Want to move onto a PMO support role

[northernladuk]

NLUK gave me the same advice a couple of years ago when I asked the same question, I had recently passed the Prince2. I took that advice and got a contract that suited my experience and skills. Once there, I was able to demonstrate to Clientco that I could do PM work, as a result I got lots of PM experience in that contract.

In that case I would be very worried about D&C and not sticking to the deliverables of your contract. May not be a bad thing don't get me wrong but you have to be very careful. Picking skills up from different areas while you are doing something else is permie work not contractor and HMRC will view it the same. Your contract is delivery Y, doing a bit of X as well may not bode too well. Just make sure you are aware of IR35 and have your insurances up to date before doing too much of this.

Good for you if you managed to do it though, very difficult normally.

[fraymond]

Plumber comes to fix the toilet, turns out he can do landscaping as well. And so some extra work is awarded for that. Works hard, good attitude, but has never previously cleaned the gutters. Decide to give that work as well based on attitude and quality to date...

IR35 on this forum has become the all pervasive, and yet invisible "boogy man" that parents use to scare kids into brushing their teeth and going to bed on time.

[northernladuk]

Plumber comes to fix the toilet, turns out he can do landscaping as well. And so some extra work is awarded for that. Works hard, good attitude, but has never previously cleaned the gutters. Decide to give that work as well based on attitude and quality to date...

IR35 on this forum has become the all pervasive, and yet invisible "boogy man" that parents use to scare kids into brushing their teeth and going to bed on time.

Indeed but it always hangs over us and must be understood before you make a decision. To give people advice completely ignoring it would be wholly wrong. Same with our accounting advice. The chances of getting investigated are so slim but we tell people what they can and cant claim and point out what is BIK. You could say the same for that type of advice but would it be right to just say 'Ah forget HMRC claim it anyway'? No it wouldn't. Give the OP the letter of the law and the known dangers and once he has that then he can go make his/her own decision. We have seen how badly some people run the accounts and contracts which reflects badly on us all so making people aware of what they need to be thinking about isn't a bad thing IMO.

The plumber advice isn't a good example. The difference between him doing the gutters or not does not make the difference between him being a contractor and a business and involve considerable financial risk if it goes wrong.

[fraymond]

Fair enough actually, I agree with your reasoning.

[Antman]

Maybe I'm missing something but what's so good about PMO? It seems the most boring role around especially if you're coming from BPM.

The quote about being the eunuch in the hareem comes to mind, everybody else is doing something you're checking whether the roles and responsibilities matrix has been completed.

To the OP. He who dares...

[girlfriday]

I agree, PMO (as I am one) is not very rock and roll, but if you are an anal OCD organisational freak like me, who like boxes checked and I's dotted, it's pretty good. It definitely has its downsides though, but every role has that.

I would say though, I would recommend going for P3O certification rather than Prince2 if you're looking to go into PMO long term. You need to be familiar with Prince2 obviously (read the manual), but personally, if it was a case of picking one to spend my company's money on, it would be P3O. But that's just my opinion.