Project Manager: Job profile

As a project manager, you are responsible for the success of a project. Starting out by identifying a project team that you will lead, you supervise the project from the start right to the successful outcome. Your tasks as a project manager include managing the team, developing a project-plan, monitoring the budget, and reporting to the management. You want to know what exactly it takes to become a successful project manager and in which sectors you can work? In this blog, you will find out about the qualifications that you need, a potential career path as a project manager, and the working hours and salary to be expected.

Short Summary

• Project managers plan and coordinate projects and are responsible for the successful outcome of the project regarding timeline, budget and quality.
• Successful project managers must be competent in a wide range of skills, such as organization skills, communication and negotiation skills, the ability to monitor the project, and being able to work under pressure.
• As a project manager, you possess transferable skills that enable you to work in different industries or climb up the career ladder in management.

Job description

As a project manager, you are in charge of the success of a project. This may start as early as defining the project itself, or you may be put in charge of an existing project. You identify the right people for your project team, which you will motivate and supervise. After developing a project plan, including deadlines and the budget, you will monitor every step along the way to a successful outcome. In addition, you will identify potential risks and report to your management regularly.

Although the job titles are rather alike, the role of a project manager is not to be confused with the role of a product owner. Both roles are related and there is an overlap between the two jobs. However, you should know about the differences. Product managers usually focus on strategic aspects such as market research or stakeholder management, while product owners are typically involved in tactical execution within agile development. In smaller companies, one person might be responsible for both tasks.

Responsibilities

• Developing a project plan
• Defining members of the project team
• Leading the project team
• Setting and supervising deadlines
• Risk management by identifying and managing potential risks
• Monitoring and controlling the project
• Reporting to management or client
• Establishing and supervising quality standards
• Closing the project

Different types

• Project Manager
• Portfolio Manager
• PMO (Project Management Office) Administrator
• Program Manager
• PMO Manager

Salary

The salary that you may earn depends on the management level you work in and the industry, as well as your educational background and your professional experiences. The average salary as a project manager in the UK is around £45,000 to £65,000 annually.

Working hours

The working hours may vary depending on the industry you are working in. Usually, you can expect to work normal business hours from Monday to Friday. If the project requires it, you may be expected to work additional hours. It is not likely to be paid for the overtime.

Some organizations, especially start-up companies, offer the option to work flexible hours or remotely. You may even be able to lead a hybrid team, which gives you even more flexibility concerning your working hours.

Employers

As a project manager, you can work across a wide variety of industries and companies, such as construction, engineering, IT and marketing, as well as in the healthcare sector and in universities. You may be a regular employee or work as a freelancer.

Depending on your experience and educational background, you will be able to identify the employer that suits you best. Keep in mind that you have either the chance to specialize or work across different sectors, as the skills of a project manager are transferable.

Qualifications

A formal qualification is not mandatory to become a project manager. For that reason, there are various ways to get into that role: Firstly, you can become a project manager by getting a degree in business or project management. Another opportunity is to get a university degree in any subject and gather experience as a junior project or marketing manager. You may as well choose a higher apprenticeship to start your career as a project manager.

In addition to some kind of formal qualification, either a degree or an apprenticeship, you will need to gather experience to become a successful project manager. If you want to get a university degree, you might seek out holiday jobs or internships to gain the practical experiences that are crucial to securing a job as a project manager.

Skills

As a project manager, you have to fulfill a wide range of tasks. Therefore, you will need different skills, both technical and soft skills, to be able to carry out the job. The main skills that project managers need are leadership qualities, project plan development and attention to detail.

Leadership Qualities

Leadership qualities are essential for a successful project manager, as you will only be able to achieve the desired outcome of the project with the combined forces of every team member. Therefore, you need to be able to motivate your team, delegate tasks and be a good team worker. In addition, a successful leader is empathetic, flexible and possesses profound communication skills.

Project Plan Development

A valid project plan makes sure that every team member knows their tasks and their deadlines. It is also crucial to monitor the projects’ success, especially regarding budget and quality. With a solid project plan, it is possible to identify risks and problems at an early stage to ensure the project’s success.

Developing and mastering a project plan includes the option to modify the project plan in certain respects in order to guarantee the success of the overall outcome of the project.

Attention to Detail

Attention to detail is crucial for the success of the project. The detail-orientation includes all aspects of a project manager’s work: You need to pick the right people for your team, be very precise at developing the project plan, and watch the deadlines and financial aspects of the project closely. Apart from that, you need to stay in close contact with your team and the management or client to detect problems at an early stage.

