Career advice and guidance

From my perspective, there are a couple things to consider:
1. Speak with your manager, not from a day to day aspect, but from a career growth aspect, with long term goals and a set of objectives (SMART goals) to get there. In short, you put together the goals, do not ask your manager for them
2. Continue networking so when you have enough experience, you have a strong network to reach out to.
3. Continue developing professionally. This will not only keep you sharp with continuous learning, but will make you feel empowered in taking charge of your own career.
4. Join the local Chapter, or other groups with similar passions - doesn't even need to be about PM, could be a running club [Networking and fun!]
5. Volunteering - through the Chapter, church, non-profit organizations, etc.

Good Luck and keep us posted. You'll do great.

Hi Noncedo,

Andrew gave you some excellent advice.

My advce is to never give up on your career goals. Start a blog to write about your experiences in Project Management. The blog will help you in your writing skills. Project Mangement is about communication so a personal blog will develop your writing skills. You also can showcase your knowledge.

Read blogs on Project Management and participate in community forums like this one.

Just give it some time and you will be a PM.

Some good advice here Nonceda, but let me be frank. Your manager sounds like someone who doesn't want to foster growth in your career; perhaps he is worried about his own job as you shine more each year into project management. My advice is stealth. Learn what you can, inside and outside work. Get certified in OM, either CAPM or PMP, but the CAPM is a great start at your stage. Look around for project administrator, coordinator, assistant roles, they pop up all the time. The other things is find out what other projects are running in the company, and see if you can help out on some of them, assuming your boss doesn't run all the projects. In the end, even if you end up staying at your company, your passion, drive, experience and knowledge will grow until others will see how great you are, and the boss may be out of a job.

If you can't find fulfillment at your work, you can find it outside. As Andrew suggested, consider volunteering to do project management for charitable organizations. They always have events that need to be planned and delivered. They are a great fit for project management and allow you to build your résumé.