Project Management

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Breaking into a new field

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Tiffany Fielder Manager, R&D| Zotos International Norwalk, Ct, United States
What advice do current PM's have for someone trying to break into a new industry as a project manager? I have experience in a specialized field within consumer packaged goods managing product development with R&D. However, I am interested in relocating to the west coast and becoming a PM.

I have 15+ years of R&D experience as a product development chemist but just earned my MBA and am working on the PMP.

Does anyone have suggestions on how best to target my areas of geographical interest?
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Brenden Murphy Marketing Intern| New Jersey Tech Council Franklin Park, Nj, United States
I am interested in seeing the answers you get!
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Rami Kaibni
Community Champion
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten Associates New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Your experience is great, the MBA is definitely an asset and PMP is the right thing to pursue in your case. You are on the right track here.

If you did project management before, regardless if the field, then you should be fine. You do not need to be an expert in industry specifc fields to be a PM. You just need to have some technical background. This combined with your experience should be more than enough for you to get into a PM role.

If you feel that you need more experience, then the best way to deal with it is getting a project coordinator role for a start.

Those a my 2 cents - Hope it helps. Good Luck Tiffany.
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1 reply by Mudassar Khan
Dec 08, 2016 9:00 AM
Mudassar Khan
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Great Post :)
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saurabh mahajan PMP, ITIL, PRINCE2| vodafone Pune, Maharashtra, India
Now a days domain knowledge plays a major role. So as far as you are good with domain project management in any new field should not be a problem.
so if you can gain some prior knowledge on the domain you are migrating to there should not be a problem in my view.

Start reading on the new domain. This will help you broaden your view on the task you will supposed to handle. You will understand industry specific issues and then you can apply your Project management experience/knowledge to tackle them.
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Anupam India
Saurabh is correct. What matter is domain knowledge.
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Shawn Robison Program Manager| Johnson & Johnson Fort Worth, Tx, United States
I have to respectfully disagree with the comments on the importance of domain knowledge. While it is true that many (not all) employers see it as highly important, it is to their detriment.

Domain knowledge is something that can easily be learned by someone with the right attitude and work ethic. I am of the opinion I can always train or teach a skill/information. I cannot change the natural behavioral tendencies of people.

I'm not saying domain knowledge doesn't have it's place and value. Simply think it often times gets overvalued and viewed incorrectly.
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Mudassar Khan Program (Project )Manager| Woodward Canada Inc Peterborough, ON, Canada
Dec 06, 2016 1:14 AM
Replying to Rami Kaibni
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Your experience is great, the MBA is definitely an asset and PMP is the right thing to pursue in your case. You are on the right track here.

If you did project management before, regardless if the field, then you should be fine. You do not need to be an expert in industry specifc fields to be a PM. You just need to have some technical background. This combined with your experience should be more than enough for you to get into a PM role.

If you feel that you need more experience, then the best way to deal with it is getting a project coordinator role for a start.

Those a my 2 cents - Hope it helps. Good Luck Tiffany.
Great Post :)
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Stéphane Parent Self Employed / Semi-retired| Leader Maker Prince Edward Island, Canada
I'm with Shawn. I find it terribly annoying when I see PM positions that ask for domain experience over project management experience.

If you don't have the domain knowledge or experience, get someone on the team to act as your SME or product manager.

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