Earlier in the week we hosted the Advancing Your PMO Career webinar. In this webinar we wanted to cover off the different employment types too - so permanent employees and contractors. We also wanted to look at the different career levels.
We used the four levels that we're using over at PMO Learning, so that's Project Support, PMO Analyst, PMO Manager and Enterprise level PMO Leaders/Directors.
At each stage we share insights into what a good PMO practitioner looks like at each of those levels. It doesn't matter where you are in your career today - or where you want to take it in the future. Hopefully this session will provide some inspiration if you'd like to advance your career in PMO
Last week was Project Challenge and in this session - recorded at the show - we looked at the PMO role.
Here's the overview:
What do you need to think about to get a great PMO role? In this session, Lindsay takes a look at the CV, the social media present, reading adverts, training & development, knowing what you’re selling and understanding how employers hire PMO people. It’s a whistle-stop tour with lots of practical insights, tips and things you can put into practice straight away.
It really does have a lot of different aspects discussed - the CV, job advertisements; training and development and careers in organisations.
It was Project Challenge again this week - the Project Management Expo in London and once again we met new PMO professionals who had yet to experience the delights of PMO Flashmob!
Each time we do the show we always think it’s a good idea to capture some of the thoughts of the visitors - for one, it helps us capture potential future topics for PMO Flashmob events - and it also helps us do a quick temperature check on common challenge areas for people working in PMO (after all the show is called Project Challenge!). It’s not scientific but do always ask the question about what challenges people are facing and over the last few years of doing this, we certainly see some trends.
Current PMO Challenges
We asked the question, what’s your biggest PMO challenge?
A few weeks ago - in the PMO Flashmob Online - we had a segment on writing the career history of your PMO CV.
We recorded it and here it is for you to have a look - it's about 25 minutes long.
We take a look at the different ways you can write the career history, plus there's a few questions raised that we've included too.
Take a look:
Check out the article where PMO Flashmob gets a mentioned amongst all the project management stuff in the latest Project Management campaign from Media Planet which went out in the Sunday Telegraph on the 9th September.
Take a look at There's Never Been a Better Time to Work in a PMO and Building a PMO Career.
The world of projects is an attractive arena in which to work. On professional networking sites we frequently see people asking how they can "break in" to projects, often with little or no experience or relevant skills. This creates an environment in which it is possible to "sell" to eager jobseekers with the promise of future reward.
One worrying development that PMO Flashmob has seen recently is the emergence of what we think of as "pay-to-work" schemes.
It works like this:
Session delivered at Project Challenge from sister company PMO Learning
Developing Your PMO Career
Working within a PMO has become a career of choice for many people who prefer playing a role in making portfolios, programmes and projects more successful in an organisation. Over the years we’ve seen so many different types of opportunities and career paths open up for people in PMO and in this session we bring insights into how you can further develop your career in PMO.
The session brings an eclectic mix of PMO career development including;
Had a conversation the other day with someone who wanted to come along to the PMO Hackathon event we're holding in October.
They wanted to come along but it starts at 2pm - which of course means leaving work early and they didn't think their boss would be OK with that.
I get it. They pay the wages they want you there.
How many organisations these days talk about the performance and success of the business is based on its people?
How being motivated, happy, appreciated and interested in their work makes a world of difference?
A few months back I attended the PPM Forum - it's a public sector forum for PPM practitioners, which surprisingly was FULL of PMO people. So far so good.
The session was held at City Hall (rubbish view!) and hosted by London Fire Brigade. It was like a bigger version of a PMO Flashmob event - lasted all day, presentation sessions from other local authorities and government organisations. Plus some interactive bits (BTW, PPM Forum want to do a joint event with PMO Flashmob - I think it would be a great idea!)
