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Breaking Into Project Management (Part 1)
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
Like everything else in life, the project management field has changed enormously over the past two decades. For newcomers contemplating breaking into it, it’s essential to understand how the field has evolved. Having a historical perspective will help understand what organizations are looking for when hiring entry-level PMs, according to Raed Haddad, a senior vice president at ESI International, an Arlington, Va., project management training and consulting company. A 22-year veteran PM, Haddad also teaches graduate courses in project management at GeorgeWashingtonUniversity, in Washington, D.C.
There are three reasons for looking at project management retrospectively, according to Haddad. The first is that it’s a good way to understand PM priorities then and now. “If you asked CEOs a decade ago to list and define the most important assets in their organization, typically their answer would revolve around people,” says Haddad. However, staffers wouldn’t have concurred. “They’d likely roll their eyes if they heard their CEOs say people are more important than operations, technology and good financials,” he says.
While CEOs believed what they said from a philosophical and ideological standpoint, Haddad adds that they weren’t capable of defending their beliefs because they didn’t understand why people …
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