There are few career paths with more stability than that of a project manager. In the opinion of many top employers, project management skills even trump tech skills when it comes to the ability to place individuals as well as the longevity of employment. Technological skills can quickly become obsolete, but project management skills are evergreen – best practices may change but the fundamentals of project management remain the same. There is also a defined training a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) route for professional project managers right from the basic levels such as the APM Project Fundamentals qualification right up to highly advanced accreditation such as the APM Chartered Project Professional (ChPP). The ability to manage to completion a series of complex, inter-dependent tasks will always be an employable skill.
1 – Organization and multitasking
In order to be an effective project manager, you must learn how to lead many tasks at once. You should be a big picture thinker who understands how the smaller compartmentalized parts of a project fit together. People are much more likely to become energized when they understand exactly why they are doing what they are doing.
2 – Leadership skills
Believe it or not, leadership can be learned: Project managers are not born; they are made.
Team members are always looking for a leader; this is the nature of groups. As project manager, you are helping to take the load of leadership off of the more technically minded individuals in a project. They will look to you for the complete picture.
3 – Communication skills
In order to create synergy between employees of different disciplines, you must be able to speak the language of everyone who is involved with a project. Although everyone may be speaking English, the marketing department speaks in an entirely different lingo from the IT department. Left to their own devices, they will misunderstand each other at every turn, cutting down on the efficiency of the project.
4 – Learn when to negotiate
There are times to negotiate and times not to. Project managers must understand when to stand firm and when to give a little.
5 – Details, details, details
Although a project manager will be a big picture thinker, he or she must also be well in tune with the details of a project from all angles. Part of being able to communicate with employees from all departments is having a basic knowledge of their disciplines. The best way to learn this is to become as intimately involved as possible in the details of each department.
6 – Becoming a timely problem solver
Not only does a project manager have to solve problems, but he or she has to solve problems within the time schedule that the project allows for. Because the project manager will usually be the one who sets up the flowchart for the project, he or she will certainly be the most knowledgeable when it comes to the timeframe in which certain bottlenecks must be taken care of.
7 – Tech skills
A project manager must be ready to fill in for any department, kind of like an understudy. This means learning basic technical skills.
If being a project manager sounds like the career for you, then you owe it to yourself to consider the courses that are offered by Parallel Project Training. Parallel Project Training can give you the skill set that you will need to leverage your way into the company of your choice. People with the organizational and technical skills that you will have upon graduation are in short order and high demand by the best businesses in the world, and you will have the tools that you need to thrive within that environment.
The Parallel Project Training program is an APM accredited project management training company which keeps up with the latest skill sets and technologies that are relevant to employers in the modern business landscape.
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