What is Project Management? Make a Career of Making Things Happen

An emerging career opportunity, has been buzzing across most industries lately, and that opportunity is Project Management. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management is defined as: 

A temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or result.
A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources.And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal. So a project team often includes people who don’t usually work together – sometimes from different organizations and across multiple geographies.

The development of software for an improved business process, the construction of a building or bridge, the relief effort after a natural disaster, the expansion of sales into a new geographic market — all are projects.
And all must be expertly managed to deliver the on-time, on-budget results, learning and integration that organizations need.


It has always been practiced informally, but began to emerge as a distinct profession in the mid-20th century. PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide) identifies its recurring elements:

Project management processes fall into five groups:

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and Controlling
• Closing

When I first learned about Project Management, I asked an IT academic chair what skills do you need to be successful at Project Management, and what if I have no experience in that field. His response was very surprising. He asked if I ever organized a project before at school, which I quickly answered yes. He then asked if I had to get something done in a certain time frame, under a specific budget. I suddenly understood where he was going, any general management experience, or work experience can be transferred in that field in addition to education of course!

The types of careers you could pursue would be:

- Project Coordinator
- Project Team Member
- Project Manager
- Project Resource Coordinator
- Project Scheduler

If you feel this interests you, and would like to learn more, please feel free to contact me for more information!

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Author: Charmaine Alexander is an admissions representative for ITT Technical Institute in Kennesaw, GA, and is dedicated to helping people obtain a degree in technical fields such as Information Technology, Electronic Technology, and Computer Drafting and Design.

Charmaine C. Alexander

ITT Technical Institute

Educational Representative

2065 ITT Tech Way  N.W.

Kennesaw, GA 30144

(770) 426-2300 ext. 2302

SAlexander2@itt-tech.edu

Tech Jobs in Demand

Although total unemployment continues to hover around 9 percent, there’s another employment problem happening nationwide.

Employers are struggling to keep up with job demand for technical professions. The issue at hand: a lack of qualified workers in technical fields.

In a story published on July 28, the Boston Globe reports many qualified workers are leaving the state to accept higher-paying jobs elsewhere, creating a labor shortage for the state’s large and small businesses:

Massachusetts has developed a technology labor shortage, one that could undermine a vital sector that helped pull the state from the last recession and is driving its recovery. Demand for high-tech talent is so great that workers are turning down six-figure salaries and companies are offering five-figure cash bounties for successful referrals — a stark contrast to lackluster hiring that has created a large pool of long-term unemployed and kept the state jobless rate at historically high levels.

            Read the full story here.

A similar story was reported in the Columbus Dispatch in Ohio on July 24:

In a dramatic reversal from the darkest days of the recession, thousands of high-paying information-technology jobs are going unfilled in central Ohio. ... "It's a mismatch between the need of the industry and the skills of the workers," said Bill LaFayette, vice president of economic analysis at the Columbus Chamber. … Today, the supply of newly trained workers is still catching up with the jump in demand. 

In a June 2011 report, Dice.com reported, “According to nearly 900 hiring managers and recruiters that source, recruit and hire IT professionals, 65 percent anticipate hiring more technology professionals in the second half of 2011 than the preceding six months.”

Read the full story here.

Job demand for technical professionals isn’t projected to ease up anytime soon. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports overall employment of computer network, systems, and database administrators is projected to increase by 30 percent from 2008 to 2018, much faster than the average for all occupations. Related technical professions, such as computer and information systems managers, computer support specialists and graphic designers, are also expected to grow at pace with or faster than average for all occupations.

According to Wanted Analytics, IT hiring has been increasing throughout the first half of 2011, up 56 percent since January.

ITT Technical Institutes are helping students prepare for success in the 21st century. With the BLS and other sources projecting faster than average job growth in technical fields, ITT Technical Institute students are positioned to fill growing job demand.

 

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Author: Charmaine Alexander is an admissions representative for ITT Technical Institute in Kennesaw, GA, and is dedicated to helping people obtain a degree in technical fields such as Information Technology, Electronic Technology, and Computer Drafting and Design.