Category Archives: PMO

CV Tips, CV Writing, PMO, PMO CV

How to put together a winning CV – PMO CV Tips

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PMOs play an integral role in most organisations which have a number projects and programmes being delivered across the business. There are many types of PMO such a Programme Offices, Project Offices, Centre of Excellence and Portfolio Offices. Taking this into consideration and the subtleties within each, it can make for a much more interesting CV which can really pique the interest of recruiters and employers and demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the field.

When putting together a CV we need to address some of the key criteria for a PMO professional:

Type of PMO:

  • Supportive: Providing on-demand expertise, templates, best practice, access to information etc.
  • Controlling: An environment where tighter regulation is required so there is usually the use of specific methods, templates, governance and forms etc with the likelihood of regular reviews by the PMO.
  • Directive PMO: Taking a step further than the controlling PMO and actually taking over projects by the provision of PM experience and resources to manage the projects.

puzzle

Size of PMO

  • Stand alone (1 person)
  • Team PMO (>1person)
  • Types of programmes / projects being supported?
  • How many programme / project managers feed into the PMO?

Once we have established the type of PMO and talked through the volume and types of projects and programmes, it is time to address what your involvement is. Firstly is the PMO something you have set up or reengineered or already in place? Then we want to know your role, are you managing it, an analyst, coordinator, consultant etc. Then run through the core competencies involved – what do you do on a daily basis? From this you will also be able to pull out some key achievements such as impact on project capability.

 

The PMO as you know is all about communication and how you apply that to the task in hand, there are many elements that go into this and all organisations are different. Some organisations employ business managers to manage projects and these types of PMs generally require a great deal of hand holding, think about coaching, training, workshops etc which you may have facilitated. Include this information into your CV along with the above to give the reviewer a holistic view of the role and what it actually means within your business.

CV Tips, CV Writing, PMO, Project Management, Project management CV, project management resume

Bringing out personality in your Project Management CV

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As much as a balance of experience and competencies put into context are important on Project Management CV, personality is a close second. This may feel quite daunting as it can be difficult to bring the CV to life with a personal feel, but really it isn’t rocket science. Talking through you as a professional in your profile should really be a marketing pitch for employers which gives a snap shot of you, but don’t be afraid to present it in your own words – we are often encouraged to write this in a formal way but there are subtle ways of introducing your personality in there. Think about your management style and approach, if people are your thing then talk about how you engage people (briefly), you take a straight forward approach to implementing structure? Then say so, don’t worry about being too embroiled in PM terminology (there’s plenty of opportunity to get these keywords in further down the document. Now my favourite part of the CV, Key Achievements is the perfect place to really bring your personality to the document. This is where you talk about those extras that you do as a matter of course being a project professional and are what set you apart from others, so if you’ve already mentioned you are a good people person then you need to draw out a good couple of examples to qualify what you’ve said. If you have said you take a pragmatic approach to applying structure then this is also a brilliant place to talk through how and why you have done this with demonstrable examples. Really bring out your management style and personality to help the employer draw a picture of you.

Reflecting

Talking through your career experience you should look to add in context with the project details and competencies, then tailor the information to match up with your approach so it is wooden. I have come across so many CVs which are well written but read a little flat (missing the personality); the document needs to be informative and engaging.

It is really important to me to make sure a CV not only sells the candidate with all the right information but also to make sure the CV is akin with its owner – this is why a consultation takes place at the start of the our CV writing process – not only teasing out all the information, gaining a good understanding of your management style but also getting to know you and how you engage and articulate yourself.

Interviews, PMO, Project Management, Stakeholders

Project Manager Interview questions – stakeholders

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I always receive a mixed response from candidates regarding interview expectations, most are confident that once they are interviewed they will be offered the job – great to have such confidence and I hope the theme continues that way. However there are a number of candidates who find interviews terrifying, understandable if you haven’t had much experience of interviews or it has been a long time since your last one. The element of not knowing what to expect is where the fear kicks in for most, in this article I want to address Stakeholders.

Now, whether you are a Senior Programme Manager or a Project Admin, stakeholders are arguably the most important element of project success. Whenever I have seen a project not reach success, it has often come back to a failing communication element.

stakeholdersHere are some questions based purely on the stakeholder aspect which you should look to consider and compare with your own experiences, so you can create a number of responses to use in your forthcoming interviews. Remember to take a holistic approach to your responses, giving detail about the project/situation, your actions and finally the results achieved.

  • How do you identify the key stakeholders on your project?
    • Realistically this can be as simple as a meeting with all involved and/or;
    • Rating their level of interest and involvement in the project.
  • Once identified, what do you do next?
    • Think about stakeholder mapping, communication plans etc.
  • Give me an example of a strained stakeholder relationship, what did you do to resolve the issue?
    • A great question, which answered correctly, can really draw out your relationship building skills. Soft skills as more important than process in PM.
  • When working with external stakeholders, how do you ensure a balanced communication process is maintained?
    • This is an interesting question; it could be a trick to see what information you are willing to share with outsiders to the company. Always difficult to gauge how organisations work, some are transparent whereas others like to keep all issues in-house. Of course the core part of the question is really asking how you keep in touch with the external parties, always check questions which might generate a leading response.

Once you have some good examples to talk through – practice, give the questions to your partner/friend/colleague and run through them, ask them back what you just told them to see if you are communicating clearly. Practice makes perfect and it is all too easy to get embroiled in internal terminology (from your current/previous company), and you need to be able to engage all at the interview including HR and other non-PM people.

Careers Advice, PMO, Project Management, Project Management Careers Advice, Starting out in Project Management

Project Management versus Project Support careers

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An interesting question came about from a client I was coaching the other week, he has gained some really good experience in project support and is looking to progress into the delivery aspect of PM. When I asked him what he enjoyed most about his career so far he became very animated and passionate about the work he had put in to creating financial monitoring and resource management tools. It quickly became apparent that he has a clear skill-set much sought after within PMO environments and his knowledge of promoting best practice through traditional means such as workshops and one to one coaching he also took more innovative approaches which met the constraints of the business managers and project managers. When we discussed his desire to change over to delivery from support he said it is because he wishes to progress his career, I pointed out that there is a career path within the project support element and that salaries are certainly commensurate to delivery staff once you move up the ladder. He said he felt that the general consensus is that delivery staff command more respect – naturally I had to push back on this as PMOs have evolved significantly over the past few years and that organisations are quite rightly using them as an interface between the business and the project delivery staff. Not nearly the “admin pool” it was once perceived as, maybe looking into businesses which value the support element as much as (if not more) than the project management functions are certainly the right route to take if you are looking to gain some gritty and challenging experience and forge a career.

Career crossroadOf course if you have always had it in your mindset that you want to be a project manager then you should follow this course but I would recommend working more closely with the project managers in roles such as Project Assistant, Project Coordinator, Junior PM etc where you are more likely to gain some exposure and experience in delivering the projects. The PMO is generally there to support as opposed to deliver, although I have seen some PMOs evolving to incorporate both.

Some are not cut out for delivery, the pressures in both environments are high but the delivery does have the “buck stops here” element so not for the feint hearted.