With the onset of 2021, many professionals are planning to make a big career move. Technological advancements have already made the job market quite dynamic and there is a growing need for digital skills. As we are experiencing the Fourth Industrial Revolution, many believe that professionals who step into artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other disruptive technologies will only survive in the future of the workforce. You can either consider it a threat or deal with it smartly by looking at a career that goes head-to-head with these technical roles. One of such popular job roles is that of a project manager.
Considered as the masters of adaptation, project managers are skilled professionals who can thrive in any industry. Whenever there is a sudden transformation, project managers are the first ones to respond. These professionals have good experience in handling different kinds of projects and thus know how to adjust plans and expectations, keeping in mind the risks involved and bottlenecks for a given time. The post of a project manager is crucial for every company and candidates need to be highly skilled to become eligible for it. Hiring managers specifically prefer candidates who have a PMP Certification (Project Management Professional) in their skill set.
Didn’t have an idea about this credential? Well, it is at the top of must-have skills for project managers. This article will discuss this along with other important skills you need to become a proficient project manager in 2021.
Project Manager – Role Defined
The Project Management Institute or PMI defines a Project Manager as a professional who is organized, passionate, and goal-oriented and knows what projects have in common and their strategic role in how organizations succeed, learn and change. These professionals take the responsibility of leading an entire project right from the initiation phase up to the completion phase. They have a clear understanding of the project goals and work with a team to inspire a shared purpose of driving business results.
A good project manager needs to have strong leadership skills as he has to overcome all the hurdles that come in the way of completing a project successfully. These hurdles can be in the form of budget issues, inability to meet the set deadlines, unavailability of resources, conflicts among team members, changing client requirements, and so on. So, project managers need to make wise decisions that can benefit the project, know how to control associated risks, ensure that the team members have a clear understanding of the project goals, and minimize uncertainty.
Your Roadmap to Becoming a Valuable Project Manager
Being a senior-level designation, companies would test you for a variety of skills to ensure that you are the right candidate for handling their projects. PMI considers project managers as change agents – someone who can work under pressure and are comfortable working with change and complexity in dynamic environments. So, discussed below are some of the most important steps that can make you a good project manager in 2021.
- Learn how to manage four critical things necessary to the success of any project – quality, cost, scope, and time.
- Develop strong communication skills as it helps in giving team members a clear idea of the project goals, knowing if the project is progressing as expected, discussing issues with the team, and ensuring stakeholders that the project still aligns with changing company initiatives.
- Gain knowledge of how to do cost estimations, understand project financials, the profit and loss, and how to create and adhere to a fixed budget.
- Good project management practices also involve listing the skills of each team member and allotting them the work accordingly. This step helps in keeping the team members productive and boost their morale.
- Become well-versed in using different project management tools. There are many tools that can automate different tasks and help in managing even complex projects with ease.
- Know about the project management methods, frameworks, processes, and best practices that will help in avoiding failures and maintaining the quality of deliverables.
Do all these steps seem tough to follow on your own? Well, here comes the solution – achieve a PMP certification that can train you on all the above steps and more.
One-Stop Solution – PMP Certification
A PMP Certification is considered the gold standard in the field of project management. Offered by the prestigious organization PMI, this credential is highly regarded by companies across the world to find a skilled project manager. The certification demonstrates your knowledge in bringing projects to successful completion and makes you capable of working virtually in any industry.
There are over 1,000,000 professionals who have achieved this certification and are reaping the many benefits that come with it. What’s more, PMP certified professionals earn around 25% higher salaries than their non-certified peers. PMI also highlighted the fact that companies would need to fill around 2.2 million new project-oriented roles every year through 2027. With such lucrative salary prospects and high demand in the future, would you still wait to start a career as a project manager?
