If you’re thinking about pursuing a career in project management but you’re not sure it’s the right path, consider this list of signs that might point you in a different direction.
You’ve no doubt seen top 10 lists of the best traits of a project manager or the top 10 skills of a project manager. However, project management is not for everyone. Many people have some of the traits to be a good project manager, but they may also have qualities that make them a bad fit for the position.
Here’s a list of indications that you may not be well suited to be a project manager. If you decide they don’t apply to you and you’re hoping to launch a PM career, the resources at the end of this article can help you get started.
By some estimates, more than 50% of a project manager’s time is spent in some aspect of communication. This includes meetings, status reporting, emails, phone calls, coordinating, talking to people, and completing documentation. Some studies have even suggested that verbal and written communication takes up 80% of the job. If you’re not an effective communicator (and you don’t care to be), you probably shouldn’t go down this path.
If you prefer to stay in your office and focus on your own work, you may not have the collaborative ability to be a good project manager. Effective project managers need to spend a lot of time with clients, stakeholders, and team members.
Many people like to work on the project details. We need people like that. But when you’re a project manager, you have to rise above the details and become more of a delegator and coordinator. You must rely on others for much of the detailed work.
You don’t have much of a project if you’re the only resource. To be a good project manager, you need to be able to manage people. You won’t have 100% responsibility for staff members, but you will need to show leadership, hold them accountable, manage conflict, etc. Some project managers say they could do a much better job if they didn’t have to deal with people. If that’s how you feel, project management is probably not for you.
No one wants to be a slave to processes. But you need good processes to be effective as your projects get larger. If you don’t want to follow good project management processes, you are not going to get too far as a manager.
You don’t have to love documenting to be a good project manager. But you can’t hate it, either. Many aspects of project management require some documentation, including status reporting, communication plans, scope changes, and project charters.
When a client gives you a project, what is your immediate inclination? If your first thought is to get a team together to start executing the work, you may not have a project management mindset. If you don’t want to spend enough time to be sure you understand what you’re doing, the role of project manager is likely a bad fit for you.
Project managers need to provide value on a project, including pushing back when the client is asking for things that aren’t right. If the client raises a request that’s out of scope, you need to invoke the scope change management process. If your reaction to scope change is saying, “Yes, we’ll do it” instead of implementing scope change management, project management is going to be a struggle for you.
People who have poor personal organization skills and techniques usually don’t make good project managers. If you’re going to manage multiple people over a period of time, you have to be organized so you can ensure that everyone is doing what they should be doing as efficiently as possible.
No one can feel good about their job if they think the work they perform doesn’t add value. Good project managers understand the value of their work, and they understand their work will result in a project coming in on time and on budget with a good experience for the client and the project team. If you think the work associated with project management is overhead and doesn’t provide value, you might not be the right person for the project manager job.
If you’re a project manager, what advice would you give to those considering that role or who are just starting out? Share your advice and experiences with fellow TechRepublic members.
