advice on Project Management

[threaded]

of course, which would be the best advice.

[Lucifer Box]

Newpm, you will find it very difficult to get a contract PM position, even a junior one, without some hard PM experience on your CV (certificates and training courses simply don't cut the mustard). To be honest, you will it a difficult jump to make even in permie land, as all of your 'hard' previous experience appears to be technical.

You need to make the jump gradually, and I would suggest securing a BA job or two first, possibly a project office job if you can. You need some analysis skills on your CV. If you can get a contract doing that, fine, but you may have to stay permie for that.

[Mustang]

I agree with Lucifer, most of the ads I have seen require experience rather than qualifications - although Prince 2 is branded around a lot. The better PM's have "battle scars" from running a number of projects so it would pay you to start off as a permie running projects and then go freelance. You can always spot a new PM by their keenness to revert to theoretical approaches rather than practical ones!

As you can see by some of the comments, be prepared for some reactions - most people cant see the benefit of a project manager (or processes and methodologies) until the project is late/over budget/and of poor quality. That attitude is not just individuals but also organisations. However, persevere - it is an exciting profession!!

[Alf W]

You're going to find it very difficult to take the step up from Developer to Project Management with only a few academic letters after your name. You need real experience of dealing with awkward clients, techies who lie about progress and can't work together, coping with unreasonable pressure from young upstarts trying to "drive performance", negotiating office politics and all these sorts of things. The theory only teaches you how to operate in a world where everything goes how the Project Plan tells you it should go.

Remember the food chain goes Developer, Analyst Programmer, BA then Project Manager. You can't jump too many steps up that ladder.

The best thing to do is contact one of the bigger Agencies with an honest CV. They'll tell you straight where they think you could find work but don't expect any advice on 'developing your contracting career'.

The best PM Contractors are far too busy to **** about getting 'accredited' anyway.

[WageSlave]

I agree with the majority of comments, although it is possible to develop a career as a contractor. I landed a PM role without ever having a permie job. So it is possible. Be sensible with the contracts you select (right client and right role). Try to specialise in a particular field. With your techie background the obvious choice would be development projects.

Certification is useless in reality but an increasing pre-requisite to many contracts. Very often clients expect a candidate to be a PRINCE Practitioner and PMI qualified. Of course, such certification is not an indication of ability. My current client has permie PRINCE Practitioners in abundance and each one is a useless feckwit.

It might be useful to join a consultancy (PA Consulting, Cap Gemini, Accenture, Atos...), get a couple of years working on project teams as an analyst/support and then be creative with your CV.

[Lucifer Box]

You Cynical Lot

Interesting that this thread has two sets of replies in it. Ones containing useful and (hopefully) helpful advice, and others containing comments along the line of "I wouldn't bother asking that question here, you won't get any sensible comments".

I dunno, I guess CUK just isn't how it used to be. Maybe we're all going soft?