I've been working as a PM in the software industry for little over a month and I'm really happy. Job search was tough and I'm truly passionate about this stuff. However, I don't have a mentor and I feel I could be doing and learning so much more...
I may sound over-ambitious or plain dumb but I want to become a great PM, I don't want to settle for mediocrity. So I'd appreciate it if anyone could point me in some direction. Is it possible to find a mentor online or something? I honestly don't know what I'm looking for.. I just want to make the most of this stage of my career.
You could consider the active contributors in this discussion group to be a "group mentoring" collective. It would be better, however, for you to find a seasoned PM within your local area (perhaps through your PMI chapter) as you'd likely get better continuity and context-based guidance.
Kiron
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1 reply by Franco Sartori
Oct 15, 2019 6:50 PM
Franco Sartori
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Thank you for your comment Kiron.
I check this discussion group sometimes and while I have found useful content, most of it applies to situations or circumstances I'm far from experiencing just yet.
Regarding local groups: I've had a couple interactions with my province's PMI Chapter... they haven't been the most helpful. I've tried contacting PMs on LinkedIn, same story. They all just seem to give the same generic answers. I don't think it's their intention, I believe they're either not that interested in the topic or think that you just learn with experience... which you do, but there's got to be skill variety, right? Am I crazy to think that 10 different PMs with 5 years experience each will be different from each other? Manage projects differently, be good at different things?
You could consider the active contributors in this discussion group to be a "group mentoring" collective. It would be better, however, for you to find a seasoned PM within your local area (perhaps through your PMI chapter) as you'd likely get better continuity and context-based guidance.
Kiron
Thank you for your comment Kiron.
I check this discussion group sometimes and while I have found useful content, most of it applies to situations or circumstances I'm far from experiencing just yet.
Regarding local groups: I've had a couple interactions with my province's PMI Chapter... they haven't been the most helpful. I've tried contacting PMs on LinkedIn, same story. They all just seem to give the same generic answers. I don't think it's their intention, I believe they're either not that interested in the topic or think that you just learn with experience... which you do, but there's got to be skill variety, right? Am I crazy to think that 10 different PMs with 5 years experience each will be different from each other? Manage projects differently, be good at different things?
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1 reply by Kiron Bondale
Oct 24, 2019 6:38 PM
Kiron Bondale
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Franco -
This is the challenge with our profession in that context counts so the safest answer you are likely to get in many cases is "It depends"!
This is why it is important to find a mentor ideally within your company or at least in your industry and geographic location to reduce the points of divergence from your context.
Franco,
Don't be discouraged. As a new PM with 1 month of experience, you most likely have not had a chance to have many real learning experiences. Many times, individual project phases themselves last longer than you've been at your job.
Finding a mentor can be very valuable, however as a professional, you are ultimately responsible for your own development. As a lead PM, new-hires often take up much more of my time to explain things than it would take me to do the job myself, even without a formal mentorship arrangement. The teaching moments come not because I sat someone down to explain things, but because they asked me probing questions. Find who you can trust and will spend the time to answer your questions.
In well structured mentorships, there is a documented agreement between both parties as to what you plan to learn. Talk to your own functional manager about this to see if that type of arrangement is supported by your organization. There are resources available online to show you what goes into such a formal arrangement. Again, an important take-away from that is that there is a learning plan, rather than a random journey of discovery. You yourself need to be specific in what you want to learn, as the whole universe of PM is a very big place.
If you don't have a formal mentor now, you can still plan your own learning. This can include reading or formal education, but you should also be looking around you for opportunities to learn. When you are following internal processes, ask yourself what is the purpose, how does it work, and is it effective. If possible, experiment with different ways to do things and start forming your own opinions about the pros and cons of approaches and methods. Observe people around you, and their personal communication or leadership styles. To be effective as a PM, you need to adapt your own communication to best fit the individual.
It is quite common for new employees to feel like they are not learning fast enough in any job. Experiences will come, some at the pace of the projects that unfold, but be sure to maximize the learning potential of giving careful consideration to the situations unfolding around you.
Good luck in your new career!
Keith
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1 reply by Franco Sartori
Oct 15, 2019 9:23 PM
Franco Sartori
...
Ugh I wrote a long comment and my session expired, sorry if I forget something.
Thank you for your comment Keith.
In short, what I said was that I don't live in the States or the UK. I don't have as many opportunities to develop my career to the degree or at the pace I'd like to. I'd collect international certifications to develop my career if it wasn't because they cost the same as an entire average Argentine's worker monthly salary. Besides, as you pointed out, experience is one of the most important things to have as a PM. That means your career development depends on others (others have to hire you). In other professions you can just study a lot, get titles, diplomas, etc. and use that as proof of your proficiency. On top of that there's an unemployment crisis here.
So in conclusion what I'm asking here is: "What, besides gaining experience, can I do to develop my career as PM?"
Franco,
Don't be discouraged. As a new PM with 1 month of experience, you most likely have not had a chance to have many real learning experiences. Many times, individual project phases themselves last longer than you've been at your job.
