How can we expand our project management career development beyond industries?
JianYi LiProject manager| China State Power Investment CorporationTangerang, Indonesia
Does anyone have any personal experience can be shared to give an example to us that it is possible to involve in projects in different industries to advance project management career development?
and if you do have experience, please be specific on your story and approach. Saving Changes...
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Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Here in this forum, ProjectMamagement.com, someone compared Project Manager to a Conductor.
For me this comparison makes perfect sense.
The conductor has to know about music the same way the project manager has to know the industry where he is doing project management Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Myself and lot of others. Project manager by default is somebody that can manage projects in lot of different domains. It is simple but mostly forgotten: first thing project manager has to do when is assigned to an initiatiave is the elicitation activity where she/he must take knowledge about the domain, the stakeholders on the domain, the companies in the domain. In fact, you can find defined process as CMU SEI process to do that. Saving Changes...
James ShieldsIS Director - Portfolio Solutions| City and County of San Francisco, SFPDSan Francisco, Ca, United States
My answer is based on my interpretation of your question: How does one get experience in projects that cut across different industries?
The best way to broaden your PM industry experience is to work for a consulting house (e.g., Deloitte, KPMG, etc.) or a software company (e.g., SAP, Oracle, etc.) as a PM. By doing so, it is very likely that you will be assigned to projects covering a variety of industries over the course of time. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Like James suggested, I had the pleasure of working for a consulting company the last twenty years. It has allowed me to lead projecst in health care, manufacturing and retail. Saving Changes...
Jim BrandenSenior Project Manager| Retired from UNC Charlotte - IT Services - PPMOCharlotte, Nc, United States
As James Shields and Stephane Parent mentioned, consulting firms have diverse clients. Don't limit your choice of consulting firms to accounting / finance / software / IT. The world is full of consulting firms in every industry. I worked for an 'architecture / landscape architecture / civil engineering / surveying / environmental sciences / urban planning / etc.' company for 14 years and managed projects in almost all those fields! I also jumped from that to a university IT department who needed an experienced PM (I took a course in basic IT after being hired)!
The first trick to changing industries is learning the vocabulary! For example these words all describe the same group of stakeholders (in very different industries): customers, clients, recruits, contractors, host-nation representatives, users, renters, buyers, worshipers. These terms all describe groups who are not on the PM's team; however, the PM must know the group's needs and requirements as one aspect of a successful project!
Good LUCK = Laboring Under Correct Knowledge (vocabulary!) Saving Changes...
