Lisa GibsonLead Vascular Sonographer| WVUWest Virginia, United States
What direction would you recommend for someone really interested in project management that has 25 years healthcare (lead vascular tech) and has a BS is applied management? Organizational and project management are of great interest to me.
Thank you Saving Changes...
As you may need to serve in a project coordinator or analyst capacity for a while to gain the necessary experience prior to landing a full fledged PM role, I might suggest looking for those types of roles in large health systems where you can leverage your clinical domain expertise to establish credibility as you are gaining PM knowledge.
I might also suggest taking a foundational, comprehensive, non-certification based course covering PM fundamentals including adaptive and predictive approaches.
Kiron Saving Changes...
Mike FrenetteManager, IT PMO| Halifax Water (retired)Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Look for a PM mentor and coach. Make known that you want to take on some PM tasks to get some experience. Get your CAPM so you can learn the PMBOK and present a credential that will help you direct your career in the direction you wish, and also to let you figure out whether you really want to be a PM. Organizational management and project management are two very different things, and you may find you are more interested in one over the other once you dig deep. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Lisa, I do agree with Kiron in that a Project Coordinator role is a great role to get your feet wet and I also agree with Mike that finding a PM Mentor and Coach would be of so much added value for someone experienced like you with so many years of experience! Saving Changes...
Healthcare is a big business. If looking within your own company, look for parts of an organization that are more business management focused as that is where PM will be more a full time job than a development opportunity in a technical organization.
PM opportunities are less frequent on the operations side of a business unless there is a big improvement push going on or something of that nature. There is a limited budget and shortage of really good tech people.
I've switched back and forth between lead engineer jobs and dedicated project and program leadership roles for 20+ years. As the lead I spend a lot more time mentoring people in the tech side and assigning work so I have to give up the best new projects to others. Moving into more of a business role with the technical background, you give up a lot of the fun stuff about tech, but get more access to a pipeline of potential projects. Saving Changes...
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