Showing posts with label SIPM Updates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SIPM Updates. Show all posts

Exciting News| Relaunching- Connect

Today, I want to share some exciting news with you all.

This goes long back, few years after I started the blog. I felt it was wonderful meeting amazing project management professionals from all over the world and learning from them and being mentored. 

I also knew that this is something that might be difficult for a lot of people to do, because you might not know whom to reach out to, or lot of times people are busy and perhaps don’t reply back to a mail of a newbie. I knew I felt very strongly about sharing the luck I had and how much I learnt just by talking to amazing people. And if I had the chance, so should so many others.  This is specially true for introverts, who might not be as comfortable meeting up people over coffee or cold calling them for a chance to be mentored or learning about the profession. 

Hence the “Connectwas born. It was free and the idea was to create an interactive design so you felt like you were at your work desk and had the freedom to be connected to newbies or experts from around the globe. 

The best part was you didn’t have to find them and figure out how to communicate with them, we did all that work for you. When the PMOT community signed up and amongst them lots of senior folks who were happy to mentor newbies. You could choose virtual mentorship or in your city mentorship, where you select from your domain of choice (media, IT, construction etc) and the city/country incase you want to have face to face conversations and not limit yourself to emails/skype calls. 

The site was launched because me and my two friends sat down and were super proud to get this done. It did well, lots of people signed up and it was still free. 

For me it was important that the purpose of creation stayed, for anyone to help themselves move forward in their career. You didn’t have to shell out on subscriptions or payments to get the opportunity.  

Paid completely with my own money, and encouraged and supported by many thats how it stayed, small tiny and humble. There was no marketing done except by word of mouth by people who used it or who wrote about it in there blogs. You could mentor here and probably claim PDU or SEU, saving you more money (if anyone had done it, can you please email us your story)

The site went down few months ago and honestly I didn’t even notice it initially and when I did, I had to take the time to decide if I wanted to bring the site back or let it go. There were people who had signed up (existing users),  communications happening and I just thought its really a good website, and even if it helps one student every month, one newbie every day to figure out their career I should bring it back. 

So, here it is- the site back and working. Yay!! The site stays as it is for now with new features coming soon. 

If you have ever used the site or benefitted from it, please don’t hesitate to tell your friends. If you or someone you know would like to collaborate or may be sponsor for the day or put ads in the site that would be wonderful because then we can bring in more amazing features to the site and keep on paying it forward. 

We are re-launching and yes it is still free. Thank you for your support. 

(Pic courtesy:https://burst.shopify.com) 




Whats going on: updates, blog, life and more

Feb 23, 2018 | | 0 comments |

Blog-I hav been blogging for a while now and over the time I realised my interests have grown with me and there are more things that i do or are interested in than when I started the blog years ago.

I also now know that to bring our best version to work, the inner state of mind is way more important than how many certifications we have for the job. There's more research and publication now readily available to understand that and that's where I have been investing my time in terms of reading.

I also wasn't quiet sure, how I would like to the blog to shape up and grow with me.......while I enjoy what I do, i would also like to bring more of the inner game here, so you grow with me via the blog.
I think what it would really be, is to have a theme or category in the publications and undertake various things in it. Basically, more of a lifestyle blog for the professionals.


Life- I started this year with returning from a lovely vacation and have taken the time to sort my head. There were days, I wanted to know what more can I offer to my work life, there are days i went to bed at 7.30pm (for almost  a month) because I felt tired and fidgety because i wasn't sorted. So i slept.... in the process of trying to know myself through readings, listening to some great stuff over the web and ideating and scribbling and doing nothing- i now know what I really want to do.

SIPM- the platform where mentors and mentees can meet has been down for a while now. I really wanted to give back to the community that has done so much for me and thats why I had created that platform with the help of my friends. I also thought it would be  a great setup to have a platform where anyone could have a mentor from anywhere in the world and you don' have to write hundreds of emails to do that. Thats why mentors signed up, professionals  who were also interested in giving back  and signed up saying I would love to mentor. I didn't make a dime out of it perhaps because I never considered it to be a business model and I know a lot of you have used it over the years and I couldn't be more thankful. I created for you, what I wish I had for me when I was starting out.

It also means that I have to keep on investing on it and with a lot going on now I am not sure if I really have the time to dedicate my time towards it. At one point i was ready to announce for anyone else to take it over and do  better marketing about the wonderful site than I have done.  For now its on hold, I havent fixed the website and I am rethinking. Would you like it to come back?

Others- there are other smaller interests that are cropping up and I am not sure if I can manage the time to invest myself in all of it it, I will give it a bit more of time and then probably take the final call. However, what I do know is that I would love to be more involved with my audience, people like you who have been reading the blog for a while now. It could be actually getting serious with my youtube channel, or creating a series of coaching sessions, a book and launching products that inspires all of us to look inward and find our inner game.

Has this New Year been different for you?

(Pic courtesy: Soma Bhattacharya, Paris 2017)


Random facts about me- Pt 2

This is personal, so if you are looking for reviews, PM updates or anything else, you might skip this post.


I always talk/interact through my blog and yet there are times when I read my post and think how much of it am I really doing?


I do most of it, except a few:
•I am not a good networker
•I don’t go to meet ups, PMI groups or randomly meet people over coffee- though I really really want to
•I am shy most of the time- I wish I could call up people and say- care to meet me for a blog interview and sushi/coffee/pasta?
•I have analyzed my behaviors- not sure if it’s a culmination of not liking to driving long miles or fear of getting judged.
•I dream big, have done it all my life- but I fall short when it comes to implementing it.
•Sometimes I am not as consistent as I want to be (read trips to gym). It’s a joke now that if I am half as consistent as I am in blogging here, I will achieve any goal.
•Sometimes I know what I have to do but I won’t do it. I procrastinate (in personal goals). 
•I don’t envy people usually, however sometimes I feel I had those qualities as they do.


So, I have set 3 new goals for me during this blogging break:
•By next year (Dec 31, 2011) I will double my annual income (honestly, I love the idea more than thinking and hard work involved in actually implementing it). 
•I will start working on my first e-book and schedule it- so I don’t have an excuse to miss it anymore
•I will call up people and meet even if I feel like a coward (so, if you are someone from Chicago- I would love to meet you, if you are not I can still call/skype you. Here’s my LinkedIn id as well , just incase you want to know a little more about before you meet me and yes please add me)


Since we are talking all about what I have done in the last 10 days, here’s some more:
•I changed the name of this blog, it still is called Stepping into Project Management, I removed the “newbies diary” from it and replaced with “the journey continues”. One of the reasons is doing that is I am not a newbie any more but I started out as one and I understand how it is. So, this blog is more about continuing my journey in the world of project management now and sharing it with you.
•If you haven’t noticed the SIPM has updates too, there’s a new forum to talk, share and brainstorm ideas with the SIPM community. Anyone can read, to comment you have to be registered and you can do it here for free http://beta.steppingintopm.com/.



Want to have fun and learn more from real life Project Managers, check out here.

SIPM updates and press release

Jun 15, 2010 | | 0 comments |
As you know we are working everyday to make the SIPM better, here are few updates:
  • Post login (if you are a registered user), the "network updates" will now display updates from your own network, which is either a newbie or an expert. This allow you to get to know your peers and network among yourselves.
  • System emails- All emails including welcome emails after registration or forgot password emails, sometimes go to your "spam" folder, please make sure you check it if you are expecting any emails from SIPM. We are working on it.
Thank you everyone who has signed up and all the encouragement through emails and twitter. To know more click here.

Here's our first published press release.


Want to have fun and learn more from real life Project Managers, check out http://beta.steppingintopm.com/