Forget the Ladder: Embrace the Career Climbing Wall

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 have suggested in the past that there it is entirely appropriate for a project manager to move out of a project-centric role into something else, and then to move back into projects again. There may be many different reasons for such a move, and increasingly it is a desired career path as it provides the opportunity to gain broader experience that may be useful in a future leadership role. And make no mistake, project professionals are increasingly being viewed as potential organizational leaders.

This time I want to look at a slightly different variation on that idea, and it’s prompted by someone reaching out to me for advice. This was an individual who had moved out of a PM role to become a program manager, and wasn’t enjoying it. She wanted to return to project management, but was worried that it would be viewed as a step backward that would harm her career.

I didn’t know her personally, so couldn’t speak to her specific circumstances. But the general idea of moving from program to project is definitely worth exploring. As is the idea that one role might be “better” than the other.

The career climbing wall
In a number of career-focused articles here over the years, I have suggested that project management doesn’t have a career ladder—more of a career climbing wall. Progression doesn’t occur in a series of …

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