Does anyone know what the next advanced position a Project Manager takes to climb the corporate ladder? Would it be Director of Project Managment; Resource Manager; VP of IT; ??? Saving Changes...
It really depends on the 'culture' of Project Management in the organization you work in.
Does your organization have a Project Management Methodology, does it have a Corporate level PMO (Project Management Organization), does it have a career that is committed to Project Management?
All of these things are characteristics of an organization that recognizes the value of Project Management.
A typical Project Management Career path could consist of:
So as you can see - there are a number of different positions that a Project Manager can move into as they increase thier skills and competencies.
Also within a Project Management Organization - you also may have Managers of different groups (Manager of all your Project Analysts and APM's, Manager of all your PM', A Manager of your Methodology and Project Management Tools Area, A Manager of all you PM Consultants that help with Project Start Ups, Reviews, etc...).
All these Managers could report to the Manager of the PMO (Director of Project Manager) who could then report to one of the executive officers (ideally a CPO - Chief Project Officer).
rather than a designation as a next step on project management career path, skill levels would be a better measure of advancement in project management. (basic) skill set #1: spreadsheet, word processing, CPM analysis skill set #2: conducting meetings, problem solving
can we develop this list further? we could then discuss more on how to build these skills.
