How To Put your Career in Overdrive » project management

How To Become A Project Manager: Work On A Project!

IT Career Coach — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:00:01 +0000

Making Things Happen

Scott Berkun, a former Microsoft Program Manager shares his views about becoming a project manager.

His views are startingly similar to the views we have been posting on this website … that getting more handson experience is the best way to jumpstart your career!

Notice Scott does not start with a long list of educational requirements or certifications for aspiring project managers but with something that you have heard me talk a lot about … hands-on experience!

Scott’s Advice for Aspiring Project Managers:

WORK ON A PROJECT.
Go make something …
Grab a friend and build a website, or a blog, or something. Anything …
Build a house. Build a couch. Make a movie …
Volunteer your Project Management (PM) skills wherever you can in return for a reference …
According to Scott; the best way to market yourself is to get experience, as there is nothing more dangerous for the world than someone who wants to be a project manager but has never managed a project in their life.

Scott is an independent author and public speaker for hire.

His work as a writer and public speaker has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Wired magazine, and on National Public Radio.

Scott has taught at the University of Washington, blogs for Harvard Business, and has appeared as an innovation expert on CNBC and MSNBC.

I recommend that you click here to read Scott Berkun’s answer to the question: “Should I Become A Project Manager?”

After reading Scott’s post, do this:

Advice for College Students: get some hands-on experience before you graduate. Don’t expect your educational qualifications alone to open doors.
Advice for Career Changers: Look for opportunities to build hands-on experience. Get your feet into the door at all costs. Click here to learn more about building hands-on experience
Advice for IT Professionals: Don’t get complacent by neglecting to buildup hands-on experience. Ask your manager or boss for opportunities to work on challenging, experience building projects. That is one good way to secure your job or your career!

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Former Microsoft Product and Program Manager Looking for Volunteer Testers

IT Career Coach — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:51:56 +0000

Volunteers Wanted

Michael Surkan a former Microsoft Senior Product Planner and Program Manager is looking for Volunteer Software Testers and Project Managers for an on-line customer relationship management (CRM) and business management software service project.

While at Microsoft, Michael conducted customer, industry and research to help make decisions for future versions of the Windows operating system.

Michael’s work includes using surveys, focus groups, and customer interviews as part of research strategies and synthesized all the data into conclusions and recommendations for senior managers.

Michael is obsessed with making sure that the products that companies make are the RIGHT ones and that they meet the needs of their customers and the broader market place.

Michael has spent years as a program manager actually building the guts of the Windows operating system and now spends his days doing customer and market research to help those very same Program Managers have the data and insights they need to make good product decisions.

About This Opportunity

This offer is for volunteer software testers and volunteer project managers who are willing to make a serious commitment to using Michael’s product for managing a significant project.

The volunteers won’t be charged for using this product for at least a year because the motivation is to get some good showcases of how this product is used in the real-world.

So far, Michael has signed-up real-estate developers, cabinet manufacturers and event planners and is now looking for sign-ups from the software industry!

About The Online Project Or Process Management Service

Michael’s online project or process management software service is looking for volunteers interested in finding a way to manage software development projects while improving communications, efficiency, and timeliness

The online CRM tool is a fantastic tool for outsourced projects. It helps keep everyone in synch and the work on track.

Volunteer Software Testers or Project Managers may use this on-line service without any payment for up to a year (which normally sells for $40,000 a year) in exchange for help with testing the software and (more importantly) building the templates needed to manage their work.

The online software service has already proven itself as a great help to one small distributed web software development team with team members in places as diverse as the Philippines, Canada, and Russia.

Here is additional information on the online project management or CRM software service:

You can track entire projects, including e-mails, customer requirements, and specifications from the beginning to end of project. Everyone on the project stays on the same page.
You get complete versioning and history on every document in the system (can easily revert back to whatever previous version you wish).
You can handle project and task management, automatically determine delivery dates and assign tasks to the appropriate people. You can easy to tell when things are falling behind (and automatically re-adjusting schedules in real-time) before they get out of hand.
You get a completely web-based architecture that doesn’t require any local software, and can be easily used by an team-members wherever they are in the world.
You can use it as core component of your own public web site, allowing you to automatically turn any document into public web pages.
You get Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Services as an integral part of the product.

Michael recommends this online project or CRM software service for managing any business. So even if you are not in software and you want to be a volunteer tester, you can sign-up to test and use this service

Click here to Contact Michael: