Here’s the next interview in my series, “How Did I Get here.” Barb is a friend of mine who works at a large, international software company. Here’s the story of her career in project management.

When did you first decide to become a project manager?

Until about 14 years ago, I didn’t know what a project manager was. I knew what a project was but didn’t know that managing projects on behalf of an organization could be a full-time job.

I found out when I was offered a PM position. The company tried to turn itself into a matrixed organization. This attempt failed, and my first PM job evaporated. However, I did have the opportunity to watch experienced PMs do their job, and I liked what I saw.

Nearly 10 years later, I was offered another management position managing a team. Now I was on the other side of the equation – and I found out quickly that there was a lot more to getting projects out the door than making sure your team does its job. I learned that projects are entities all their own and required skills and knowledge that I didn’t have. I had a choice – learn on the job by trial and error or get some training. As it turned out, my launch into project management was a little bit of both, but I decided to pursue project management as part of my career.

What was your academic and/or corporate background before you became a project manager?

Until that point, nothing much in my background and career point in the direction of project management. If anything, in most of my jobs and job roles as a teacher, translator, and technical writer, I operated quite independently with varying levels of accountability, which typically consisted of getting work assignments done in a specified time frame – end of story. I would have been pretty surprised to find out how much there was to ‘getting work’ done. I had never heard the term ‘risk’ associated with what I did on a daily basis.

Did your company support your project manager career?

When I did find myself in the position of having to move projects forward, I learned about PMI and the certifications it offers. Even a brief crash course on project management that I received early on helped me realize that this could be an interesting and useful approach to getting work done. When I approached my manager at the time, she supported my efforts to obtain project management credentials. In terms of job role, I initially continued in a dual role as a team manager with responsibility for the projects that my team covered, for example, the documentation and training for a software release. It took me about a year to go through all the training and preparation to pass the exam and obtain my PMP certification.

How has having your credential helped (or hurt?) your career?

Even after obtaining my PMP credential, I am still not in a formal full-time project management role. Nonetheless, I have been able to introduce project management in areas of my department where none existed.

My formal training in project management helps me to identify opportunities. For example, in managing the delivery of workshops ensuring that a group of launch coordinators use a schedule template to delivery marketing content, and creating visibility of all activities across the department – a work in process!

What advice would you give an aspiring project manager?

One of the questions that often bedevil aspiring project managers is the requirement of having to document project management experience as part of the certification process. It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. You want to become a project manager, but you also have to show that you practice project management already. So how to cut through this Gordian knot? Here’s one tactic: Reach out for project management opportunities in one’s current position. Once you understand what project management involves, it’s easier to see where you can gain practice in planning, communication management, time management and other practice areas.

Biography

Barbara Verble is currently a responsible for managing content and communications projects supporting software releases for a large IT company. Her project management training and certification as PMP have enabled her to introduce project management practices to enhance the productivity and efficiency of her organization.

Do you want to be the subject of “How Did I Get Here?” Send me an email and we’ll talk. I’m looking for folks to profile that have at least a few years of experience under their belt and a good story.

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