Ways to gain "real" PM skills

Hi:
I have read your interesting answers and would like to share my knowledge in Process Improvement. For me, as engineer, and Earned Value Professional, 90% of the success of process improvement is statistics and metrics of the project. Costs and Advance.
I wrote a course and filmed on videos about "E-Learning: "Budgets-Costs-Advances of Projects with Microsoft Excel". The INDEX is below. As part of my contribution to the community I can give you a free coupon of the course hosted in UDEMY.

The project control has three indicators:
a) Budget
b) Expenses
c) Advance
Measure of a graphic that shows the expenses under budget and
the advance justifies the money invested and warranties the
project sucess.

Index:
a) Project SCOPE and Work Breakdown Structure
b) Gantt Chart to see Activities Time, Duration
and Dates, Dependency and Critical Path.
b.1) What activities can be executed at the same time.
b.2) What delays affect all the project delivery date.
c) Resources and Costs for every Activity to have a budget
for each one and total amount for the project.
c.1) Cash Flow needs for every phase.
d) Human Resources Communication to show every person
how many hours and when he/she will work.
e) Escenarios of cost change for resources.
f) Risk Analysis of Activities to get the cost of RISK.
g) Execution and Change Control to see if the project is
under the planned budget and will represent a
revenue for the company.
h) Procurement to identify the best providers.
i) Lesson learned for continuous improvement of business
proposals of projects to increase revenue.

Includes:
-PDF presentation
-Excel Worksheet with data to do practical exercises
explained on the video course.


Course Video description:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJPUaDFc-FU&feature=youtu.be

Thank you so much Fernando. This is great information. A coupon would be greatly appreciated.

Melinda--definitely look at the VRMS at PMI for volunteer opportunities and get involved with your local chapter. But you would be surprised what you can apply the PM principles and processes to in your personal life. In the absence of formal corporate project work, I have found countless life opportunities to exercise the principles and processes of project management. I coach a competitive science team for my son and when I tell you that it exercises every. single. area. of project management I'm not even kidding. Likewise, I attack my family's own home renovation projects using PM methodology and practices.

At the end of the day, the important thing is practicing the skill set so that you are on point and understanding the potential pitfalls of the processes. The domain you apply them to is less relevant (which is a contentious topic, I realize). You can find projects everywhere. They just may not be enterprise-sized. I find that making formal projects out of life opportunities gives me a great deal of practice with the variations that come with projects in corporate America.

Of course, my husband doesn't always love this and sometimes, people may look at you a bit odd when you insert a more rigorous process than other see as necessary but not so much that they opt out of working with you.