I've been doing Project Management now for circa 6 years. As fate would have it I've specialised in Information Management (IM) projects / implementations (e.g. Oracle / Microsoft enterprise solution strategy and delivery) mainly for Central Gov and Public Sector clients.
As a PM I have transferable skill-sets to any industry and I could theoretically manage any kind of project. I have gotten involved in completely non-IT related projects in and around my formal role description over the past few years. In fact, I would not consider myself to be an IT Project Manager per se, more accurantly I would consider myself to be a PM that sits on the business side, and has the skill-sets and experiences to deliver the technology with where the business needs to go. I often find myself advising on the strategic direction of projects / programmes either to the CIO or to the Portfolio / Director level.
I feel my downfall has been in not acquiring any specific form of business knowledge (e.g. knowing how the finance, banking, insurance etc. industries work). I feel I am a generalist that can just 'get the job done' because I understand technology and business change. I feel this can be a double-edged sword as companies often want that all important industry experience and overlook the transferable skillset that all PMs should have. As a result, I want to move towards a specialist type of consulting, e.g. Financial PM, Banking PM etc., rather than just a 'PM' with an IM background.
The reality is however, I find myself going from gov. to gov. clients, working on similar things (IM strategies and implementations). I'm starting to realise that maybe it's a better idea to specialise in a specific kind of consulting and / or industry sector. I've had enough of the gov. sector and would very much like to move into the private sector as a first step out and hopefully towards the finance, legal or insurance industries, especially as I hope to move to Australia in the coming 6 - 8 months.
Does anyone have any advice or ideas on how to move out of Gov. and into the private sector / how would I go about it?
Thanks,
P
As a PM I have transferable skill-sets to any industry and I could theoretically manage any kind of project. I have gotten involved in completely non-IT related projects in and around my formal role description over the past few years. In fact, I would not consider myself to be an IT Project Manager per se, more accurantly I would consider myself to be a PM that sits on the business side, and has the skill-sets and experiences to deliver the technology with where the business needs to go. I often find myself advising on the strategic direction of projects / programmes either to the CIO or to the Portfolio / Director level.
I feel my downfall has been in not acquiring any specific form of business knowledge (e.g. knowing how the finance, banking, insurance etc. industries work). I feel I am a generalist that can just 'get the job done' because I understand technology and business change. I feel this can be a double-edged sword as companies often want that all important industry experience and overlook the transferable skillset that all PMs should have. As a result, I want to move towards a specialist type of consulting, e.g. Financial PM, Banking PM etc., rather than just a 'PM' with an IM background.
The reality is however, I find myself going from gov. to gov. clients, working on similar things (IM strategies and implementations). I'm starting to realise that maybe it's a better idea to specialise in a specific kind of consulting and / or industry sector. I've had enough of the gov. sector and would very much like to move into the private sector as a first step out and hopefully towards the finance, legal or insurance industries, especially as I hope to move to Australia in the coming 6 - 8 months.
Does anyone have any advice or ideas on how to move out of Gov. and into the private sector / how would I go about it?
Thanks,
P
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