So How Did You Become a Project Manager?
Posted by Brad EgelandI’d really like people to answer this one for me….so please get ready with your comments. It’s a much more recognized field now than it was 20 years ago so you now actually see people getting degrees in project management and planning a career in it. But that definitely wasn’t the case 20+ years ago – at least not for me. What’s your story? I’d like to hear it and everyone else probably would as well. Tell us. Here’s mine.
How Brad Egeland Came to Be a Project Manager
Ok, this is not going to be an adventure story – that’s for sure. Some of you may already have heard some or all of this before because I think I’ve already included some info about this hidden in a past article somewhere. But, for the new readers or the ones who just can’t get enough of this info (yeah, right?)…here goes…
My father came straight out of college and started the IT department in the 1950’s for a large Midwestern grocery store chain based in my home town. I told him growing up that I was not going to have anything to do with computers. I even continued that stance as I started working for him after I turned 16 as a computer operator running card decks through card readers and loading large backup tapes on tape drives (and lots of mischievous things late at night in the warehouse involving the golf carts that the security guys would use to go from station to station….ah…good times!).
In fact, I was going to be a pharmacist (why?). I even started out in pharmacy my first year in college. Nothing against pharmacists…my brother is a pharmacist…but that just wasn’t for me. I moved over to the business/MIS track and took one – count ‘em – ONE programming class…COBOL. That landed me my first job right out of college in the mid-80’s as a COBOL mainframe programmer and guess what, I was doing something with computers. My dad was right…again. Oh well.
Application Developer
I quickly became a system lead on a large government contract – the organization I worked for primarily bid on and won large education-related government contracts. We’re talking in the $100-200M range lasting 3-5 years. So there was a lot of opportunity for responsibility fast…and a lot of opportunity to play significant proposal roles in winning new contracts…which led to opportunities for new roles on the new contracts.
First Manager
I also should mention that I had a great friend and manager at the time – he’s now a CTO in Minnesota, but he was a great career mentor to me back then and could see I wasn’t the type who would be happy coding 8-10 hours a day forever. He helped me shift gears, move into proposal roles and then into roles on new contracts that placed me in line with program and project management responsibilities. My first move from development was to a configuration manager role on a new contract our company had stolen from the incumbent.
From there I moved into multiple project administration roles (managing program budgets, change orders, configuration/change management, and financial forecasting) on contracts before accepting a key contract position as a Deputy Project Manager on a 5 year education contract. This was my first true ‘management’ role with actual hiring/firing/etc. responsibilities over resources – and also made me the youngest true manager in the history of the company at that time. That’s changed since then as they’ve grown and the need for actual managers has grown as well.
The Big Jump
Since moving into the role of Deputy Project Manager in the early 90’s I’ve had various PM and PMO roles and responsibilities – my last 18 years have all been filled with project management and PMO leadership roles. The organizations have changed, the industries have changed, the types of customers I’ve served have definitely changed, but the principles that guide me in my PM work have remained the same – those characteristics of a project manager are applicable to whatever customer, industry or company you’re working with. Methodologies, templates and processes get tweaked, but the fundamentals are usually about the same….organization, timely reactions, ownership, honesty, stubbornness, willingness to lead, etc. Those things remain the same – and continue to drive me down the right path to this day.
Well, that’s my story…were it not for an ill-conceived route through college starting with chemistry classes and ending with system design classes and a good mentoring manager as my first supervisor, I may not be here, but I’m glad I am.
Tell us your story…
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3 Comments to “So How Did You Become a Project Manager?”
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Constance Stickler says:
It’s not that you’re a child thinking “I want to become a project manager” – no, you want to be an astronaut, a doctor, a princess (though this is the most unrealistic wish but it would get high results in surveys with under 5 year olds).
I wanted to become a journalist but worked in an IT company during my studies. If you’re not into software developing and recognisably intelligent, you end up as a project manager, that’s my theory ;-)
In the company I worked back then, a PM department was created. And as I had proven to manage situations I wasn’t trained to (the first job was event management – you better be clever or you’ll lose your last nerves) I was chosen. It was hard, but I liked it – and I like it since. Mostly because in my case, it’s not simply PM in the meaning of planning, estimating, controlling… but very hands on with content creation, contact with customers, etc.
Anne Bari says:
My jobs ran the gamut. I was a counselor for the developmentally disabled, mail room clerk, accounting clerk, administrative assistant, facilities clerk and help desk support.
All of these positions taught me how to be organized, learn the business, communicate, write, and resolve technical issues. By virtue of support, I learned the importance of understanding of both technical and business, and I was able to lead my first project to evaluate LAN based email systems.
This was the turning point and from this point on, I was called a Project Manager and have been for the last 15 years.
In my opinion, once you have the basics (i.e. communications, methodologies), then the fun begins because its about learning the business and completing a project for their benefit.
Pawel Brodzinski says:
For me that was a natural consequence of my previous roles in development, quality assurance and user support. It just happened almost seamlessly I started managing and supervising projects.
It didn’t happen in one day. It was more of a process than a promotion I got in one point of time.
The funny thing is I now see a similar process as I’m drifting to a presales/sales role.