Breaking into the Project Management profession is not as hard as you think.
Yes, PM can be seen as a prestigious profession with a lot of different certifications and career specific jargon, but becoming a project manager can be a simple process if you meticulously strategize your moves.
Here are 3 simple steps that you can take to land a PM role easily:
1. Learn the Role and Industry Terms
Once you have decided that Project Management is the career that you want to pursue — it’s important to learn what the career is all about and the industry terms that you’ll need to know to be successful at the job.
Asana has a great Project Manager term guide to help you get started on the most commonly used terms and phrases that you would hear on the job but here are a few quick entry-points:
- Deliverables are the product or products of what you expect to have at the end of your project.
- Stakeholders are the people who are directly impacted by the project you are working on.
- Scope clearly identifies the goals, deadlines, and deliverables that a project is set to complete in a specific period of time.
2. Craft Your Resume
After you’ve learned all about the role and the industry terms, it’s time to craft your resume.
When I was making the switch into project management — I didn’t have the PM title or even a Project Coordinator title in my past experience. But what I did have was tangible professional experience that I could translate into “project work.”
For example, before I became a Project Manager, I was a Digital Media Specialist for a post production company.
I handled digital file deliveries from ‘Point A’ to ‘Point B’ and updated people once the delivery was complete, or escalated to another team if there were any issues. That’s Project Management!
In Project Management terms — I oversaw the end-to-end process of deliverables to multiple vendors while maintaining close relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
See — it is the same exact task but through the lens of Project Management. Anything can be a project if you can explain it like one.
Update your resume to explain your previous tasks as projects and explain in detail how you managed them from start to finish.
3. Apply for Jobs
After you’ve crafted your resume, start looking for roles that you are eligible for.
The easiest roles to land for those new to Project Management are either Project Coordinator roles or Project Administrator roles.
These are entry-level PM roles that are great for recent college-grads or those looking to start from the ground up.
However, if you have several years in previous roles with skills and tasks that can easily translate into project work, feel free to apply for Project Manager roles right away.