What Does a Career in Project Management Look Like?

A project is a series of tasks meant to achieve a specific outcome. Organizations rely on projects to accomplish goals — and projects rely on project managers.

According to the Project Management Institute, project managers can earn a median annual salary of about $116,000 — more than three times the national median salary in the U.S. Plus, most project managers gain access to all sorts of employment perks, like health insurance, retirement savings, community benefits and more.

So, what does it take to become a project manager, and what does a project manager do in their day-to-day? Read on to find out.

Qualifications for a Career in Project Management

A balance of education and temperament are crucial for succeeding in a project management career. Before setting out to join the legions of project managers, hopefuls should have an innate interest in the organization coupled with strong communication skills and unshakeable integrity. Being a confident and effective leader is a must for a project manager, who must keep a team of professionals working toward a common goal.

While not all project management positions require a specific degree in the field, hopefuls should take a few courses specifically designed to train project managers, which will allow them to practice the skills necessary in the industry. It is possible to find an online project management course from a leading university, which is a convenient and effective way to garner the fundamental knowledge and abilities for the project management field. Often, such courses involve strategies for developing a project plan, managing communication amongst stakeholders and navigating unexpected obstacles. It is possible to pursue a degree in project management or business administration, but this qualification is not mandatory for most project management positions.

Additionally, before searching for available project management roles, hopefuls might try to get hands-on experience. Internships with project management companies or shadowing opportunities with in-house project managers are excellent opportunities to see the day-to-day responsibilities of established professionals and learn practical skills.

Daily Project Manager Responsibilities

A project manager is a professional tasked with guiding a team through an entire project, from initiation to execution to completion. While the details of project management might vary from role to role — a project manager in IT will oversee different types of projects from a project manager in R&D, for example — the overarching responsibilities of project management professionals generally remain the same. These responsibilities tend to include:

• Planning: what needs to be done, who needs to do it and when
• Identifying and managing any risks involved
• Maintaining an appropriate standard for work
• Motivating team members and keeping morale high
• Tracking the project timeline and budget
• Reacting to unexpected changes to the project
• Delivering on goals, expected outcomes and benefits

Some project managers are tasked with overseeing a single massive project at a time, but most project managers juggle between two and five projects at once. Staying organized with such a significant workload can be difficult, which is why project managers are so sought-after and so well paid.

The Project Management Career Ladder

Project managers rarely begin their careers with a position in project management. More often, project managers follow a career path that looks like this:

• Non-managerial role. Some project managers get their start in lower-level administrative positions, while others get hands-on training in the field they hope to oversee, like IT or product engineering.
• Entry-level project management role. With titles like “assistant project manager”, “junior project manager”, or “project coordinator,” these roles involve working directly beneath a project manager and helping them organize aspects of various projects.
• Project management role. This is the role many hopefuls aim for.
• Senior project management role. Senior project managers tend to execute projects with broader scopes. For example, a senior project manager might help develop a complex product or manage a project over a longer time frame.
• Director of project management. At large organizations with vast and diverse project management teams, the director of project management aligns project managers with organizational goals.

No two projects look the same, and no two project managers have identical career journeys. Those eager to become project managers should consider their skills and pursue education and experiences that put them on the path to project management success.