Project managers, I need your help!

[lsquare]

Recently I was offered an interview for a project management position. I have no project management experience whatsoever. However, I'm a recent university graduate who have a good understanding about the field that this company is in. I think they may have given me this opportunity to possibly groom me for the future, but since I have no experience, I know this will be a huge obstacle to over come. So my question for you guys is, how should I proceed with the interview? I know I'm going to be asked a lot of questions and I'm not sure how to prepare for it.

 

[HomerSapien]

Project management where I am at means asking people who actually do work if they are done. If they are not done, they reduce their schedule and resources by x amount until the actual people doing the work have gone insane but are done or by changing milestones to appear that it was finished even though the project is only at 75%.

It does pay fairly well.

For the interview, be honest, show willingness to learn and be knowledgable about what you actually know.

 

[SSSnail]

If you have no experience, then think of how you prepare for things. Did you participate in projects in college? How did you carry through with it? What did you do for logistic, manpower, equipment, handling fall-outs, etc... If they don't care about experience and wanting to groom you, then they want to see what, and how your thought process copes with a project. It's no different than preparing for anything else.

At my work, I have just finished a project and I was the project manager. Meaning I was the SME (subject matter expert) and I had to work with people from different departments to piece together the entire project. I found out who did what, kept track of it on a spreadsheet, filled out a lot of forms and requests, followed up with them on every details (and a lot of sweet talking) and making sure that it's done on time. Then, chase people around to get exceptions and governance forms approved; then filled out purchase orders; then work with vendors to make sure contracts are signed (because our Vendor Management people are almost as worthy as our Project Managers)... Then, I rolled up my sleeves, installed the freaking infrastructure, then configure it (with help from various department). Then, I put it all together, push it through a final checking process with even more people involved.

I left out a lot of details, but that's the gist of it.

After all is good, then I tell my Account Manager (whose job title happens to be Project Manager, who didn't help me with crap) that the project is completed. And I go back to do what I'm doing on the infrastructure that I just installed because I know it's done the right way. Damn I hate people with Project Manager titles.

 

[SunnyD]

Funny, I just took an intro to Project Management class earlier this week. It answered my primary question -- let's just say after taking the class, I have absolutely NO interest in ever becoming a project manager anymore.

The summary of project management, according to the PMI and PMBOK:

Plan, plan, plan...
Plan, Plan, revise, re-plan...
Plan, revise, re-plan, plan some more...

That said, I'm told PMP's make beau coup bucks.

 

[IronWing]

As a project manager you will have all the responsibility and accountability of a real manager with no authority. The folks working on your project(s) will answer directly to someone else whose priorities will in no way reflect the needs of your project(s). Deadline is just another word for "screwed". Those in charge created the project manager position in order to build a scapegoat into the system. Good luck!

 

[Elbryn]

As a project manager you will have all the responsibility and accountability of a real manager with no authority. The folks working on your project(s) will answer directly to someone else whose priorities will in no way reflect the needs of your project(s). Deadline is just another word for "screwed". Those in charge created the project manager position in order to build a scapegoat into the system. Good luck!

it depends. some organizations are strong project matrixes in which project managers have dedicated resources and a good deal of positional power. in mine, not so much. we are a functional matrix where all project resources report to department managers and not only have to work on projects but also operations as well.

being a PM isnt a bad thing, if you have the right personality for it. if you're highly organized, know the primary base components of the technology you're dealing with, and have a knack for getting results from people without having positional power from them, you can succeed as being a PM. PMP, in my opinion just another cert, albeight one you need some PM experience to take the test. it tries to formalize the PM process but as anything, ie: six sigma, lean, etc.. it takes modification to the individual culture of the organization to work. ie: it aint gold or the holy rule, bending pieces and parts to make it fit are what's needed.

you're core responsibilities is to hammer dates out of the resources, making sure they know what exactly it is that's expected of them and to make sure they think through the entire process thoughly when designing the project plan. Then it's all about getting the job done within the budget and deadlines. do both and you're on your way. fail, and you will get blamed unless major issues arise, in which case you are expected to try to mitigate them.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

That said, I'm told PMP's make beau coup bucks.

They do, and to be honest, I've never met a PMP I've been remotely impressed with at any of my jobs. They've all been fairly worthless.

