How to Become a Project Manager

How to become a Project Manager, practically there are two ways;

1). Educational Way

2). Accidental Approach

I will discuss in details later but if you wanted to be a Project Manager then you need to think about following scenarios;

Do you like to accept challenges?

You think you have leadership qualities in naturally!

You are in the process industry and fed up with your daily routine – Thinking to switch

Project Manager: A Project Manager is a person who accepts challenges and gets it done through the application on project management tools and techniques.

Roads to become a Project Manager

There are two ways t become a project manager

1. Accidental – The Accidental Project Manager (Experienced Bases)
2. Educational – Project Management Degree and Certification

Accidental – The Accidental Project Manager (Experienced Bases)

This type of Project Manager has no plan to get in project management but somehow fell into it.

Normally, this guy is an experienced manager & managing his areas well but somehow some hierarchy in the organization become dotted and management don’t want to get any trainee to fill these dots then this manager is “forced” to manage the project by hook or by crook.

Now, let say you are the one who is the “affected” one and you don’t know about any professional body in project management, no idea about big PMBOK by PMI^® then this is your best time to excel on by following below steps;

Your questions, what is PMI^® ? – Man, this is an entity that provides the professional knowledge about project management. Follow it, act accordingly and you are done.

Ways to become Successful Accidental Project Managers

Following are the pieces, you need to follow to get through;

• No More Manage – Now Lead

The main difference between manager and leader in the ways you deal with your team. Be a mentor and a leader as well. The success of every project depends on how you influence people throughout the project phase.

• Team Skills Evaluation

A Project Manager always deals with a new team most of the time. It is not like a process industry and hence you need to evaluate your team as soon as possible before delegating any important task.

• Education – Project management Education

It is good if you could manage some project management education through formal or informal means. You can go for any certification like Project Management Professional – PMP^®by PMI^®. This education will give you confidence as you may be lacking at the start and will become familiar with nomenclature.

• Accident to Asset Conversion

Mow a day’s hierarchy of organizations are getting flatten with the technological era. Hence, you cannot avoid these kinds of circumstances but determination can hold on anything. Be an asset rather be a liability for the better interest of your organization and yourself.

Educational – Project Management Degree and Certification

This looks rather an easy way as you know at the very start that you are going to b Project Manager but it happened rarely. I have come across most of an accidental manager may be above 95% are the conventional or accidental one. But now the time has been changed and organizations are looking for educated Project Manager or you need to get an education once you become through accidental manners.

I have compiled a list of education that you can follow and can be hot property for any organization or any human resource recruiter around the globe.

1. PRINCE2 – Foundation/PRINCE2 Practitioner
2. PMP^® by PMI^® – Project Management Professional
3. CAPM by PMI^® – Certified Associate in Project Management
4. CPMP by PMI^® – Certified Project Management Practitioner
5. MPM: Master Project Manager
6. PPM – Professional in Project Management
7. PMITS – Project Management in IT Security
8. CPD by GAQM – Certified Project Director (CPD)™
9. CPM (IAPM) – Certified Project Manager
10. CSM – Certified ScrumMaster

Above listed courses, certifications are worthy to have. Each one is claiming to be a better one than others.

As a PMP^®– PMI^® certified, it will be biased to evaluate others certification but I may leave it to you to dig it more as per availability and your time schedule.

Wrap Up

I can say either you are forced to get involve as Project Manager or you are a pre-planned product. Keep in mind this field is way different than typical industries where you get pre-defined skilled. But here you need to evaluate yourself & your team to get optimum result.

Also, you need to get education further & further even though you are qualified already as the world is changing rapidly and skills are getting out-dated soon. This is all about How to Become a Project Manager.

Keep yourself updated always!

One Small Request:

Being a Project Management guy, I know how little time we have to play around on the internet. But if you have found this information useful then please share it to your colleague so that more people can get benefit from it. If you have any question then comment below and I am glad to take it.

To Read more about PMP^®– PMI^® certification, please go through this link, i.e. What is PMP^®

You may be interested in what questions are asked in for Project Management Interview