Project Management

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Transition from Technical Support to Project Management

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Barry Wolborsky Field Technology Services| CBRE Clarion Chesterbrook, Pa, United States
I am a Technical Support Specialist with most of my career in IT Management. Due to the changing IT support job market, I have had to accept a lower-level,.lower-paying positions. Former colleagues of mine have suggested I make a move into Project Management, as a large chunk of my IT Management work was managing projects. I recently enrolled in one of PMI's online courses, which I am in the middle of. I have begun to look at PM job postings,and literally all of them require previous "official" project management experience, which I do not have. While I may have managed projects, I did not utilize any of the PM methodologies,which I am in the process of learning (and are a bit daunting and hard to remember).

My questions are: am I wasting my time? Will a hiring manger or HR rep looking at my resume just toss my resume to the garbage bin, due to my lack of recent management/PM experience? Or will a PM course or two and a carefully worded cover letter help me get an interview? As a former manager, I believe I have many of the skill sets required to be a PM, but again, I am at a disadvantage. Any advice on breaking into the PM world would be much appreciated.
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Eduard Hernandez
Community Champion
Product Operations Program Manager Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain
I also transitioned from R&D hand on positions to PM roles. In my case, earning the PMP did contribute to the career swing, so I'd highly recommend to take it on.
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Mudassar Khan Program (Project )Manager| Woodward Canada Inc Peterborough, ON, Canada
Transitioning from Technical Side to Project Management is a bit tricky for freshers. However you can always count on the lessons learned and interact with Subject Matter Expert for Guidance, so that you can perform better as a project Manager. Technical Background sometimes gives you the edge in Project Management, However if you lack PM experiecne than its very hard
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Barry Wolborsky Field Technology Services| CBRE Clarion Chesterbrook, Pa, United States
Feb 12, 2017 8:02 AM
Replying to Deon Pugh
...
Barry as an IT Manager you have experience and skills in initiating, planning, monitoring and controlling , executing and closing project phases.
Did you talk to, discuss and negotiate with stakeholders? Boom Stakeholder Management!
Did you talk to, discuss and negotiate with vendors? Boom Procurement Management!
Did you hold meetings, produce and/or analyze status reports, make phone calls and send emails to stakeholders and project team? Boom Communications management!
Did you create or adjust schedules and timelines? Boom Time management!
Did you collect requirements? Boom Scope Management!
Did you deal with budgets? Boom Cost Management!
Did you help develop any plans? Boom Integration Management!!

You have tons of experience you just need to know how to translate it into PMI terms. Good luck!
Deon,

I have done all of these things, so this is really helpful to remember. I'm going to cut and paste your post into a Word document to help encourage me if I forget I have the experience it takes to be a Project Manager.

Thanks!

Barry
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