STUDY GUIDE
Even students who have a year or two before they
head into the workforce can take steps now to make
themselves more attractive to employers when the
time comes.
Join the Club
“It’s never too early to start investing in your future,”
says Kamil Mroz, engineer, NNE Pharmaplan, Brussels,
Belgium. “The most important thing you can do as a
young person who wants to get into project manage-
ment is to get involved in student activities.”
When students take on leadership roles in campus
organizations, they schedule meetings, organize events
and coordinate conferences—learning fundamental skills
around managing stakeholders, schedules and budgets.
“You’ll learn about yourself, you’ll learn about your
peers, and you’ll learn where in the scope of project
management you might be the best fit,” Mr. Mroz says.
“Then you can bring value to your profession because
you can relate your work back to something you’ve
already done as a student.”
Get Competitive
Project management competitions can help aspiring
project practitioners make a name for themselves. The
Intercollegiate Project Management Triathlon, the Enac-tus competitions and PMI Western Michigan Chapter’s
THE Project all give student leaders the chance to create
a project plan and show off their management skills in
front of experienced practitioners.
Make Connections
To get a head start on networking, would-be project
managers should get involved with their local PMI chapters. They’ll get face time with local project managers,
connect with potential mentors and find opportunities
to volunteer—while bulking up their résumés.
Study Up
The PMI Educational Foundation ( pmief.org) offers free
learning resources for students that reinforce project
management terminology, skills and techniques. The site
also offers info on scholarships and grants, a newsletter
and inspiring stories from the project front lines.
that experience came in handy when I started
applying for jobs.”
Most Valuable Connection: While organizing the
Quo Vadis conference, Mr. Mroz connected with
a project manager who lent his expertise and
served as a mentor. “A mentor doesn’t have to be
somebody formal that you see on a rigid basis,”
he says. “It could be someone you meet for co;ee
informally, with whom you run through the di;cult
decisions you’re facing in your career.” Mr. Mroz
says he still consults his mentor, who advises him
on planning his project management future.
Best Advice from His Mentor: It’s not all about
you. “Young project managers often want to take
on a lot of responsibility in order to prove themselves,” Mr. Mroz says. “You want to control
everything. You want to be the person making all
the decisions and doing all the work. My mentor taught me that I need to delegate tasks and
empower my team in order to take some of the
pressure o; myself.”
