I am curious to know how accepting industries are to newly certified PMPs from one industry to another. In my case, I am from the Gas and Energy industry, with experience in Industrial automation as well as power plant construction, commissioning, etc. I've been approached by IT companies mostly. I understand the demand from that industry is high. Has anyone made such a switch? All insights are welcome. Saving Changes...
A PMP doesn't make up for the lack of domain knowledge so you'd need to figure out how to gain that to a sufficient degree to be effective in a different industry.
This doesn't mean you need to be able to do the work of any team member, but it does mean that you can gain credibility with stakeholders and be able to ask the right types of questions related to the domain of the project you are leading.
It is fairly common with larger companies. If it were a smaller company where they have a relatively narrow market, you would most likely need significant technical knowledge. By contrast, large IT companies like Amazon are part IT, but also involve a lot of logistics, supplier management, hazardous materials handling, etc. You can pick those up in various industries and they may even value the experience from another industry applied to their own problems.
Likewise, I have seen a lot of people in aerospace who came from some other field since it integrates so many technologies into the products, as well as large scale industrial operations to produce them. The key to marketing yourself in that case is to focus on the primary functions of your prior jobs such as integrating back-office software to promote efficiency rather than stressing that it was directly applicable to gas and energy. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Jijo
My fellow colleagues gave some great advise and feedback. It is definitely important to have the bare minimum domain knowledge as it will give you the ability to make sense of the estimates, timelines, and many other things. You don't need to be a technical expert but you certainly need some knowledge.
It is quite common. However, you should be able to convince your employer that you are a good fit for the role. This is the same for any other role and/or industry and profession as well. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
The nice things about IT is that it exists in all industries. Why not start with IT project management in the oil and gas industry? Once you gain IT experience, it's easier to move to other industries' IT. That's how I was able to get into manufacturing and health care. Saving Changes...
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