Good morning, I'm Lao Yuan.
I don’t know if friends who are project managers feel this way. Obviously, a project manager is a high-level management position, but why do you always feel that your job is a handyman?
Recently, a fan friend came to complain to me: It was obviously a promotion, why did I feel cheated.
The boss approached Xiaolin and said that there was a vacancy for the on-site manager. Would he like to go? After thinking about it for a long time, Xiaolin agreed and went to the site. He was familiar with the basic situation of the project, and after completing the handover of the project, he began to work on the site. .
On the surface, the project went smoothly, everyone performed their duties, and there were no conflicts.
But the problem is that it was too smooth, so Xiaolin's project work became:
There is no water in the office, find Xiaolin
There is a power outage and there is no internet, so I also look for Xiaolin
Order meals, post invoices and get reimbursed, or find Xiaolin
He even asked Kobayashi to take a taxi home after working overtime
Little things, trivial things in life, eating and drinking are all taken care of by Xiao Lin...
I believe that many project managers have experienced this kind of "lady" life when they first entered the industry, and it is not surprising for everyone to hold multiple jobs.
In this case, it is not easy for project managers to lose their jobs, but it is also not easy to be promoted.
1. The industry path of project managers is really wide
In addition to being a project manager, you can still be a product manager, marketing manager, technical manager... various managers.
01 Marketing Manager + Product Manager + Project Manager + Technical Manager
How much does such a versatile project manager cost?
This kind of all-round project manager understands technology, products, business, and project management, and his IQ and EQ are always online.
From demand docking and analysis, to outputting prototypes, to delivery, development and testing, and finally to product launch and delivery, whether it is communication, coordination, division of labor, overall planning, follow-up, etc., it is their task. their responsibility.
The ear of the project manager is ringing all the time: "Your pot has been delivered, please give it a five-star rating if you are satisfied, thank you for enjoying!"
Constantly communicate and coordinate with the demand side, the boss, and the development, testing, and operation and maintenance engineers every day. I am exhausted physically and mentally.
Not only that, but the project manager is also required to respond to phone calls on weekends in a timely manner, and to check WeChat group messages at any time. As a result, the project manager asked himself in the mirror: "Who is this uncle? He is obviously 27 years old, but no matter how he looks at him, he looks like 47 years old."
The project manager repeated countless times every day: "Quit! Resign!" After breakfast, he smiled slightly, bowed his head to the RMB, and went out to work.
02Project Manager + Technical Manager
This type is generally transferred to project management after reaching a certain level of technology, length of service or personnel transfer.
They shoulder important tasks such as technical solutions, technical frameworks, new technology introduction, engineer training, code quality control, project management, personnel management, and cross-departmental communication. The goal is to deliver projects on time.
Those who don't know think that the project manager is the CTO.
What project managers are most afraid of is reporting to their superiors, especially superiors who don’t understand business and technology, talk on paper, and direct blindly. You can’t do it if you don’t listen...
In the end, it can only be "I listen, can I listen?"
03 Full-time babysitter + handyman + various assistants
"The project is not complicated, you can figure it out, deliver it on time, and keep the quality and quantity. However, you have to provide support to product managers and technical managers to satisfy them, always remind them what to do, and record missing items for them. If you don’t think about it, you have to think for them.”
This requires the project manager: needs to be considered, technical risks to be considered, personnel to be managed well, and progress to be controlled, but not to affect everyone's work.
I really don’t know if the product manager and technical manager have done any projects. All meetings, ordering, and printing must be done by the project manager, and all tasks that do not require IQ need to be done.
2. What exactly is the "competitiveness" of a project manager?
The work of the project manager is very complicated, especially for the novice Xiaobai, his daily work seems to be synonymous with moving bricks.
In addition to your own job, you also have to make cakes for your employees and bosses. When employees are in a bad mood, you have to become an emotional mentor to go online... Busy with all kinds of trivial things, you have no time or clues to think, what should you do? which direction to develop.
Every worker knows that only by continuously improving the core competence can we cope with the changing environment.
But what kind of growth method to adopt, many project newcomers only have a vague understanding.
In order to better improve your own abilities, what points do you think must be improved? Lao Yuan once solicited fan submissions, and they felt that the most important factors were these:
01 basic skills
Have you figured out the five process groups and the 132 tools of the project management process? The theory should start from the basics-application-understanding-mastery.
02 Certificate
Get the certificates you need, project managers will take the PMP exam, product managers will take the NPDP exam, state-owned enterprises will take the soft exam, and the Internet will supplement with agile ACP.
03 Choose direction
Choose whether you want to study technology all the time, or eventually go to a management position. This determines your development after entering the workplace. Don’t worry about which direction to learn, just choose one direction and go on firmly.
04Improvement of soft skills
In the field of project management, what matters in the end is not technology, nor your personal ability, but character, handling of people, word-of-mouth, writing, speech and other soft skills. How important is this? Wait until you want to get promoted just know.
What they said is very reasonable, but in summary, Lao Yuan still thinks that "management ability" and "learning ability" are the most important points for improvement that most people need to grasp.
"Management ability" is very important, the foundation of your foothold.
The learning of the basic management framework generally starts from the basic five major process groups, ten sub-processes, 132 tools and their usage, agile, etc. step by step.
Lao Yuan has also mentioned the content that project managers need to master in the official account many times. This mind map can help you make a very complete summary.
And "learning ability" refers more to your open mind.
This is a macro requirement for project management. The most typical one is to have the ability to quickly accept + learn new things.
The digital age is changing with each passing day. In the past, you could win the world if you could deliver projects on time, but now you can only follow up on projects.
You can only understand project management, but you must pay attention to the core key and new information in various fields such as market demand, product management, and PMO.
Once the leader asks these questions, you must be able to say a few words at least. When the leader arranges the work, you at least know how to start learning right away.
Only with such an attitude can you not be abandoned by the industry.
Only a project manager with such an attitude can become more and more popular as he gets older and last forever.
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I am Lao Yuan, welcome to follow my official account [ Project Manager Lao Yuan], every day there will be dry goods sharing of project management cases .