Hi everyone, I am interested in hearing from people's experience/thoughts. I have been a PMO director for 4+ years and 15 years of experience in project management. The current and previous PMO that I manage, I would say, are more like supporting/administrative PMOs. So much I want to steer the leadership team away from treating a PMO as an admin function, often the admin support is really the most critical support (pain points) the departments are looking for. When I say admin, my PMOs have to do pretty much everything from risk mgt, records mgt, procurement, communications and engagement, data analytics, developing processes and procedures, financial management, reporting, project tracking, HR, project coordination, office coordination...etc. Pretty much a one stop shop.
But it got me thinking.... with my diverse experience (and I have an MBA and master in project management), I wonder it would be logical and easy for me to land a job as a Chief Administrative Officer. I have seen a number of CAO positions that are $200-300K+. Seems great pay. I don't know anyone in a CAO position, but on the internet, it looks like CAO positions basically requires knowing "everything" from admin, finance, communications....etc. all operational stuff. I see many similarities to my work as a supporting/admin PMO director.
I am curious to hear people's thoughts and experience. Has anyone transitioned to a CAO role from a PMO leader role? Thanks very much! Saving Changes...
A lot depends on what the nature of the CAO role is and what industry you are looking at. For example, in municipalities, a CAO is effectively the CEO of the organization so you'd need to combine your PM acumen with significant strategic and operations management experience.
CAO's also usually have a significant staffing complement (multi-level) under them which will be larger than most PMOs and even EPMOs so organization design is another key competency.
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