Is being a project manager (PM) the right career for you? Project managers wear a lot of hats. They have to be experts in their team’s capabilities and the intricacies of the project at hand. They have to be on top of communication between management, product owners, and the team. And finally, they have to make sure they deliver on time and on budget.
If you’re thinking about starting a career as a project manager, there are many things to consider.
- What do you want out of a career?
- Do you have the soft skills and hard skills necessary?
- Are you going to be able to maintain the right work-life balance?
Being a project manager requires specific skills — and, often, hard work and long hours. Will you need to develop additional skill sets, and is becoming a project manager a path to your career end goals? Is it your end goal itself?
Let’s take a look at some things you should consider before jumping in as a project manager.
Last Updated December 2022
Project Management: Growing a Successful Career as a Project Manager | By Joseph Phillips
Is project management the right career for you?
Let’s take a deeper look at the project management role. Exactly what does a project manager do? Project managers are professionals who take a project from beginning to end. They see it through to completion. They keep team members inspired and on schedule.
Specifically, a project manager will:
- Plan and develop the project idea. A project manager will work with their team to produce the project roadmap and to manage the expectations of the company and the product owner.
- Leverage known project management strategies. A project manager will use an in-depth understanding of project management systems, such as Agile, to ensure that the project remains on track.
- Utilize project management software. Project management software solutions, such as Kanban-influenced systems, will need to be utilized to track progress and keep the team synced.
- Resolve issues as they occur. No project is without hindrances. The project manager will need to work to swiftly react to issues and resolve them, both transparently and effectively.
- Ensure that the project remains on time and on budget. The project manager’s ultimate goal is to produce the final deliverable when it needs to be produced and under budget.
- Manage expectations effectively. Throughout the project, the project manager must ensure that the product doesn’t experience significant scope creep, and that nothing is promised that the team cannot deliver.
- Inspire the team. Project managers will frequently need to operate during “crunch times” and may need to inspire their team to work harder or to innovate.
Project managers are leaders, but they still always work with a team. They have to be flexible, and they need to use all their project management skills to resolve conflicts and problems. If you want to know how ready you are, check out a few project management interview questions.
Tip: Do you know what “active listening” is? Project managers have to do it all the time. Active listening is the act of keeping engaged while talking with someone, so you truly absorb what they have to say. The role of a project manager is often to ensure that you communicate effectively with all involved parties. You must always be actively listening; you cannot be “waiting for your turn to talk.”
Evaluate your skillset
Project management can vary significantly depending on the industry and specialization. A project manager working on machinery firmware using a Waterfall methodology may have an entirely different scope from a project manager working on SaaS software using an Agile methodology.
