Category Archives: Project Management

Careers Advice, Interviews, PMO, Project Management, Q&A

Contacting employers post interview – Questions answered

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Nicola, quick question – in your opinion is it good practice to send a LinkedIn message to people who have interviewed you to thank them for their time etc?

Angela – Programme Manager; South East.

 

Fantastic question Angela – Thank you. It all comes down to how you applied for the role; if you made a direct application to the employer then yes by all means drop them a quick line thanking them for their time. Do not expect a direct response as most organisations have a policy in place where HR will be the go-between. Also check they are still active on LinkedIn as I have known a fair few people set up these accounts and rarely check into them, they change email address and forget to update LinkedIn so miss out on any messages being sent. Do not ask further questions such as when can I expect to hear from you as this should be covered by HR. You can add in something along the lines of, “If you have any further questions” or similar so they know you are open to a discussion or a further meeting.

 

If you have made an application through a recruiter then I am afraid you need to leave it to the recruiter to make contact with the employer. When organisations instruct recruiters to manage their recruitment needs it is usually because they do not want direct contact with a candidate and part of the recruitment etiquette is to not be contacting employers direct. It is often frowned upon by recruiters and employers alike. I have seen this happen on a couple of occasions and had emails / calls from employers telling me they have received correspondence direct and asking for me to contact the candidate to ask them not to. In some cases it has broken down the relationship with the employer for the candidate and rightly or wrongly they have chosen a different candidate to take forward.

If the application is through a recruiter you could contact them after the interview and ask them to pass some feedback to the interviewer – it is good practice to call the recruiter after an interview to let them know how you think the interview went and let them know if you are keen to pursue the role or have decided it is not for you. At this point if you are happy to proceed you can ask the recruiter to thank the interviewers on your behalf and explain any areas which may have been highlighted that have increased your interest. Ask the recruiter to keep you updated with any feedback provided and also set out a communication plan so you are kept to the top of the recruiters list of priorities.

Employers do not like to give away too much initially, in most cases, so asking for some initial feedback is OK. Any feedback is good feedback – taking anything critical should be a key to understanding how you come across to others in an interview scenario and assist you in honing your communication skills further for second round interviews or interviews in other organisations.

Careers Advice, CV Tips, Networking, News, PMO, Project Management

Sing about your projects

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As a project management professional – whether a deliverer or a support person, you are often quite used to being in the spot light with your stakeholders and within the business; usually when things aren’t going to plan and occasionally receiving recognition for success too. But beyond the realms of a close knit environment, how can you get noticed?

I have worked with a number of organisations who actively promote the use of social networking to talk about their project achievements albeit more heavily with the not for profit businesses but slowly the larger private sector organisations are starting to realise the benefits of external promotion for their project management endeavours. Using the likes of twitter and LinkedIn can really help raise the profile of your projects and of your efforts. Utilising these free tools you can not only spread the good word but also impress your sponsors too – as news is picked up and interest is drawn into the piece of work the organisation naturally will have some good, free marketing and I have yet to find an organisation who doesn’t like good news being spread about them. Of course if you are working on sensitive projects or programmes – you are unlikely to be able to spread the word but even for the smaller change initiatives it could be well worth commanding some attention.

Through marketing out your successes and working progress you are likely to gain interest from your peers who may be looking for another perspective to consider or apply to their practices and you will start to form networks of PM professionals who will value your opinion and may be able to offer advice and exchange war stories about their experiences.

You will soon become noticed for the right reasons and may even open up opportunities for yourself in your career. Once you enter into the realms of sharing information you are likely to be invited to PM conferences and into organisations to talk about how you work and what strategies you apply to your projects. Again this is easily sold into the senior management team through the reminder that promoting your organisations best practice approach and how other organisations will learn and benefit from this is a fantastic advert for the project management team and company name.

 

Careers Advice, CV Tips, Friday Snippet, Networking, PMO, Project Management, Q&A

What else can I be doing? – Questions asked, Friday snippet

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Following on from my previous blog posts addressing questions asked during consultations this week we have a good question from a project support professional wanting to progress:
 I have what I feel is a strong CV and have built up a good level of experience in the project management field – I have also taken my PRINCE2 and various other in-house PM courses to bolster my chances of progressing in my career. Is there anything else I can be doing?
Emma, Project Support Administrator; South East.


Hi Emma, many thanks for your question – I can see from your question and current position you wish to climb the career ladder and are doing all the right things so far. I agree there is more you could be doing to help the progression such as gaining further experience and networking.
In your current role supporting a number of projects’ administration you could volunteer yourself up to assist a project manager directly either by coordinating activities or by taking on smaller projects (or aspects of them), in doing this you will build up trust with the delivery team and should get noticed for the right reasons. A great deal of projects seem to be lacking resources in the current climate so any offer to ease the burden should be gratefully received. Try talking to the programme or PSO manager and explain your interest in progress and being more heavily involved in the “doing” aspect. Of course you need to understand that such a move will increase your workload as you will still have your daily duties to perform. The more exposure you can gain in the delivery environment, the more extensive your skill set will be and whether you wish to progress in the support or delivery aspect of project management you will gain great experience. A good support person would ideally have exposure to delivery too; likewise a good delivery person will need the stern foundations of the support aspect to be effective in the team environment.
Networking is a great way to gain some good exposure to others in the field – often the larger project management networking events are coupled with presentations and seminars which are a great way to learn more about the reality of various aspects of project management. There are a number of organisations which run events (some are free) which I believe are a great starting point for networking. Go along and see what they have to offer and start getting to know professionals in the field – you can gain a great deal of knowledge and insider information from these people and moving forward, you may impress one enough to stick in their mind when a new position appears in their team.
I shall continue with the Q&A – if you have any questions you would like answering, get in touch: www.thecvrighter.co.uk

Careers Advice, CV Tips, CV Writing, PMO, Project Management, Sector Advice

PMO empowered

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Since the release of the OGC P3O guidelines and subsequent qualifications in 2008 the PMO became a hot topic in organisations as the move from the perceived “expensive typing pool” was encouraged to shift to an empowered state where it provides an interface between senior management and project management within the business. However the subsequent recession in 2009 and further doom and gloom with the global economic climate, we have seen a dip in the level of PMO roles available in the UK. Over the past year or so the shift seems to have moved towards effective programme and project managers taking the helm with PMO responsibilities being part of their remit. As the recession dictated a lower yield of roles generally in the PPM field it seemed to focus on key deliverers. Understandably if there are lower budgets but projects still need delivering the PMO will fall short. But I have always believed that the best PMO people will have experience in both supporting and managing projects as greater understanding of the reality of delivery can benefit those supporting and vice versa. Therefore I feel there is a great opportunity for PMO people to develop themselves further by taking on delivery of projects to strengthen their knowledge and understanding and demonstrating their adaptability to both areas.

There are still some PMO roles about so it is not all bad news but the competition is high and with employers increasingly asking for candidates who currently work in that industry it becomes harder for PMO professionals to transition into new roles beyond their sector. I do not agree with the employers as the role of PMO is about method not necessarily the “product” but in a risk averse world this is becoming the norm.

Moving forward I advise you offer up yourself for delivery in your current role as a PMO, taking on small projects to start and gaining experience and trust from programme managers etc will always strengthen your CV – but taking these measures will also place you in a better position for the job market today. Through being empowered in the PMO you will already have great stakeholder engagement experience and will also know the structured method to delivery, now it is time to put the theory into practice.