Anyone working in the project management field?

I'm an IT graduate and have come to realise that the technical stuff is really not my thing,I much more enjoy writing reports and working with people to achieve goals.
Having done some research the pmo analyst route sounds right up my stream but of course without any experience I could apply to a good 500 jobs and not be in any better position than I was at the first application.
So if there is any project coordinators/administrators could you please let me know how I could break into this field as there seems to be very limited grad schemes/internships for project support (particulary in the IT sector)?

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

Souljer

Havr alook at PRINCE2 might be worth getting, and also ITIL. I have ITIL, probably worth you getting if thats what you like.

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Reply 2

chosenone93

Cheers, I actually have a certification in agile and scrum project management but no hope for a job without experience and no chance of experience without a job :frown:

Reply 3

Souljer

Original post by chosenone93

Cheers, I actually have a certification in agile and scrum project management but no hope for a job without experience and no chance of experience without a job :frown:

Tbh you may have to just get your foot in the door by getting a helpdesk job.

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Reply 4

ron_trns

Experience, experience, experience. I'm not a proj manager but I work with them very closely (I'm an architect/consultant). Every proj manager I have known has been a developer at some point.

Reply 5

Alexion

My Dad's is (was? idk) a Project Manager.

He found from personal experience that the way into the jobs he got wasn't through qualifications, but experience. He did his degree in Geography, and eventually worked his way up to a £75k Proj.Man. job in a flood-protection software development company.

When he was moving onto a new job, I think he was going to get an additional qualification through Prince2 (I'm not sure how it works), but it was the experience that got him hired and he never finished the qualification (in fact, he'd only read the first chapter of the book...).

You've gotta get some more experience in whichever sector first before they'll let you co-ordinate projects - they ain't gonna let you manage it if you don't know the dev. process inside-out.

Reply 6

chosenone93

Original post by Alexion

oh yes of course nobody can jump straight to management as its the most senior role, it usually goes project administrator>project cordinator>project manager/pmo analyst. The thing that really confuses me is you need experience for even a entry level project admin role but how on earth is one meant to get that experience its very hard to find graduate schemes specialising in this field.

Reply 7

kka25

You can try QA/QC; they involve a lot of people interactions and reports.

Reply 8

Souljer

You're all saying "get experience" how can he get experience without first getting a job? I dont have much knowledge in PM so can't help but for those that do, why not suggest a route for the OP to take instead of making obvious statements.

Reply 9

chosenone93

Original post by kka25

You can try QA/QC; they involve a lot of people interactions and reports.

Thanks,looks like they are just offering courses/trainning though; from the research i've done being certified wont necessarily land any job as you still need the experience of working on projects.
I've already spent £200 on an online trainning course after a cold seller rang me up with an "amazing offer" which could see me being certified and land me several interviews.
I was very naive at the time and thought all i needed was a certification to get my foot through the door but goodness me that is totally wrong, even the lowest project support roles want experience and i'm very baffled of how i'm meant to achieve this without being given a chance.

Reply 10

kka25

Original post by chosenone93

What's done is done; it's essential that you get the experience. Start from the beginning and get those experiences on your CV. Try a QA/QC junior position; I'm sure there are some openings around. You may also add that you have some additional trainings from the cert you've gotten when going for an interview; some hiring managers will appreciate some understanding of Agile if they use it in their company.

My 0.02 cent.

Reply 11

Souljer