PMO Careers

At the PMO CV Workshop in July, PMO Practitioners got together to work on improving their CV. There are three crucial areas of the CV - the opening profile, the career history and key achievements. Here’s what they learnt about the three areas: Create the opening profile of a CV which is guaranteed to tick all the boxes and get yourself noticed for all the right reasons. It will focus on understanding your own Unique Selling Points. Learn how to write the career history part of your CV – conveying your skills and experiences in the way that hirers want to read. Learn to write about each position in your career – focusing on the facts that prospective employers want to see. You’ll learn about the power of combining responsibilities with key project competencies. Include hard-hitting key achievements that help you stand out from the competition. Catch attention for specific roles – learn out to mix and match key achievements for maximum impact. Until we run another PMO CV Workshop in the future, (take a look at the previous PMO Mini-Masterclass if you can't wait) in this article we take a look at the beginning stages of creating a CV - the things you have to think about before you even put pen to paper.

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My name is Ken Burrell, and since July 2011 I have been operating as an independent contractor, providing my PMO services to various clients (mostly London market insurance companies) through short-to-medium-term engagements of my company, Pragmatic PMO Limited. I often get asked about contracting by the client employees I work alongside, and so I have written this article for PMO FlashMob to share some of my experiences with you, in the hope that you will find my observations useful if you’re planning a similar move. I’m starting from the assumption that you’ve already made the decision to make the move, or you are at least seriously considering it. Everyone has their own reasons for moving into contracting, and you need to be certain that for you the (very real) risks are worth the (hopefully real but in no way guaranteed) rewards. So, having decided to start the process, what should you actually do? As well as the obvious stuff (like sorting out your CV, doing a skills audit and so on), the steps I suggest below are based on what I actually did, with a few additions based on my experience:

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During our time at Project Challenge, we presented to a PMO audience on the topic of "Challenges and Trends in a PMO Career". I presented three challenges related to finding new opportunities and Eileen Roden presented three challenges whilst in post as a PMO professional. For the second part we did the same but this time focused on the trends we're seeing. The presentation was well received - pitched at the right level for the audience - so it makes sense that we would want to share the presentation with you too. Here's the presentation, available through Prezi. Below you can access the two video presentations.

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Last week we carried out our first PMO Mini-Masterclass. These evenings are about a little PMO learning combined with networking with other PMO professionals. The session took place at QA's offices right on Tower Bridge (see the offer from QA too for PMO Flashmobbers), with amazing views over the Tower of London and St Katherine Docks. The topic for the first PMO Mini-Masterclass was all about your PMO career. The session was in four areas: The PMO Marketplace PMO Job Tools PMO Training and Development Networking for Opportunities You can take a look at the first part (there are four videos in total), the PMO Marketplace here:

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Last night’s PMO Flashmob was the Second Birthday Party, that’s a whole two years of PMO Flashmobbing, 24 get-togethers, marauding over so many different pubs and venues all over Central London. It was good to see so many familiar faces as well as new people. It was good to hear from the ‘old-timers’ about some of their previous PMO Flashmobs, which one they first came to, what it was like walking into a PMO Flashmob for the first time and thankfully being quite surprise at what a friendly bunch of people it is. Thanks to you all for supporting the PMO Flashmob over the last two years and thank you for your generosity of spirit in sharing your PMO lives with others and being such great networkers. So the second birthday. It couldn't be a party without the cake, and its thanks to a PMO Flashmobber who couldn’t be there for sending such a fab cake. Thanks to Jonathan from Gower for a lovely gesture!

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At the last PMO Flashmob in July we spent the evening talking about our careers. One of the questions asked - and one that I frequently get asked - is how to manage a career in PMO. This is primarily for people who have been working in some kind of project support role who are keen to develop their capability - perhaps into a PMO analyst or PMO management role. In this post I'd like to encourage PMO practitioners at all levels to leave your own comments, offering advice, guidance or just your opinion. Here's our case study:

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If someone said to you. Come and have a beer and have a chat about your career with me. Would you know where to start? Got any burning questions about it? Or are you perfectly happy with everything? Sometimes it's not about having something specific to say, it's more about having the time to think about a certain question or listen to other people talking about their own career - which incidently is in the same line of work as yours. This was August's PMO Flashmob, on the River Thames on an evening when we were basking in the late evening sun (ahem!). To get people in the mood - here were the questions to get people thinking and talking. If you couldn't make it and you're intrigued to hear how people were answering some of these, join us at the next PMO Flashmob. In the meantime, have a think, how would you answer some of these? PMO Career Questions

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