As I write this, I am looking out of my hotel window where I can see the majestic view of the Niagara Falls juxtaposed against its man-made surroundings. Since I am away from the daily hustle and bustle of project needs, I started to think about why I really love what I do.
Project management provides me with constant opportunities to learn and apply many different skills. And the experience is never the same. It is like being a kid in a candy store, sampling different flavors. Sometimes I am rewarded with sugary sweets, and other times I cringe at the sour-tasting flavors.
I love being able to sit down with my customers to document their needs and list requirements for the project at hand. And I always look forward to brainstorming sessions with software architects and developers..
On any given day, I could be running from a schedule planning meeting one hour to a peer review session the next. I find it exhilarating to apply various problem-solving skills.
What do you love most about being a project manager?
Project management provides me with constant opportunities to learn and apply many different skills. And the experience is never the same. It is like being a kid in a candy store, sampling different flavors. Sometimes I am rewarded with sugary sweets, and other times I cringe at the sour-tasting flavors.
I love being able to sit down with my customers to document their needs and list requirements for the project at hand. And I always look forward to brainstorming sessions with software architects and developers..
On any given day, I could be running from a schedule planning meeting one hour to a peer review session the next. I find it exhilarating to apply various problem-solving skills.
What do you love most about being a project manager?
When I was just a team member, I used to admire the PMs for the amount of energy, focus, and decision making skills they bring to a team. I had a PM who used to make everything seem so easy and simple for us. She was like a shield and she inspired me to become a PM. What I enjoy the most about being a PM is creating a conducive environment for my team to excel in, risk management and issue resolution. Of course, the heady feeling we get when a project gets delivered and recieves rave reviews from clients and their customers makes all the sweat and grime of project management worth it.
In a real time project management situation we end up seeing the Project Turn Red due to many reasons include external environmental factors, Wrong assumptions made during planning stages and many other factors well known to project managers. This results into an affort of spending endless days and nights to get the projects delivered and last but not the least the day when the Projects are delivered with success the Customer comes back with a happy face and all the frustation occured during the execution phase is gone from both Project Team and Customers Team. That is the real joy of Project Management and Ppoject Delivery. Its like the Baby being delivered to the Woman after nine months of troubles :)
My joy as a PM comes from contributing a good and sound project structure for a successful launch. I most enjoy working with a project team to forge strong ties by understanding each member's core functional needs, skills and contribution to the project. I feel good when I can truly understand a function, understand impacts and risks, and articulate them to the group as a whole -- to find that "fit" into the planning and execution. I like puzzling out priorities and negotiating on behalf of the stakeholders, project team for the health of the overall project.
Great article -- nice to see other folks enjoy being project managers! what makes me happy about being a PM is that no project is ever boring! the challenge of managing the implementation of projects working with international teams has given me a chance to use a variety of skills, learn even more about each culture and develop sound relationships across the globe. PM keeps me on my toes and forces me to continue refining and developing these skills to a new level. I have also applied PM methodologies to manage projects for a couple of non-profit organizations I'm involved in, and even for our family vacation planning -- what a great career to be in!
I am happy to be a Project Manager because I possess the skill set and experience that can be transferred to any industry globally. These skills have also helped me in my personal life because as a Mom my toughest negotiators are my children.
This is a good article. For me what makes me happy being a Project Manager is that I manage constraints. If there were no constraints in a project, then a "project manager" was not required. Managing constraints within the available resources is what excites me.
Neal, I completely agree. What a great (sometimes trying) profession we are in.
Very interesting view.
In addition to all what you correctly wrote, project management is always an ongoing learning experience for me, and it adds to my confidence as a human being on how to deal with people and difficult situations. On the other hand, it exposes the PM to different industries and expertise which adds to his/her knowledge and intellect.
This is a nice article. For me what makes me happy about being a Project manager is that I can see the future early enough. As a Project manager, planning ahead of time and running through my plans makes me happy. Managing my stakehlolders is very good thing for me.