ACIT: PM 1 - Week 1 - Do I Want A Career In Project Management?

Answer: I could never juggle that many tasks at one time. And having to deal with people's business' problems all the time? I'll leave that to someone who has interest in that area.

Here are a few of the predominant skills required for several of the project management positions I researched on Monster:

Communication skills

Organizational and time management

Ability to work in a team environment

Motivated professional individual; desire to grow within company

Excellent problem solving and critical thinking skills

Prior experience with full project life cycle

Strong promoter of team work

Ability to provide leadership and management expertise to project staff

The predominant skills required of a successful project manager seem to depend largely on an ability to both work with and lead individual employees.

For most of the positions I researched on the Monster.ca job board, communication skills were listed as critical for the potential hire. It would seem as though the ability to relay information, thoughts, ideas and concepts to a variety of people is a desirable skill for potential employers.

This would make sense – given the diverse workplaces employed by so many companies today, it is crucial that someone “in charge” of a project would be competent to deliver information to people of varying age categories, ethnicities, linguistic backgrounds (it is important to note that none of them required bilingual candidates) and various educational levels.

Speaking of education, many of the positions required a certain level of post-secondary education from the potential hire. The predominant educational requirements were Degrees in the following fields: Marketing, Business and Economics. For jobs in technical and industrial fields specific job training (Engineering, Drafting) was required. It would seem that most companies would like someone with a certain degree or certificate of completion; if nothing else, it shows a level of commitment to advancing one’s level of knowledge and their desire to challenge themselves mentally. Project management entails many of the same skills that post-secondary institutions aim to instill in their students - working in groups, establishing leaders and leadership skills, etc. For industry-specific jobs, technical requirements were often part of the educational experience (read: technical schooling, industry-specific programs).

Another frequently appearing requisite for project management hires is organizational/time management. Since most project managers will acts as overseers as opposed to hands-on workers, it is important that they relish the role of chief organizer and stay on top of several levels of activity. A project manager must be able to juggle several tasks and deal with people’s business’ problems all at the same time; therefore, the ability to manage all of these scenarios simultaneously and in a timely matter is of the utmost importance.

* it should be noted that, for several intermediat positions, companies required prior work experience as a project manager. having the requisite educational background was not enough. *

Job Titles Researched: