Computer engineering, Civil engineering, Materials engineering, Structural engineering, Electronic engineering and Industrial engineering these are some area that a lot of project management gurus came from. Saving Changes...
Anton OosthuizenSenior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self EmployedPretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
I've only really experienced this with construction projects. Having some civil engineering qualification is beneficial in these types of project. I have not noticed this for ITC related projects. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Interesting experience/perspective. Since I'm not in construction, have not had this same experience. Saving Changes...
When you are managing engineering projects it makes perfect sense to have an engineering background.
In IT however, as far as I have seen, this does not happen in the sense that many if not most of the PMs don't have an IT background.
If you don't have a background in one of the relevant lines of works of the team members then you can't really directly manage people but instead you end up being some sort of administrator or facilitator.
Many companies have project management internship programs in which fresh graduates or students who have taken a year off can apply and work as some sort of project manager assistants. They can then be appointed junior project managers and then grow to senior roles. These PMs would never be able to truly manage the project team members because of their lack of subject matter expertise. They may at some point end up managing (as line managers) other project managers.
In engineering (non-IT) probably the project manager roles is seen always as being a senior role and as such you can only hire people with SME background in these roles. Companies that do this probably expect their PMs to really lead and not be just some sort of administrators and facilitators. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
It is probably due to the nature of what they do as engineers mostly work on projects but I do not agree that most of the project managers are engineers. I know lots of PM’s who do not come from an engineering background.
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1 reply by Stéphane Parent
Sep 13, 2019 9:40 AM
Stéphane Parent
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Everytime I see a project manager position from an engineering company, the pre-requisites include having an engineering degree and might ask for project management experience. I don't remember seeing one such job posting looking for a project management certification or credential.
The first applications of disciplined/formal project management were in the engineering & construction domains so that likely accounts for a lot of the folks my age or older who got into the profession. However, now that project management is considered to be crucial for achieving strategy in any domain, we are seeing PMs come from all backgrounds.
PMI has taken some criticism for having focused a lot in recent years on IT projects and many of the folks I've worked with who lead projects in that domain came from non-engineering backgrounds. Saving Changes...
Kimberly ChavezPlatform Program Manager, Integration| BrightspeedOverland Park, Ks, United States
I do not have an engineering background. I am hired for three reasons: 1) I have a proven track record for managing projects strongly. within budget or under, within scope and I function very well alone or within a team environment-super adaptable. 2) I learn whatever industry I am hired into, quickly and well and 3) I have experience managing several direct reports while managing projects.
I worked for an Environmental Consulting Risk Management Firm for about 5 years at the start of my career and they had me doing everything the Engineers were doing, the only difference being that I had to have an actual Engineer review and sign off on my work for legal purposes.
I remind people all of the time, you are only limited by your own design. You can turn any job into your dream career with a little ingenuity and gaining the trust and respect of your employer. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Sep 13, 2019 6:52 AM
Replying to Rami Kaibni
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It is probably due to the nature of what they do as engineers mostly work on projects but I do not agree that most of the project managers are engineers. I know lots of PM’s who do not come from an engineering background.
Everytime I see a project manager position from an engineering company, the pre-requisites include having an engineering degree and might ask for project management experience. I don't remember seeing one such job posting looking for a project management certification or credential. Saving Changes...
In engineering firms, often people start out as the engineer and are given greater and greater leadership responsibility, moving beyond the direct oversight of product design and integrating with the business management departments as well.
Also, despite the PM and technical leadership are generally defined as different roles, they may be the same person. A Project Engineer usually acts as PM while providing technical oversight. As an engineer myself, I have developed an eye for picking up on what the key technical KPIs are required for a quality product, but my projects involve so many diverse engineering disciplines that there is no possible way I could ever be an expert in most of them. Saving Changes...
James ShieldsIS Director - Portfolio Solutions| City and County of San Francisco, SFPDSan Francisco, Ca, United States
It makes sense that many PMs would come from one of the engineering disciplines. But, I would also caution that making such a conclusion is observation-based rather than quantitative-based.
Nonetheless, there are many transferrable skills between PMs and engineering, particularly if the comparison is a project manager vs a project engineer. The latter being much more technical oriented with a big focus on design, testing. Very structured and prescriptive; a good fit for TPM, yes? Saving Changes...
Ronald NuskeSales & Project Engineer| SMS group, Inc.Cleveland, Oh, United States
You need a Technical background for certain areas of Project Management. Thus, you need an Engineering Degree. You need to be able to understand the "talk"..... Saving Changes...
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