![\"Project](\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/istock_000000636585xsmall.thumbnail.jpg\")
I read sometime ago in some management publication (whose name I can’t recall) that project management\u00a0will\u00a0never be considered a profession, but rather, an\u00a0inherent and necessary skill set.\u00a0The premise is that most professional and non-professional people in any industry\u00a0will require project management skills to do\u00a0their jobs, be it CEO or pharmacist, but there will be no singularly recognized\u00a0project management profession.<\/p>\n
\nI am not sure I buy into this argument, but if it is true, then\u00a0it\u00a0is good news and bad news for many of us. It’s good news in that the hard and soft skills we\u00a0learn, develop and practice as project managers are ubiquitous to almost everything we do in life\u00a0as a career or even personally. It’s bad news in that we project managers\u00a0may never be recognized as true corporate professionals and, consequently, will likely\u00a0remain outside the\u00a0senior executive staff and corporate boardroom.\u00a0 Have you\u00a0never heard of a Chief Programs Office sitting on any corporate boards?\u00a0 There are probably some CPOs, but they remain the exceptions.\u00a0If you want to be considered a professional by the world, there are more recognized and lucrative career paths\u00a0to pursue than project management.<\/p>\n
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\nThe Project Management Institute is doing a good job of setting professional and educational standards for project management and trying to convince the world’s corporations that they need project managers and project management to compete and survive. My feeling is that they are still a long way from getting project management universally recognized as a profession.<\/p>\n
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\nAs far as being a project manager, I think you do it because you\u00a0enjoy it and not because you aspire to be considered a true professional. If you don’t\u00a0enjoy doing project management, then go do something else, it will be much easier on you and the rest of the world. Regardless of future professional prospects, I am convinced, as a project manager,\u00a0you must still think of yourself as a true professional and adhere to the highest professional standards because what really matters is how you perceive yourself and conduct your work.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I read sometime ago in some management publication (whose name I can’t recall) that project management\u00a0will\u00a0never be considered a profession, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[41,231,230,67,211],"class_list":["post-625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-miscellaneous","tag-building-executive-support","tag-career","tag-professionalism","tag-program-management","tag-project-manager-role"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13835,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions\/13835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}