Reasons Why Project Management Is a Good Job

We’ve all had days when it seems like the best thing to do is to go home and write a letter of resignation. Your sponsor isn’t supportive, you’ve been given extra work, or you know you are going to be overspent. The lure of those job websites is so strong.

Project management is a difficult job at times, and when things are not going so well, you wouldn’t be the first project manager to think about giving it all up. But hang on just a moment. There are plenty of amazing career benefits of working in project management. Here is a list of reasons why you should stay in the field for a little bit longer.

You Get to Change the Business

You are working on projects that will change the organization you work in. From the smallest process improvement to the biggest product launch, you are working on top-flight, cutting edge stuff that has a huge impact on your company’s performance. That’s pretty good, isn’t it?

You’ll Constantly Develop

Each new project brings with it a new set of stakeholders and a new team. You’ll be learning as you go, however many projects you have done before and however many lessons you’ve learned already along the way.

Plus there is the opportunity to develop skills that you can’t always build easily in other ways. For example, it pays to know how to deal with difficult stakeholders because whether you work in projects or not, you will come across people like that in business!

There are training courses for all sorts of soft skills as well as thousands of project management books, so you will be able to develop yourself in whichever angle feels most appropriate.

There’s Clear Career Progression

You can start out as a project coordinator and quickly move into junior project management roles. From there, hop up to managing projects of your own and then over time expand your skills to take on larger and larger projects. You don’t need many years of experience before you are making the jump to managing programs and from there portfolios.

You could choose to move sideways into one of the many varied related roles like Project Office Manager, or specialize in a particular area and become an expert in scheduling or resource allocation.

If you want to manage large strategic projects, then you can give time and aptitude. If you’d prefer to stay managing a mixture of small projects, then that’s fine too. There is scope within project management to make any of those career choices a success.

You Can Get Qualified

Project management is only about building your soft skills and gaining experience. You can get qualified in it too. From CAPM to PMP, PRINCE2 to MBAs, there are qualifications available at all levels and to suit all finances.

The great thing about certification is that it is often a route to earning more money. If you thought you had to leave project management to earn a bit more, then you are most likely mistaken. Qualification could be just the boost you needed.

Every Day Is Different

This is the thing we like best about project management. Every day is different, and the job is so varied. You’d be hard pushed in my opinion to find something that gives you as much exposure to different business areas and allows you to work with so many different processes and stakeholders.