PM Network - August 2015

manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa division of Red Hat in Farnborough, England. The multinational IT organization provides open-source software products.

Ms. Stefan, 29, began her career as a hardware and software engineer. She got interested in project management while working on projects as a customer IT services analyst at HP. She was attracted to the profession because it gave her the opportunity to add value at a more strategic level.

“I saw the project manager role as the best
opportunity to understand how a business works,”
she says. “You have a chance to get that high-level,
strategic expertise because you’re managing a lot of
projects in a lot of departments.”
But she didn’t land her first role in the field
until after she volunteered for projects and earned
a master’s degree in project management and a
Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)®
certification. The years of study and hard work were
worth it.

This points to the chicken-or-the-egg dilemma facing young professionals looking to land a plum position: They find themselves unable to get a job until they have experience, but unable to get experience until they have a job. Yet, for skilled project talent, the opportunities are abundant. Through 2020, 1. 57 million new project management positions will be created worldwide each year across seven project-intensive industries, according to PMI’s

Project Management Talent Gap Report.

To launch their career on the right trajectory, aspiring project managers are gaining expertise by volunteering for project roles and earning project management degrees and certifications. They’re building up experience before they land their first practitioner position—and then continuing to develop their skills.

“It’s extremely important to have project management knowledge going into your first job, but you’ll learn more from the field than you’ll ever learn from school,” says Isabella Stefan, CAPM, PMP, project

FIRST STEPS

What’s the most sure-fire way to break into project management? Early-career project practitioners offer tips.

“Attend project management seminars and
conferences, join LinkedIn project management
groups and attain a PMI credential.”

—Prakriti Singh, CAPM, IndusInd Bank

“Network, and focus on agile. So many companies
are moving toward agile methodologies.”

—David Steele, CAPM, CPP, Sunnyvale, California, USA

“Start volunteering for small projects to learn as much
as you can. And be prepared to improvise. Project
management books give structure and guidance, but
interpersonal skills actually drive project success.”