Is 'Project Manager' a Career or a Job?

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Career Development  

I write a lot of career-focused articles, and speak on aspects of the topic in a lot of different webinars and conversations with individuals and groups. But a recent email that I received made me question whether I was making some assumptions that others didn’t share. So, here’s my attempt to add some clarity. Specifically, I want to talk to what a career is in a project management context, and whether a successful career can be achieved only within the confines of project management.

What is a career?
The emailer said I talked a lot about project management as a career, but they were only interested in it as a job—they didn’t want it to be a career step toward something else. There is quite a lot to unpack there in just a few words, but let’s start by trying to separate the definition of a career from that of a job, which (at least for me) is harder than it might first appear.

Often when we talk about a career, what we are actually referring to is career progression. The growth from entry level through intermediate positions to as senior as an individual is able (or wants) to, go. But I believe that you can have a career without that progression, and I’m not sure that I am always clear about that. To me, a career is something that you are committed to, passionate about, invested in.

Someone who has had the same position for a …

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