The Unconventional Path to PM

Kenneth has 14 years of healthcare experience in government and private industry. Over eight years of experience managing healthcare IT projects, operations, contracts, and personnel. His work experience includes project management, contracts and procurements, data analysis, claims adjudication, business writing, and business process modeling. Kenneth was certified in 2006 as a Project Management Professional.

  Career Development   New Practitioners  

There are many ways to get to the position of a project manager, and while some of them may be a normal career path, there are also many unconventional paths that someone can travel down to the project manager position in an organization.

Some of these unconventional paths may even give you a certain set of skills or experience that will help tremendously while managing projects. It is important to understand the path you have traveled and its impact on how you manage projects going forward. Sometimes, the unconventional path that leads you to the best possible location--a location you never would have guessed on your own.

Understanding the Business
One of the paths to project management is to start in the business area, possibly as a business analyst or a technical resource or some other position where you have or gain an understanding of the field you work in. This knowledge can give you a tremendous head start when you are leading a project, but it also leads to problems. You might have a tendency to get too involved in the details and the inner workings of the solution or product being developed for the project. This type of involvement means that you are not seeing the big picture because your head is buried in the work.

A project needs people deeply involved in the work, but it also needs a leader, someone who can see beyond the work that needs to be done today …

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