 

[Stuxnet]

A Project Manager is a professional nag. If you're not good at it, people will view you as a professional asshole. Someone else said it perfectly: what sucks about being a project manager (I am not one, but I work with/for them very frequently) is that the organization holds you incredibly accountable for the work and timeliness of many others, yet doesn't give you the tools/authority to manage the work and timeliness of those people.

I actually have a great deal of respect for Project Managers. By nature they have to be very detail oriented and their job can be rather tedious. By nature, then, they dislike disorder. However, they're surrounded by disorder constantly, are powerless to fix it, and are measured by it at the end of the year. WTF.

I'm a software architect at a rather large shop (3000+ employees with 500+ developers). The group I'm in has about 50 developers that are spread across n projects. Every project, of course, has a project manager. Several of the architects have no problem completely thumbing their noses at their project's PM's because they know the PM's can't do or say a damn thing about it. It's a total "I'll get to it when I fscking feel like it" attitude and there's zero respect for timelines, commitments, or the project itself.

Once in a while a PM gets pissed off enough to take it to our superior, who basically tells them some sob story about how we're all overworked and spread too thin, and that we genuinely wish things were different so we could meet his/her goals. It's all bullshit. Yes, we're busy, but no one's exactly running around with any real sense of urgency to get things done.

So I feel for the PM's.

 

[911paramedic]

If you have no experience, then think of how you prepare for things. Did you participate in projects in college? How did you carry through with it? What did you do for logistic, manpower, equipment, handling fall-outs, etc... If they don't care about experience and wanting to groom you, then they want to see what, and how your thought process copes with a project. It's no different than preparing for anything else. /snip

That is the exact thing I was thinking. It's all about delegating tasks, making sure everything is getting done, and keeping to a schedule.

Back when I was doing it, it just meant making a lot of phone calls all the time because the jobs I was in charge of were all out of state. I only flew out to a larger project once, and that was just like making a phone call but I was talking to them in person.

No big deal if you know your goals and assets.

 

[RichUK]

In all fairness, the job title ‘project manager’ is used for a multitude of roles from basic schedulers to senior project managers delivering significant business and technical change initiatives, but the key differentiators are the responsibilities and project size/metrics being managed.

I would be surprised if any credible organisation would employ someone with little to no project management experience and make them responsible for delivering high impact/complexity projects.

Why don’t you post the key points from the job advert as this will allow us to gauge what is required from the role and therefore give you tips on how to prep for it.

 

[xSauronx]

Funny, I just took an intro to Project Management class earlier this week. It answered my primary question -- let's just say after taking the class, I have absolutely NO interest in ever becoming a project manager anymore.

The summary of project management, according to the PMI and PMBOK:

Plan, plan, plan...
Plan, Plan, revise, re-plan...
Plan, revise, re-plan, plan some more...

That said, I'm told PMP's make beau coup bucks.

im taking a pm class at uni as a required course. its boring, and full of bullshit.

my buddy used to want to be a PMP. now hes a sharepoint instructor, and one of the classes he teaches is for project managers....you couldnt pay him enough to be one after doing a dozen of those

 

[spidey07]

Tell them the key is tracking issues, having a solid communication plan, constant communication with all stake holders and the way to deal with a resource not meeting their deadline is to copy their bosses boss when nailing said resource to the wall for being behind. A PM has more power than the resources manager and likely more than the managers manager.

Really though, push the communication and constant status to all stakeholders and resource managers as in weekly status or more to all involved. Tell them you'll OWN the project.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

A PM has more power than the resources manager and likely more than the managers manager.

That depends on the organization. In my organization PMs hold zero power whatsoever. I had a company-wide (25k employees) project delayed by 14 months because one low-level accounting person would not spend four hours to finish the purchase. Copying in his boss and that persons boss resulted in no action.

So no, it depends entirely on the organization.

 

[spidey07]

That depends on the organization. In my organization PMs hold zero power whatsoever. I had a company-wide (25k employees) project delayed by 14 months because one low-level accounting person would not spend four hours to finish the purchase. Copying in his boss and that persons boss resulted in no action.

So no, it depends entirely on the organization.

True, so OP could tell them he would escalate as high as it took to get it done. A successful PM will push, push, push to get it done. If it needs to go to VP or higher, then do it. This is why higher ups need to also be key stake holders and communication plan to them as well.

 

[Stuxnet]

A PM has more power than the resources manager and likely more than the managers manager.

ROFL!

In the organizations that I've worked, the PM has less pull than a Programmer/Analyst. I've seen SPAs tell PMs to fuck off without batting an eyelash.