New to project management - questions for a mentor

Anonymous

What is a Project Manager?
What skills, knowledge, and abilities are required for a project manager?
What leads to a project management career?
What leads to project manager’s success?
What are more important to a project’s success, project manager soft skills or hard skills?

Posted: May 24, 2020 3:45 PM

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Tarun Nair Adoor, Kerala, India

Too many queries in one..
I am not sure, if we can really have a discussion on this here on this forum.
For first few queries you can try some online resource to learn about them.Then you can ask for specific doubt or clarification.

If you are already working professional who is willing to take project management career path,then a CAPM certification will be good to start with.

It would also recommended that you find a mentor to guide on all such queries and help you in your career.

Posted: May 24, 2020 9:00 PM (Updated by author: May 24, 2020 9:09 PM)

Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada

I'd suggest picking up a good introductory book on the profession such as "PM 101 according to the old curmudgeon" by Francis Webster Jr. or taking a basic PM fundamentals course (1-3 days).

Once you've done that you will be in a much better position to ask focused questions.

Kiron

Posted: May 25, 2020 8:12 AM

Elizabeth Harrin Director| RebelsGuideToPM.com London, England, United Kingdom

I agree with the comments above. These sound like questions from a college assignment where you are supposed to find someone in a PM role and ask them their views on their career etc.

...

1 reply by Stéphane Parent

May 25, 2020 2:44 PM

Stéphane Parent

...

I've had similar questions asked of me from someone who is working on a project management course.

Posted: May 25, 2020 10:19 AM

Thomas Walenta Global Project Economy Expert Hackenheim, Germany

Thanks for your question, and hope you will find interest in project management.

For some entry-level learning, you may look at

https://pmief.org/library/resources/managing-lifes-projects
and
https://edge.pmi.org/
in addition to what Kiron suggested.

Good luck and stay curious.
Thomas

PS
Some oneliners to your questions

What is a Project Manager?
The person in charge of a project

What skills, knowledge, and abilities are required for a project manager?
Lots of and depending on the environment or industry you are in. They can be grouped into 3 areas: social skills, process skills and business skills. Lately there is discussion that basic technology skills are needed in all these groups.

What leads to a project management career?
Many career project managers started in another field (I did for 14 years in SW development and enguneering) and then accidentally were asked to to take the challenge to lead a project.

What leads to project manager’s success?
A positive mindset, knowing how to influence people and building teams, understanding of the project's purpose and being able to set out a path from idea to reality (a plan) while staying flexible.

What are more important to a project’s success, project manager soft skills or hard skills?
You can ruin every project with bad soft skills and succeed with a lack of hard skills having excellent people on board and bringing them to excel. But it is best of there is a balance between 3 areas: soft skills, process skills and understanding the business.

Posted: May 25, 2020 12:38 PM

Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada

May 25, 2020 10:19 AM

Replying to Elizabeth Harrin

...

I agree with the comments above. These sound like questions from a college assignment where you are supposed to find someone in a PM role and ask them their views on their career etc.

I've had similar questions asked of me from someone who is working on a project management course.

Posted: May 25, 2020 2:44 PM

Anonymous

thank you for the replies. it is for a project management class - mentor portion where you have to create a blog. one PM said that the blogs could be used for the questions I had and two others said they would be a mentor but never replied.

Posted: May 30, 2020 3:13 PM

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