Sep 29, 2018 2:24 PM
Replying to Adrian Carlogea
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It depends on the company, industry and even country. In many English speaking countries and especially in IT (but not just IT) it is possible to start your career in project management with no prior work experience. Many companies offer internship in project management so fresh graduates can become PMs in just a couple of years after graduation even if they have never worked before at all in anything.
These junior PMs are entry level employees at the same level as other entry level employees. When they start to work on their first projects (which usually are simple projects) they would work with more senior SMEs that are much senior than them and at a much higher pay. You must not confuse the organizational chart and employee seniority with the project structure, it is the organizational hierarchy that counts in the end.
For instance on the current project on which I am involved a middle manager who directly reports to the project sponsor also works as an ordinary team members on the team because he is a very good SME in his domain. In the project structure he is at the bottom not even a technical lead but in the company he is above team leaders. The PM to which he theoretical reports to on the project is much more junior that he is and nobody directly reports him in the organization. The PM is not a real manager in the organizational chart.
