The Project Management Thread: it cost more than I thought it would.

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > The Project Management Thread: it cost more than I thought it would.

theflyingexecutive: Apr 22, 2007

I'm looking to make the jump into PMing and I would like to get a a couple ideas and a sanity check about what I'm trying to do. The bulk of my experience is in the film industry, where I would be the point person gently encouraging principal actors and background actors (extras) to get ready and that the departments getting them ready were doing their jobs on time, all from essentially the bottom of the org chart. Currently, I manage covid testing for big film promotion events (think premieres and press junkets), where my job more closely matches PMing vs Ops. I'm confident in my stable of soft skills, but both my prior jobs were completely informally structured (no PMIS at all) and narrow in both scope and schedule and my BS is in Microbiology.

I understand from this thread and other sources that the PMBOK exists in somewhat of a fantasy land wrt ideal PMing vs actual PMing and I believe I need to get my feet wet in structured PM work and not try to fake my way in somewhere to get blown out of the water when I can't lean on a mature PMO or document repository. What job titles and industries should I be looking for where my lack of hard skills makes sense? Healthcare makes a lot of sense as it's the industry I'm in now and tech is something I could get up to speed with but is a bloodbath in terms of hiring right now; should I broaden my scope or do I have too many things working against me?

I have a CAPM exam scheduled in a week (cost being the factor vs the PMP) to learn the vocabulary and show that I'm moderately competent. I would ideally slot into a sub-PM role in a big enough corporation willing to pay for more specialized PM training, should one exist. Is this a sane route or is there something wildly obvious or integral that I've overlooked?

In this post, I am using the Expert Judgement Tool.

theflyingexecutive fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Feb 19, 2023

# ¿ Feb 19, 2023 02:25

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# ¿ May 10, 2024 07:09

theflyingexecutive: Apr 22, 2007

Doctor Malaver posted:

I'm a project manager at a 50-100 employees company and I barely know any of the acronyms from your post. Maybe you're overlooking PM opportunities that aren't so corporate and formalized.

Maera Sior posted:

My position is a "[subset of department] specialist" and it's absolutely a PM role. Look for positions that need the skills you already have but also require coordinating large groups of people or activities from beginning to end.

Thanks for the feedback! My main problem is that I lack a lot of transferable hard skills. Film is always going to be siloed off into 80 hour/week film jobs with very difficult career progression and running covid testing events is also rather self-limiting. I suppose why I see myself looking at more formalized corporate roles is that they're the most likely to have extensive onboarding for their specific PM style and my proficiency won't have to come from years of experience in the field.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2023 00:58

theflyingexecutive: Apr 22, 2007

Doc Fission posted:

Looking into just getting this stupid cert already. Any recommended resources for the exam?

I used Pocket Prep Professional to gamify my study questions for $20/month. Their questions are much better written (at least for the CAPM), but are comprehensive of the PMBOK and are broken down to help you re-study missed questions and weak categories.

Dik Hz posted:

If you�re expecting corporate environments to have formal and relevant onboarding, you might want to adjust your expectations.

PM as taught by the PMBOK is at best highly aspirational.

Adjusted! I'm putting apps in now and am hitting a bit of a hurdle where I'm interested in applying for tech PM roles (understanding the industry is in a hiring bloodbath right now), but can't legitimately say I have any software development management experience, even Scrum. Is there a job role under PM in tech that isn't "coder who is also forced to schedule"?

This is of course separate from the hurdle of clicking thirty million construction Project Manager roles, which are very very different than healthcare or tech ones.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2023 02:09

theflyingexecutive: Apr 22, 2007

Bucnasti posted:

If you're looking at tech, you should probably become a Certified Scrum Master. Most places are using some form of Agile which is completely different than the waterfall methods they mostly teach in PMBOK.

Would you recommend CAM over PSM (also looking at PSM+Kanban)? My current employer isn't going to spring for any training for me, so cost is a factor unfortunately.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2023 06:53

theflyingexecutive: Apr 22, 2007

Bucnasti posted:

If your plan is to go into tech, PSM is going to be the most valuable. I've never met a CAM by title or certification.
Like somebody above said about Pmbok, Scrum is an aspiration and everyone wants to do it but few fully realize it.
As for Kanban, I've never gotten formal Kanban training, but I don't see what it adds that Scrum doesn't already cover, and I've never seen a job that was looking for Kanban experience, just Scrum experience.

Good to know! When I wrote "CAM", I jammed CAP and CSM together. :banjo:

# ¿ Mar 10, 2023 03:22

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