PM Network - Career Track May 2009

true option for some industries, such as retail or pharmaceuticals, where there is a distinct culture or way of doing things, says Judith Germain, managing director of Dynamic Transitions, a consulting firm in London, England. “There is a preference for only working with people who have been ‘schooled’ in the same environment as themselves,” she says.

In such cases, companies may want to keep the search in-house.

“Rather than take the risks of looking outside the industry, it can make sense to look at people already within the organization who aren’t project managers, but who understand the business and the imperatives of the industry [the company] operates within,” Ms. Germain says.

Companies can simply opt to “grow their own”—that is, train existing employees to hone their project management skills.

“In situations where it’s important to be listened to and respected, there’s no substitute for having real industry dirt under your fingernails,” says Barbara A. Fuller, PMP, president and founder of Process and Project Solutions, a Somerset, New Jersey, USA-based training consulting firm.

“In terms of their knowledge of Gantt charts and work breakdown structures,

Wooing candidates from outside the world of project management is all well and good. But before any of that happens, companies should figure out what they want from the candidate.

And that process starts with the job description.

Instead of focusing on the prerequisites of a hypothetical, ideal candidate, companies should keep the emphasis on the deliverables of the role, says Johanna Rothman, president of the Arlington, Massachusetts, USA-based Rothman Consulting Group. She is also author of Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers, Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People [Dorset House, 2004].

“What are the essential elements of the job? What makes it easy, difficult or rewarding? What is the person supposed to achieve? How is success measured? Use questions like these, that define the role, not the person performing it,” she urges. “I find that the people who are having the most trouble finding good candidates are those who are writing their job descriptions too tightly, and not specifying the skills and abilities that they really need.”

they would not be ready to take a Project Management Professional (PMP)^SMexam, but they’ll know enough to get the job done,” she says.

No Experience Required Jason Shindler used the non-traditional approach to hire a project manager at his web development firm Curvine Web Solutions in Bellevue, Washington, USA. He’d previously advertised the position and received a lot of résumés, but none of the applicants met his expectations.

“They were very experienced, but not in our industry—and also very costly, which was another issue,” he explains. “I was looking for someone with good people skills and good organizational skills, who was able to communicate effectively and able to deal with up to 25 different projects at once.”