I am a believer in the power of project management.
As a professional project manager for nearly twenty years, I have witnessed project success drive business results. I have also proven that project management can change lives and help achieve personal transformation. Now I am sharing some practical tips and techniques that you can use to help achieve your own personal goals, live your best life and become a PM Believer.
Jumping into Project Management
This week’s PM Believer post is going to be a little different. Instead of giving a specific project management technique, I will answer a question that I am frequently asked about project management.
I have learned that most PM Believer readers are not working in project management jobs. You have a different role, but you have gained tons of hands-on project management experience as a necessary part of your job. You have become PM Believers and committed to harnessing the power of project management as a tool to accomplish your personal and work goals. Now, you are looking to take your project management skills to the next level.
PM Believers often ask me: “how do I become a professional project manager?”
Let me start by saying how great it is that you are looking to further apply, grow and profit from your project management skills. I became a certified project manager nearly fifteen years ago and have never regretted that decision. As you can clearly see from my blog and book, I am a PM Believer.
The good news is that you are closer to becoming a project manager than you may think; you have built a strong foundation of skills. Your next step should be to apply my “3 P Strategy” to help you jump deeper into professional project management.
Practice
How did I become a writer? I wrote. How did I become a runner? I ran. How can you become a project manager? Manage projects.
The first step to becoming a professional project manager is to get hands-on experience managing projects. These don’t have to be big projects at work; they can be smaller efforts where you leverage project management tools, techniques and skills.
Whatever the goal, try to bring it to life by opening that PM toolbox. As I have said throughout my forty PM Believer posts, project management skills apply to personal goal projects, not just business projects. I have known many people who have used project management to plan their weddings or other big events. I have personally used project management to achieve my weight loss goals. There are also many opportunities to leverage project management in a volunteer capacity to help many in-need organizations.
The trick is to get tons of practice and to get a little bit better with every iteration.
Prepare
While building your project management muscle through practice, you also need to build your project management brain. The more you learn about project management, the better your practice will become.
Study project management every time you have the opportunity. Start reading blogs (may I suggest becoming a follower of PM Believer?), listening to podcasts, taking online courses and any other source of PM knowledge. Maybe even take a PMP bootcamp or test prep course – you don’t even have to take the test.
Work hard to get smarter about project management every day.
Present
Finally, it is time to take a look at how you are presenting yourself. If you want to be hired as a project manager, you need to look like a project manager.
Take a few minutes to review your resume and LinkedIn profile; what story are they telling about you? Are you highlighting your project management skills, experiences and accomplishments? Your resume is often built for the type of job you are in today and not project management. With some minor rewording, the same jobs can highlight those critical project management skills.
Are you ready to take your PM Believership to the next level?
Are you ready to be a PM Believer?
You have been building your project management skills and are ready to take them to the next level. You want to become a professional project manager. But how do you make the jump into project management? Try out my “3 P Strategy” to become a project manager in your day job.
How have you applied project management for your personal success? Tell me about it at OperationMelt.com and make sure to join my email list to have updates delivered to your inbox weekly.
Make sure to help your friends achieve their goals by sharing this post on your social network and by following me on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
Want to know more about how I changed my life with project management? Pick up your copy of my book Operation Melt: How I Used Life-Changing Project Management to Lose Over 100 Pounds In Under a Year.
About Operation Melt
Operation Melt started as a blog to share my personal transformation and weight loss story. After achieving success with that goal, Operation Melt has evolved into a platform to help inspire, motivate and equip people to achieve their own personal and professional goals so they can live their best lives. My vision is to build a world where no goal ever dies of loneliness.
