{"id":70,"date":"2006-10-31T04:46:08","date_gmt":"2006-10-31T04:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=70"},"modified":"2019-08-07T14:40:08","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T21:40:08","slug":"do-you-still-want-to-be-a-project-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=70","title":{"rendered":"Do you still want to be a Project Manager?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"theunknownpm.JPG\"Would you do it again?\u00a0 Is it time to stop?\u00a0 For me I think the answer is I’d never have that kind of energy and chutzpah again, not for some random faceless corporate projects anyway, and yes, it’s time to stop.\u00a0 So yeah, after hitting the glass ceiling both in terms of title and salary for this profession short of some high falutin’ overpromised and no doubt underdelivered\u00a0consulting gig\u00a0\u00a0I woke up one day and somehow knew this was my last program I’d deliver for\u00a0the\u00a0company.\u00a0 It was instinctual.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was in the bones.\u00a0 That was it.\u00a0 So I’m going to have to fire myself and start an educational software company where well, I’m gonna have to bootstrap everything including doing all the initial business planning and development and funding and marketing and I’m thinking I’m loving it.\u00a0 I’m so excited Do you ever wake up and just know a chapter is closed?\u00a0 Program management is bittersweet.\u00a0 I do believe after 20 years in the silicon valley it is by no means the most prestigious\u00a0title I held however it was without a doubt the hardest sweat breaking finger nail biting chocolate eating humbling,\u00a0 political jujitsuing,\u00a0and\u00a0yet routinely\u00a0boring, frustrating, wildly fun and totally thankless job\u00a0I’ve ever held\u00a0 — all at the same time too.<\/p>\n

Let’s face it line management rules.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Project management is for suckers.\u00a0 In good conscious I could only advise any young person to take this job if they somehow didn’t have the proper degrees to advance otherwise.\u00a0 Do you have only an art history degree?\u00a0 Fine, this is great.\u00a0 Get in while you still can, the doors are shutting. \u00a0Do you have a solid technical degree?\u00a0 Well think very, very carefully then.\u00a0 I should have.\u00a0 Every manager, every engineer, will most likely second guess your every move at some point and honestly believe they could do it so much better no matter what a crack specialist you are.\u00a0 Heck you’ll be constantly second guessing yourself too and appalled at some of the mistakes.\u00a0 If you do manage to beat the odds and do a routinely fabulous job it will be others who benefit, you’ll just get\u00a0more work.\u00a0 Umm… am I just bitter?\u00a0 Oh gosh, my dreams are coming true in life partly due to the project management skills so brutally learned.\u00a0\u00a0No, I just can’t recommend the profession without carefully explaining the reality to those who have other choices and a future ahead of them.\u00a0 Can you?\u00a0<\/p>\n

That being said maybe in another 20 years I do believe that the companies that nuture and reward the PM specialists and give them\u00a0a serious career path\u00a0reporting directly to excecutives instead of placing them under the thumbs of lower level line managers\u00a0will have a serious, serious, competive advantage in successful product developement (think streamlined communication and escalation) and this practice will become more common because those who do it will win.\u00a0 Some of the people posting will help create that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don’t have another 20 years to wait and am going to have to make myself an excecutive now.\u00a0 Sound outrageous?\u00a0 Actually it just take a corporate filing and an idea… and another adventure begins!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Would you do it again?\u00a0 Is it time to stop?\u00a0 For me I think the answer is I’d never have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"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":[30,41,33,45,32,38,37,29,40],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-miscellaneous","tag-appreciation","tag-building-executive-support","tag-common-sense","tag-decisions","tag-plan","tag-project-management","tag-real-world","tag-recognition","tag-wisdom"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","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\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13662,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/13662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}