Myths of Project Management Career Planning

Rosemary Hossenlopp, MBA PMP © 2007 All Rights Reserved

What did you talk about during your holiday parties? If you didn’t talk about your job, why not? Maybe you were avoiding the subject because your project work just isn’t s exciting as it has been in the past. Or it could be because you were stunned into silence listening to your project team lead describing the BWM they got with their bonus.

Why should I talk about this? CalendarThe dull nag New Years resolution season is fast approaching. So consider this is a great time to take charge of your career planning and next year you will be bragging about your project successes.

 Accidental Project Manager
Many of you fell into a project management job. And this choice of fate turned out to be a good one. But you don’t want others to continue defining your career for you. So what’s stopping you from planning your next position?

There may be some myths stopping you from moving towards the job that you will be talking about at next year’s parties.Myth 1. You are happy where you are. You don’t need to be looking for a job change to use career planning. You may like your project, the people and the project processes. But change happens. Preempt a scramble to get ready for a new one by being prepared with a development plan.

Myth 2. You don’t have time. You are right. There is no such thing as free career planning. It has a cost; your time invested in smart goal setting to help you get what you want.

Myth 3. Someone else will do career planning for you. No, It is your responsibility and not your bosses. No one else can identify your path to success as they don’t know your dreams, motivations and passions.

Am I being a Grinch that stole Christmas? No. This is a frank look at goal setting and career planning for project managers. There is a method of smart goal setting and personal goal planning. No one is more interested in having a different conversation at next years holiday parties than you.

Give yourself a Christmas present by coming back to this blog over  the next several days as we walk through developing a project management career plan.

DaytimerGrab your pencil to create a plan over the next five days to get your project management career plan in shape for the new years.

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About the Author

Rosemary Hossenlopp

Rosemary trains IT project teams on delivering project success by improving business analysis and project management practices. She also coaches project management contractors and consultants on thriving in a falling economy. Get project management tips at http://www.Expertin90days.com/Free She is founder of Project Management Perspectives LLC consulting and training in both the commercial and government sectors. She led many global software and hardware projects; created PMO's, and conducted project assessments. Rosemary speaks at conferences on the topics on Planning for Project Success and is a co-author of Unearthing Business Requirements, Elicitation Tools and Techniques. Rosemary received her B.S. from Oregon State University and M.B.A. from Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California. She is a Project Management Professional (PMP) and implemented the Tools and Techniques initiative of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Project Management Institute (PMI).
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Note: This work and all associated comments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

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