Project Management Central

1. PMP is a good qualification to introduce in Project Management. I recommend Rita Mulcahy's certification prep, it's a good option to acquire PM Knowledge at your own pace, and is updated to the 2021 exam. Visit this link:
https://rmcls.com/about/rita-mulcahy
2. Project Management practices are suitable for all industries. It's best to focus on an industry you have experience in because technical information is a bonus to Project Management knowledge.

James,

since you are in the UK, Prince2 would be a good choice to start. You can get the foundation certification within a week and this knowledge is quite popular in your country, so it is good to have it on the CV.

On the longer view, PMP and agile certifications could be extensions of your qualifications. Since you were in IT, I assume you might have run some projects (any proposal for a client would be project), which may count towards the PMP requirement of 3 years experience.

Due to the general labor shortage in UK mainly due to Brexit, I think you should have good chance for a job in the PM field, even for an entry level position. IT, construction and financial services are industries striving in UK. On the other hand, the more experience you have the better job offers you get.

Here is a link to a salary report for PMs in UK
https://www.apm.org.uk/news/apm-salary-and...ect-profession/

And here is a UK job/skills report
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights...talent-shortage

Hope this helps.
Thomas

Definitely find an industry you find interesting. A successful career involves continuous learning so you might as well learn about something you enjoy.

Another option to moving into PM is making a lateral move in some company from a different job function related to the products. Many people including myself have moved into PM not from engineering experience in that domain, but from product knowledge obtained in something else like supply chain management.

Some PM roles will require a lot of detailed technical knowledge. A highly skilled techie however may not have the vertical and or horizontal integration knowledge, nor the people skills to be an effective PM. Someone with experience in business management may have experience working with many technical teams, suppliers, customers, finance, etc. which might be more important to a PM that needs broad knowledge more than specific expertise in one area.

For your second question James, I would definitely say pick an industry which you feel attached to. If you are not interested in IT, then you won't be able to do good pjm there neither, even if pjm is theoretically transferable between industry fields. This is particularly true for freshmen in the business.

Also, if you go into construction / architecture / real estate for instance, it's indispensable that you have most of the engineering knowledge which is behind it, so a university degree in the particular field could help you a lot here.

There is usually 2 ways of starting as a pjm – the first is to do a degree in the particular field (let's say civil engineering), and then specialise on pjm during the course, or, do a general pjm degree and then specialise into construction (for example).

After my experience, the first way is better, since you really have all the background knowledge about your projects, although this means a bit less pjm knowledge. However, the pjm knowledge is far easier to obtain later (for example through PMI certifications) than the engineering stuff, which you can get only at universities.

Also, I think companies employ more "engineer" people rather than "manager" people, most of all when talking about someone who is just starting in this business. Getting into a manager position most definitely requires years of experience in the particular field, which is the case for instance when you have worked as an "engineer" before.

This is my advice, hope you'll find this helpful!

1. PMP is a good qualification to introduce in Project Management. I recommend Rita Mulcahy's certification prep, it's a good option to acquire PM Knowledge at your own pace, and is updated to the 2021 exam. Visit this link:
https://rmcls.com/about/rita-mulcahy
2. Project Management practices are suitable for all industries. It's best to focus on an industry you have experience in because technical information is a bonus to Project Management knowledge.