose is also to honestly highlight your mistakes so that you can use them to further develop yourself.

Know that finding compatible project managers who want to share their wisdom and knowledge can be rather difficult. Most, however, will be willing to do this in return for some help with their tasks. As a result, they’ll involve you in real projects and even supervise you while doing so. This is imperative for a project management novice because you wouldn’t otherwise be able to know if you’re using your theoretical knowledge correctly without someone analyzing your work. Trust is at the base of the trainee-mentor relationship. You believe they’ll share their tips with you and they allow you to work on projects with them.

Project management education

Your project management career can start with you getting a project manager or business administration degree. Not having a diploma in project management is, however, not a disadvantage; but, if you do study it on a daily basis in an academic environment, you’ll have a head start. It’s never too late to switch to a career that suits your interests. In fact, PM does not belong to only one industry. Usually, projects will belong to another line of business such as software, art, logistics, economics, linguistics, etc. In fact, a design agency might require you to hold a degree in Arts or Design for a better understanding of the field. In this case, project management education is entirely up to your own will and desire to improve yourself professionally.

Any college degree can prove helpful for a future project manager since the academic world teaches you how to study and acquire knowledge gradually. This is essential for a PM that could have to learn all about a new project’s main field in a short time. Self-development, self-learning, and a will to constantly develop oneself throughout a lifetime are vital for keeping your career at the top.

TIP

Before deciding on a degree, see how project management works in real life. College activities don’t allow you to see the actual consequences of your decisions. Working with a real project can teach you all about accountability and outcome management.

There are also numerous online project management degrees, learning resources, blogs, and programs that you can follow. This could be an option if you don’t live close to the college you’d like to attend or if you just don’t have enough time to attend university. These three examples are degrees that you can get through online project management education:

• Online Master’s Degree in Project Management from the Colorado State University – Global Campus
• Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from Purdue Global University
• Master of Business Administration in Project Management from the Liberty University.

For more learning opportunities like these ones, check out the best project management courses you can take or other training resources. Alternatively, you can take a look at some of the most commonly used project management terms.

Another way of educating yourself is getting a similar position. You don’t have to begin your career as a PM. You can start from managing smaller projects, products, or even teams. Alternatively, you can go for an internship in this field. Don’t get discouraged if the work you’ll be doing won’t seem like something you’ll love for the rest of your life. Sometimes all it takes is to find a different project to work on. All project managers dream of working in a field that is actually one of their hobbies. If your hobby is in the field of business, you’re lucky.

Project management certifications

Are project management certificates still worth it?

Of course! As you advance in your career as a project manager you’ll either feel the need to certify your project management knowledge or you’ll be asked by your employer to get a certificate. Although certificates might slowly start losing their importance for recruiters, the experience you’ll get during trainings and exams is indispensable.

Having a PM certificate is a plus, but extensive knowledge and experience in the field matter more for a project’s success. What you must remember is that certificates are not everything. You could have all the diplomas in the world and, yet, if you have no real knowledge or working experience in project management, no one will want to work with you.

Which are the most important PM certificates out there?

Don’t rush into studying for just any project management certification. Some employers don’t even accept them while online certifications are almost useless. Also, you should study for a certification that’s related to the projects you work on or industry you’re involved in.

Here’s a list of project management certifications that you should consider:

PMP® certification

Perhaps one of the most commonly known project management certifications, the Project Management Professional certification, provided by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), sets the standards for project management. The PMBOK Guide and Standards that contains the most important guidelines and characteristics needed for project management. The PMBOK® Guide is the main study resource but you’re free to use any other materials that focus on the PMP® exam.

Not just anybody can sit this test. The exam consists of 200 multiple-choice questions and it requires three years of previous working experience as a project manager (or five if you don’t have a four-year degree in PM), at least 4,500 hours of experience working on directing a project (or 7,500 if you don’t have a four-year degree), and 35 hours of formal education on the project management process.

If you’re looking for a comprehensive course, the PMP® training offers widely accepted standards that can help you achieve project success. Keep in mind that this certificate expires as you have to renew it every 3 years due to the changing nature of project management standards.