Welcome! Introduce yourself to PMI’s Online Community

1. Your name and your current role
My name is Mamdud Sayed, and I’m currently working as a Project Manager in the IT and cybersecurity domain. I’m PMP-certified, with a solid background in managing high-impact projects that sit at the intersection of infrastructure, security, and innovation.

2. What did you want to be when you were growing up?
As a kid, I had this curious mix of fascination for both science and structure. I originally wanted to be a scientist or an engineer, the kind who builds rockets or solves mysterious equations scribbled on a chalkboard. I guess I’ve always had a thing for systems—whether it's atoms or agile frameworks.

3. What are your favorite project management tools and technologies? Or ones that you’d like to learn more about?
I’m a big fan of Jira, Odoo, and MS Project—especially when combined with Power BI for reporting and data insights. Although MS Visio, Office, PowerPoint, and Excel are my go-to tools. Lately, I’ve been diving deeper into AI-enhanced PM platforms like ClickUp with automation workflows. I’d love to explore digital twin technology in project modeling and simulation for real-world applications.

4. What drew you to the project management industry? What’s kept you in it?
What pulled me in? The balance of logic and leadership. Project management isn’t just about Gantt charts—it’s about people, precision, and purpose. I love how it forces you to think both big-picture and boots-on-the-ground. What’s kept me here? The thrill of turning chaos into clarity, watching a project move from whiteboard to reality, and knowing you orchestrated it like a symphony conductor.

5. What’s your proudest accomplishment (personal or professional)?
Professionally, I’d say leading a cross-border infrastructure migration project involving multiple vendors and stakeholders—delivering it ahead of schedule and under budget—was a career-defining moment. Personally, it’s being able to support and raise a family while continuously upskilling myself and mentoring others. Holding it all together? That’s the real MVP move.

Hi everyone, I’m José Elias Mendes, a communications strategist and journalist based in Brazil, currently expanding my work into project management, especially in areas where storytelling, content strategy and stakeholder engagement meet.

As a kid, I wanted to be a writer (or maybe a singer, but the writing part stuck). Today, I help people and organizations to solve what seems unsolvable, through words, method, and creativity.

I’m especially interested in tools that combine communication and collaboration with clarity: Notion, Trello, Miro, Slack… I would love to learn how other project managers are integrating AI into their workflows.

What brought me to project management was the desire to structure my work in complex projects involving multiple fronts and people. I’ve always had this bridge-building spirit, and project management felt like a natural evolution of what I’ve been doing for years in editorial, strategic, and creative contexts.

Before formally entering this field, I had already been managing projects in informal ways, coordinating multidisciplinary teams, leading content strategies, and ensuring that moving parts came together smoothly. Now, I’m excited to deepen this practice with more structure, tools, and shared knowledge.

My proudest accomplishments? Tough one, but I’d say helping position two Brazilian pop culture platforms among the most read in the country, leading teams with empathy and clarity, and recently joining the Top 12 LinkedIn Creators in Journalism & Media (Brazil), according to Favikon.

Looking forward to learning with (and from!) you all ✨