Mike RaiaMarketing Director| IntegrifyIl, United States
I'm gathering PM Pro opinions on the disconnect between what you learn about PM in school or training and what it's like in the real world. What are the biggest differences/misconceptions that you've seen between what you're taught and what you actually do? Saving Changes...
Mike RaiaMarketing Director| IntegrifyIl, United States
Wow! Great responses so far! I'm hearing a lot of issues with politics/management engagement and complexity/managing multiple project channels simultaneously. Perhaps these topics should be considered for updating PM curriculums. Saving Changes...
I don't think any form of education in any field is fully going to prepare you for the real world. This is why you see many professionals, many of those who are millionaires making comments on how a college degree is likely a waste (US Based at least). The reason is that most education criteria doesn't give you the tools needed in what will be faced in the real world. There's so many variables of situations that can occur.
Education is to support knowledge in a way that is understandable, sort of like a blueprint of tools.
If you can understand the majority of that knowledge and tools to utilize when situations arise, you are already ahead. Experience is the best teacher in life. Most of us will get out butt kicked and learn some hard lessons, but the key is to LEARN from those mistakes to be more efficient.
I'm in an industry where things can literally change at the drop of a hat and you have to react quickly. This includes planning and taking any additional measures to resolve the issue quickly.
If I end up in PM work outside of my field, I already expect it to be a learning curve and will just have to dive right in, be present, and learn from any mistakes along the way.
Skill set and building those tools are what's most important. Credentials just helps get you in the door to apply what you have retained. Saving Changes...
The biggest things would just be the day to day issues that pop up that are merely described in a few sentences in most training. Risks, conflicts within the team, delayed decisions, difficult stakeholders, basically all the things that makes a PM run around that are not talked much about in training. Saving Changes...
Thats the reason PMI says that you must use what best for specific project , we don´t have to follow all the rules all the time.
it is a framework which provide us with the " best Practices "
The training provides you with the systematic approach side of the project management processes while real-life experience provides you with the practical side and how to apply those processes in real life.
I have met many PM around here without qualifications and without a systematic approach, and they think themselves successful, but as a matter of fact, if you scale their results in reality, they will score really low. It is not about the theory as much as the systematic approach. These type of people, in general, they have a short life of success and they will fail in the long run, or at the change of circumstances.
On the other hand, Without real-life experience, training and education don’t add lots of value.
Training and education give the framework and the foundation for real-life. Saving Changes...
Kevin MiazekVP, Project Management| Credit Union ONEShelby Township, MI, United States
I agree with everything everyone else is saying. In class, one of my professors was really good; questioned your responses to questions, continued to ask more questions testing your understanding of the theory or concept we were discussing. he even brought in real-world examples. The difficulty is listening and discussing the examples is far different then being in the middle of it all and trying to manage it. I just completed a 6 month project and many of my stakeholders and team kept asking "How can handle and keep up with everything? I would be so lost!!!" Keeping up and handling everything is hard to simulate in a classroom. Saving Changes...
