Project Management

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Manager vs Project Manager

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Cherenia Jones Student Services Coordinator II| Kaplan University Oak Park, Il, United States
I have been checking for posting for opportunities to work on a project management team with my current employer. So far, I have only seen positions for managers. Should I take advantage of a management role or continue to search for positions to gain project management experience?
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Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
I would consider any management role as good experience for project management. I have done functional management before and it gave me a better appreciation for the management stakeholders in my projects.
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1 reply by Cherenia Jones
Jul 28, 2016 2:35 PM
Cherenia Jones
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Hi Stephane,

I appreciate the perspective.

Thanks for sharing
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Radhika Namburi Associate Vice President Site coordinator| Wills Towers Watson Company Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India
Agreed with Stephane, you can start with a management role and sharpen your skills there on to move into your area of interest.
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Adrian Carlogea Australia
In the companies on which I have worked the position of manager was higher than that of project manager, in fact project managers were just ordinary non-managerial employees working on some sort of project management team or department and reporting to a manager.

In order to become a manager you need some experience working as an individual contributor before you can take such a role. For project managers however also entry level positions exist so you can become a junior PM with no working experience at all.

For me is a little odd for someone that is a manager to want to become a project manager unless there is very good reason for this. In most companies the manager - project manager transition is a demotion. Project managers can be promoted to managers if for example they are appointed to lead project management teams or departments.

I was told that working as a project manager and combining the project management knowledge with subject matter expertise can help if you seek a manager role. Your experiences contradict what I have thought and have seen. :)
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Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
It really depends on how organizations are set up, Adrian. I used to work for big IT companies (EDS and HP), where an organization unit leader (front-line manager) could actually make less than the senior technical people in the unit!
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Adrian Carlogea Australia
Stéphane, yes you are right, in terms of pay it is possible for people lower in the hierarchy to make more money that those higher than them, but if you are planning to climb the corporate ladder as higher as possible I think the roles of senior technical expert or project manager will not help you as much as a manager role (even if it is a low level one) will. But I guess this depends on the company as you said.

In the end it also depends on what you like to do. For example some subject matter experts don't want to become managers because they like too much the work they are doing. In a similar way for some people doing project management may be more exciting than leading a functional unit, regardless of the pay and position inside the organization.
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Christian Velazquez BARA Process Lead| Cadena de Descuento BARA Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
I think that you could apply PMI processes on a Manager level, you can create internal projects and apply your knowledge there.
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Cherenia Jones Student Services Coordinator II| Kaplan University Oak Park, Il, United States
Hi,

Thanks for your insight. I have recently seen a project manager get promoted to assistant director of the department the project was designed for. We don't have PMO's so it's either being a Senior Project Manager or a functional manager. I've made my plans to gain experience in project management known to my supervisor but so far nothing has materialized from that.

In order to qualify for the PMP I need to get the experience. The PMP certification is one of my goals. I'm not sure that advancing the ladder from that avenue would happen otherwise.

Thank you for your thoughts .. I really appreciate them.
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Vincent Guerard Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
Managerial role is good to project management and reverse is good too.
It all depend on how the corporation see it. I have work in some that make it two separate path other where you could go from one to the other , back and forth.
I think experience in both would help anyone.
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Cherenia Jones Student Services Coordinator II| Kaplan University Oak Park, Il, United States
Jul 21, 2016 9:50 AM
Replying to Stéphane Parent
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I would consider any management role as good experience for project management. I have done functional management before and it gave me a better appreciation for the management stakeholders in my projects.
Hi Stephane,

I appreciate the perspective.

Thanks for sharing

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