Project manager - RE-TRAINING but in what?

[TestMangler]

i can't think of Anything a PM's good for, really. sorry.
i'm an engineer.

Making lists of tulip that needs done and adding lists of names of people who do that tulip.

Beyond that, they're about as much use as a slinky. Basically useless but it can sometimes be fun to push one down the stairs.

[GhostofTarbera]

Making lists of tulip that needs done and adding lists of names of people who do that tulip.

Beyond that, they're about as much use as a slinky. Basically useless but it can sometimes be fun to push one down the stairs.

He could retain as an insolvency practitioner

Business is booming
Will be able to burn money while ensuring nothing is delivered back to either client or suppliers
Will be able to waste everyone time with no results
Can make a gant chart per client

Could make £600 an hour not a day


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[Lance]

Making lists of tulip that needs done and adding lists of names of people who do that tulip.

Beyond that, they're about as much use as a slinky. Basically useless but it can sometimes be fun to push one down the stairs.

Telling the project board why the project is late, over budget, and that it’s not the engineers fault..... and then getting sacked. They’re good for that.

Seriously though... good PMs are useful. A PM with no experience in a subject (the OP) are simply a waste of skin and organs.

[simes]

i can't think of Anything a PM's good for, really. sorry. i'm an engineer.

Making lists of tulip that needs done and adding lists of names of people who do that tulip. Beyond that, they're about as much use as a slinky.

Telling the project board why the project is late, over budget, and that it’s not the engineers fault..... and then getting sacked. They’re good for that.

Grief, I've only been on the boards for three minutes this morning and already I'm feeling sorry for myself!

Good morning fellas.

[Eirikur]

been contracting in the project Manager space for about 15years and given market, would like the opportunity to retrain and specialise in what is considered to be ‘hot’.

Security seems interesting but I have no idea where to start?

Aim is to be employable at all times and be able to earn upwards of £600/day. Current market conditions make it hard given influx of PMs, change managers etc

Thanks in advance

Continue as a PM but specialise in a certain (niche) sub category within for example software development, Finance, Infra, telecoms, CRM, etc

[edison]

It can be difficult to gain traction with a total switch of focus. You'd have a better view of where best to segue into I guess, but maybe scrum master / product owner type things?

I get asked this question a lot by people I give IT career coaching to (mainly permies) but I think the advice can be partly applied to contractors too.

If you want to completely pivot to something else, then be prepared to do a lot of studying and then go in at a more junior end, probably via a perm job first.

There's very little chance (read 'nil') of anyone paying you at least £600/day as a contractor if you've just learnt something.

The two areas I often suggest are data science and product management but each has its own challenges and assumptions that you have a certain level of competencies before you could realistically think about transitioning.

Security would appear to be a good long term bet but again, there's lots of competition and you would need to start at the bottom. If you don't know where to start, then that might be an indication, it's not for you. This is one area where certifications really are a big help. Rather than security, perhaps information privacy might be a possibility? I could see that being combined with a PM background to manage business and technology change in that area.

As per one of the suggestions above about scrum/agile, well there are so many people on that boat now. I know really top class agile coaches for example who are struggling to get enough work at the moment.

[Paralytic]

Security seems interesting but I have no idea where to start?

Nightclubs are really struggling at present, so I'd not recommend that.

[TheDogsNads]

Try to find roles that will expose you to the areas you're interested in finding out more on.

My uncle's tactic (he's a programme manager) was to always sit down with the techies/SMEs on a project and ask them their approach to certain things in a way that made them feel included rather than pumped for info. Then he'd use that to bolster his own knowledge and pad out his CV.

That then gets you onto projects with the target skill(s) where you can work out ways of getting the hands on experience on the job with which to aid your move over. At some point, a bit of paper in the form of an industry standard qualification will help you formalise things.

Keeps you earning too, while you're at it, but takes a while.

Haha, lost count of the number of people who've tried this approach to gain my skills. Saw through every one of them and no, they didnt get what they wanted.

The OP seems to think there's a magic bullet to retraining that's going to get him 600+ a day. But without the years experience, he isnt going to get that especially in this market.

[SimonMac]

if you switch focus you will almost invariable end up at the bottom end of rates, there are very few and far between roles around £600 a day for any roles, so coming in as a newbie and having that exception is less than ideal. Reskilling to keep current, I'm all for (I've changed focus at least twice in my contracting career) but doing it to keep at top dollar straight away won't work.

If rate if your key factor, have you thought about skilling up rather than across? You say you are a PM, have you tried Programme roles?

[SussexSeagull]

In my long and at times adequate career I have stumbled upon a couple of niche skills - believe it or not web and mobile testing were once highly desirable - but the problem is they tend not to stay niche for long.