Finding a mentor can be very valuable, however as a professional, you are ultimately responsible for your own development. As a lead PM, new-hires often take up much more of my time to explain things than it would take me to do the job myself, even without a formal mentorship arrangement. The teaching moments come not because I sat someone down to explain things, but because they asked me probing questions. Find who you can trust and will spend the time to answer your questions.
In well structured mentorships, there is a documented agreement between both parties as to what you plan to learn. Talk to your own functional manager about this to see if that type of arrangement is supported by your organization. There are resources available online to show you what goes into such a formal arrangement. Again, an important take-away from that is that there is a learning plan, rather than a random journey of discovery. You yourself need to be specific in what you want to learn, as the whole universe of PM is a very big place.
If you don't have a formal mentor now, you can still plan your own learning. This can include reading or formal education, but you should also be looking around you for opportunities to learn. When you are following internal processes, ask yourself what is the purpose, how does it work, and is it effective. If possible, experiment with different ways to do things and start forming your own opinions about the pros and cons of approaches and methods. Observe people around you, and their personal communication or leadership styles. To be effective as a PM, you need to adapt your own communication to best fit the individual.
It is quite common for new employees to feel like they are not learning fast enough in any job. Experiences will come, some at the pace of the projects that unfold, but be sure to maximize the learning potential of giving careful consideration to the situations unfolding around you.
Good luck in your new career!
Keith
Ugh I wrote a long comment and my session expired, sorry if I forget something.
Thank you for your comment Keith.
In short, what I said was that I don't live in the States or the UK. I don't have as many opportunities to develop my career to the degree or at the pace I'd like to. I'd collect international certifications to develop my career if it wasn't because they cost the same as an entire average Argentine's worker monthly salary. Besides, as you pointed out, experience is one of the most important things to have as a PM. That means your career development depends on others (others have to hire you). In other professions you can just study a lot, get titles, diplomas, etc. and use that as proof of your proficiency. On top of that there's an unemployment crisis here.
So in conclusion what I'm asking here is: "What, besides gaining experience, can I do to develop my career as PM?" Saving Changes...
First of all, Congratulation .. All the best for New Role..
You can check posts, articles, webinars and participate in discussion on the project management site . Besides it , there are other websites where you can learn more about project management. Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Franco
The path is made by walking ...
Being in this forum is the first step.
Can:
- Read articles on topics that interest you most
- listen to webinars,
- Ask questions
- Attend live or deferred conferences organized by ProjectManagement.com
- Contact local chapter professionals
- Attend events and / or conferences organized by chapter local
- Observe and ask other professionals working in your company (such as project managers) about topics of interest to you.
Most Important: just keep on going forward Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Key point is what does mean "great". That´s is a subjective matter. When you define it then you have to go for the place where you can achieve the goal or you have to search inside your current place what to take to achieve the goal. Saving Changes...
Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Great to see the enthusiasm. Recognize you have only been there a month :)
Take your time, learn as much as you can. Immerse yourself in the profession, contribute where you can, continuously develop skills, etc.
Join your local chapter (if possible) and seek a mentor or group to connect with.
Good luck and keep your mindset and optimism. Saving Changes...
Hi Franco, I don't have half the experience in Projects, as many of the folks here but similar to you, I am very passionate about the work I do. When I started to learn Project Management, I read a ton of articles, I visited many different sites to learn how I can handle a specific challenge on a Project. For example, do you want to learn how to prepare a Project Budget? Do you have want to learn how to build the right team? Do you want to learn how to manage change within your project? To date, I am still learning something new everyday. You can have all the experience in the world but I bet you anything, you will still learn something new from every project. Start by participating in free webinars on this site... You have a very exciting journey ahead of you. Saving Changes...
Thank you so much everyone for taking the time to answer. I appreciate you.
Unfortunately, I don't think I'll find the type of answer I was looking for.
Even if you don't have a mentor, you usually have someone to look up to, whose strengths you admire so much you want to emulate them. I don't have that. Never in my life have I met a PM, and the ones I've tried to interact with would rather talk about anything other than project management. There's no other PM in my company.
I'd say so far, the answer that was closest to what I'm looking for has been Arash's. That's exactly what I've been doing. Identifying challenges, coming up with the best solution I can think of, implementing, checking whether it works, if it doesn't try something else, etc. He's mentioned project-management-specific challenges.
The issue is that as I said before, the org where I work is TINY. I'm not facing the challenges you guys are probably used to or the ones you faced during your first job. If that was the case, believe me, I'd be satisfied. And I get it, there's probably no way I can face these challenges without the actual experience. This is exactly the reason why I'm posting this question.
I want to be hirable after this job, that is all. I want to leave this job (whenever that may be) either having faced challenges like the ones Arash's mentioned or having some EQUIVALENT.
Anyway, thank you so much for your input. I'll listen to you and give it more time, be less anxious, try to find challenges in the little things. I may not be learning too much about project management but I'm learning a lot about software all the time so hopefully that pays off eventually.
