Project Management as a Career Path
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Anonymous
| My twenty-something son works for a smallish government contracter and says he wants to go into project management. There doesn't seem to be a promotion opportunities at his firm right now. Is this a good career path? He is looking into the masters program at GW. Has anyone ever gone to this program or know anything about it. He is also networking and pursuing leads but perhaps someone on DCUM has a particular expertise in this area and could give some advice. Thank you in advance. |
Anonymous
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I think it is a good solid career. I have a degree in Math, did IT stuff for 10 years. Then I did the GW project management master certificate program. I got my PMP from PMI.
I am 45, I work for the government as a PM but I am mommy tracked, which means I could make more money if I wanted to travel and work longer hours. I make $122k. A govt. contractor will make more as a PM. Also if he becomes a program manager ( another certification, plus some more years of experience) he could make $150k. |
Anonymous
| NP, sorry to sound like an idiot, but what's the difference between Project Management and Program Management? |
Anonymous
This is a quick way to explain. A project manager manages one project, like the development of 1 software program. A program manager will oversee the management of many projects and look at the whole organization from a strategic view. They manage competing priorities, conflicting schedules, etc. |
Anonymous
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In our corp IT environment, our SR PMs make about 90k/yr or more. Several have progressed to being people leaders within the organization. Like PP has said, project vs program is a bit different. I think it's a solid career, we could always use more PMs. In some industries, the project manager may not oversee the project for the entire life, they may only work on the design/engineering side while another PM could manage the deployment/implementation side.
It's a good career for a detail oriented person who is organized and has the ability to prioritize. In the simplest of terms, they need to babysit the stakeholders to make sure everything gets done on time, and on budget. |
Anonymous
| it's a shitty soul sucking job from experience. Plus, now, PMP, is becoming overrepresented and pretty much it's hard to distinguish yourself just with this. Work experience is much more important. PMPs are dime a dozen, honestly and nowadays, they are starting to outsource and insource H1B PMs in IT industry from what I see. The regular proj management nitty gritty junior tasks are not well paid, and that's where you have to start. |
Anonymous
| Worked great for me. Sure I started out with a modest salary but I quickly progressed, moved into senior management and salary went up with that. What I really found soul sucking was dealing with the senior exec team. I'd take project management back in a heartbeat. |
Anonymous
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There's jobs in it.
Personally I'd find it numbingly boring. Sitting around constantly updating project dates and % completes and hounding people for status updates .... It always struck me as a very repetitive and soul sucking kind of job. Then again, I never tried it, so maybe its fun. |
Anonymous
| OP here, Thank for all the responses. My ds has a degree in history so I'm not sure IT or engineering project management position would be a good fit. He has excellent interpersonal skills. He went to a GW infor session about their program and is talking to his current employer. |
Anonymous
What kind of work do you do? |
Anonymous
Corporate strategy. |