Career Path

There are different ways to become a project manager. On paper, there is no requirement for formal qualifications. Though in reality, you will need a relevant formal qualification of some sort and practical knowledge to climb the career ladder as a project manager.

Educational Background

As mentioned above, there are no formal requirements to become a project manager. Therefore, you can enter this role with different kinds of educational backgrounds.

If you know right from the start that you want to become a project manager, you might get a university degree in business or project management. Alternatively, you can graduate from university with a degree in any subject, followed by a postgraduate degree in project management.

There is also the opportunity to become a specialized project manager. In this case, you get into this career through a higher apprenticeship in your specific sector or industry. After gaining some experience as an expert, you will need to gain specific qualifications as a project manager.

Gaining Experience

Without practical knowledge, it is near impossible to be a successful project manager. Therefore, the career path as a project manager usually starts with a junior role as a junior project manager or another assisting job in marketing or management. If you want to start your career with a university degree, you can gain experience by doing internships, volunteering or working part-time while you are still at university.

Gaining experience is not only the key to entering a career as a project manager, but also crucial when it comes to climbing the career ladder.

Continuous Learning

As a project manager, you will face lifelong learning to succeed in your career. Firstly, you will need to stay up-to-date with new tools and software appliances that are used to manage projects. Secondly, you get insight into best practices by attending conferences and reading publications that specialize in project management. Furthermore, you will need to stay informed about trends and changes in the industry in which you work as a project manager.

In addition to continuous learning, being active in networks helps you build up contacts. This will help you when it comes to taking the next step up the career ladder.

A Day in the Life of a Project Manager

Of course, every project that you manage is different from the one before it to a certain degree. But it is your main task as a project manager to make sure that the project works out. To achieve this, you develop a project plan for each project and supervise that the deadlines are met and the budget is kept.

In this blog, we will dive deep into the core responsibilities of a project manager, which are: choosing and leading a team, leading negotiations and developing and applying strategies.

Choosing and Leading a Team

As a project manager, you rely on the knowledge of each member of your team. Your role is to lead and motivate the team. The team members are the technical experts on the various aspects of each project. Therefore, it is crucial to choose the right members for every project. For the duration of the project, the project manager is the superior of the team members, which might prove difficult as some of the team members might actually be higher up on the career ladder than you are. Therefore, as a successful project manager, you need to be a good leader and be able to motivate your team members.

Leading Negotiations

Project managers need to lead negotiations with various business partners within their company, as well as contractors and suppliers. These negotiations include costs, timescales and resources. You will also have to stand your point when you report to clients or the management of the company you work for.

Leading negotiations includes aspects such as never going into them unprepared but still listening to the others, asking the right questions and being precise about your strategy.

Applying Strategies

Strategic thinking and acting are other main aspects of the day-to-day business of a project manager. You have to stick to strategic thinking when it comes to developing the project plan. The choices you make to put your project team together need to be led by strategic thinking as well as you need the right mix of experts to achieve the expected outcomes and benefits of the project.

You also need the appropriate strategy whenever unforeseen changes become necessary, as you will always be confronted with risks and challenges within every project.

Tips for Thriving as a Project Manager

In order to be successful as a project manager, you need to keep an overview of the whole process while still paying attention to detail. In addition, you need to be persuasive and show empathy. Therefore, successful project managers excel in the following aspects in order to convince in this competitive and demanding profession:

• Problem-solving
• Time management
• Cultivating resilience

Problem-Solving

As a project manager, it is your responsibility to make sure that deadlines are met and the budget is kept. In the process, from the start of the project right to the end, there will be all sorts of challenges that you have to detect as early as possible and then solve.

To excel in the field of problem-solving you need to improve your critical thinking, the processing of information, and the decision-making, as well as your creativity.

Time Management

There are many skills that enable you to improve your time management. Organization is one of the main things you should thrive at. Staying organized can help you to maintain an overview and then prioritize the tasks that need to be done. Delegating the right tasks to the right team members is another crucial aspect of successful time management. Therefore, you need to learn to divide tasks between those that you fulfill yourself and those your team can and should handle.

Cultivating Resilience

As a project manager, you have to meet tight deadlines and work with different teams all the time. This is exciting and challenging at the same time. To be successful as a project manager over the long term, you need to cultivate resilience. When we mention resilience, we mean the ability to adapt to difficult situations. There are certain methods to improve the coping mechanisms with stress. It is worth the trouble to invest time in learning these methods, as otherwise the high stress level will have an impact on your health as well as your efficiency on the job.

Frequently Asked Questions