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03 January 2024 - 3 min read
In simple terms, project management is the practice of planning, organizing, and supervising a project from its start to its end. Indeed, project management requires defining the project's objectives, breaking down tasks, assigning responsibilities, setting deadlines, and ensuring that everything is on track throughout the project.
To become a project manager, you will need a strong educational foundation or practical experience. Many project managers hold a bachelor's degree in business, management, engineering, or a related field. While a degree is valuable, practical experience is equally important. Thus, it is important to seek opportunities to work on projects, even in internships, school projects and entry-level positions. This guide includes the important steps and skills needed for a smooth transition into project management.
Project management involves an outline of essential phases to successfully tackle every detail of each project - big or small. In methodologies like PRINCE2, for example, there are 7 phases:
1. Identify what project management skills you already have
Have you ever planned a school project? A travel or a vacation? A teamwork or event? If you’ve ever planned, organized, budgeted, or documented the progress of work, chances are you probably some variation of a project manager at some point in your personal or professional life.
To become a project manager, it’s important to take stock of the skills you already have. This includes both soft and hard skills. Hard skills are the abilities or knowledge sets you learn through education and training. For example, computer programming, data analysis, or speaking a foreign language. On the other hand, soft skills, are more related to your personality, such us your qualities, communication abilities, and how you interact with others. For instance, teamwork, communication skills, negotiation skills, adaptability, and problem-solving.
Therefore, hard skills are the technical skills and knowledge you learn, whereas soft skills are more about how you apply and share that knowledge in a social or collaborative setting.
Now that you know your best project management skills, find a way to maximize their application in your daily life, whether you are managing a team, a project, an event or even a family trip. Here are a few suggestions to continuously improve your skills:
Once you know what your strengths and weaknesses are in project management, you should adjust your resume to cater to project management roles.
Include in your work experiences, descriptions that talk about how you managed past events or projects. It’s essential to focus on the process of how they were planned, organized, led, documented rather than just citing the outcomes.
Get inspired from ready-made project manager resumes or add sentences like these in your previous experiences:
Maintain a dynamic mindset as project management is an evolving discipline that demands continuous adaptation to ensure its success. A great boost to begin or elevate your career as a project manager is gaining a professional certification.
Not only do professional qualifications increase your knowledge and skills, but they can also significantly enhance your resume and increase your earning potential. Some of the best project management courses to consider, include:
As project management becomes more dynamic, its requirements keep evolving. The future of project management lies in aligning projects to organizational strategies by balancing technological advances with people-centred approaches, ultimately leading to successful project outcomes.
If this sounds like a line of work you would be interested in, focus on how you can become a project manager by taking the above steps into account and start today.
Develop your project management career and enrol on a PRINCE2 qualification with Acacia Learning.
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