A whole team of people is working on the creation of any project – be it a computer game, an application for a phone, an online school or something else. In it, each employee knows his job well and is responsible only for his own results. As described in the Cracking the PM interview ebook, the main person in the team is the project manager, who is also the project manager, who is responsible for the entire project. He monitors the work of individual performers, establishes interaction between them and with the client, monitors deadlines, predicts results.
Don’t confuse a project manager with a product manager and account manager. Although the concepts of product manager and project manager sound similar, they are different specialties. The first is responsible for communicating the product to the audience: he studies the market, customers, decides on the launch time and controls the process itself, determines the requirements for the product and its value, while the project manager is engaged in project activities: builds communications in the team and with the client, monitors the progress of work and its results. His area of responsibility is a process, not a product.
The account manager and the project manager are not similar in terms of sound or function. The account manager is responsible for the face of the company to the client. He knows everything about his business: competitors, target audience, products and budget. The goal of an account manager is to develop the client’s case as efficiently as possible and to reapply for services to the company.
What does a project do and what it should be able to do
It is easier to understand the profession of a project manager if you understand why the company needs this specialist and what he is paid for.
A project manager is a team leader. He is outgoing and active, friendly but demanding. Flexibility and the ability to negotiate are integral features of this specialist.
This specialist solves the following tasks:
Whether the client is satisfied with the project or not depends largely on the project manager and his work.
In addition to official duties, the project manager often settles disagreements between team members, knows the problems of both employees and customers.
A person with so many responsibilities needs extensive knowledge in several areas at once. Therefore, project manager training is a complex and slow process. He needs not only an understanding of what and how each member of the team should do, but also how long it takes to solve the problem by a specific performer, how to allocate the budget and how to motivate employees.
The project manager must be able to communicate and persuade. For this work, not only hard skills, that is, basic skills, are important, but also soft skills – flexible skills, discipline, the ability to resolve conflict situations, responsibility. This is a leader who is able to lead others and quickly solve unexpected problems.
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To become a sought-after specialist, you need to constantly learn something new and learn. We have compiled a selection of useful resources for project managers, where even an experienced project can learn something new.
It is possible to grow into a project manager through a long journey from an intern in the chosen industry, a junior, and then a senior specialist, a department head, and only then go to project management. It will take more than one year, and at the same time it is far from the fact that everything will work out.
There are no internships for the position of project manager, you can’t come from the street and get into the profession. Even for junior positions (beginners), people with a large amount of knowledge and skills are hired.
An option for those who do not want to spend years at the beginning of their careers is project manager courses. On them you will receive the necessary knowledge, master work programs, develop flexible skills and become a full-fledged specialist in demand on the labor market. Upon graduation, a diploma of professional retraining of the established form is issued under a state license.
After training as a project manager, each graduate will receive a career consultation. On it, the mentor will tell you how to look for a job, write a resume and a cover letter, what to say at an interview in order to get a place for sure. You will have a ready-made portfolio for finding your first clients.
