How To Become A Project Manager: The 2021 Guide

While the exact role and responsibilities of a project manager will vary between organizations and industries, most project managers will find themselves responsible for the same general duties. The Project Management Professional is a certification offered by the Project Management Institute , the leading global organization for project management professionals. Projects are all around us, so volunteer when you can. Take on extra responsibilities and develop your organizational skills, scheduling skills, people management skills — everything you identified in step one. On the flipside, maybe you haven’t had much exposure to some of the other knowledge areas, like risk management or stakeholder management.

The PMP certification is for working project managers who already have lots of experience, but there are other options out there for those with less experience. A lot of project managers get their start by finding entry-level organizational positions to build key skills.

How to Gain Initial Management Experience

But don’t worry, it’s not quite the chicken-and-egg situation it sounds like. Project manager experience — and the project manager skillset — is probably something you’ve been developing without even realizing. Anyone who manages projects (i.e. pieces of work) from beginning to end is a project manager. You can use websites such as Glassdoor and Jooble to find a project management job and see what others say about the workplace you’re planning on applying to and what salary range to expect. There are also project managers that believe the project belongs to them.

• Typical requirements generally include at least three years of experience in a related role, the ability to communicate, formal training, and a PMP certification.
• Also, it would be hard to write code that will work directly with the hardware you use.
• In a nutshell, an IT project manager is there to make sure day-to-day work in a tech department happens as smoothly as possible.
• Anyone with a passion for leadership, communication, and organization can become a project manager.
• These skills build the foundation for a motivated team, which works towards making your project goals a reality.

It also makes it much easier to transition to a new role at a different organization . Finding the right project management tool will help you to put everything you’ve learned in your project manager education into practice. It allows you to oversee your projects with more clarity, forecast more accurately, manage your resources more efficiently, and report more precisely. Most project management certifications — such as the PMP — expire after a few years.

How to become a project manager

Focus on getting an entry-level position in an IT project. In the software development industry, the Tester or Quality Assurance Engineer is the best bet. You need to improve your technical awareness during your whole project management career. Research the requirements to become a commercial drywall project manager. Learn about the job duties, and read the step-by-step…

And when someone asks me that, I love it because I know they’re intentional, but it really depends on how to get there for their career path. Though less common than the PMP , it is one of the fastest-growing project management certifications. In the U.S., the median salary for a project manager is $116,000 across all industries, with most project managers earning between $90,000 and $140,000.

Here are the things that you should consider before starting a project management career:

As we have mentioned above, financial management is essential for project managers, and they can get financial certifications with the best ROI to become more experienced in finance. You’ll also need to develop a plan for segueing into the role of a full-time project manager, perhaps by consulting with human resources personnel. They may even help you with tuition reimbursement for project management training. Regardless of where they work, all project managers must have a few skills in common.

Get a membership.Although it’s not free, memberships in the Project Management Institute or the IPMA member association in your country, or the like will look good on the resume all by itself. This will give you magazines, local event listings, and resources that might help you become a project manager. Bootcamps are how to become a project manager also a fast-tracked way to launch your career because they squish a ton of information into a short amount of time. Ours at Thinkful also includes practical experience, 1-on-1 mentorship, and career counseling. So, if you want to land your first career position in less than a year, bootcamps are the way to go.

Below you’ll get a FULL step-by-step guide that explains everything you need to know. Below you’ll find a full guide on how to become a software PM. Elective classes may include quality management, organizational behavior, and information storage management. So hopefully, that helps to delineate what some of the terms mean, understand what the description of the role is, and some of the requirements for that. And so ITSM is, again, Information Technology Services Management, and it’s how you deliver end to end IT services within the company. Whether or not the program provides networking opportunities for students through industry partnerships and its alumni network. Budgeting and cost control, including resource management and cost approval, the processing of invoices, and allocation/reallocation of resources as necessary.