Personality type for Project Managers

Ever thought about the personality type you belong to and how it can contribute towards your effort in becoming a PM? If you are already one, what traits in you helped you become successful?

I happened to stumble on this article which talks at length about the qualities needed. Here are few questions taken from the article which to-be-PM's perhaps should think over.

• What basic skills do I lack, and will they interfere with my work?
• What non-Project-Management experiences will help a person be a good Project Manager?
• What are my strongest skills, and will I exercise them daily?
• If I become a Project Manager, what style of management would I tend towards?
• What organizations will best reflect my own values and complement my personality? Where will I “fit in”?
• Why are certain parts of the job so difficult for me?
• How can I grow into the job? What training or experiences will help?

To know more about your personality, visit here .

(Picture:Google Images)

How technical should a PM be?

If you have been haunted by the universal question of how technical a PM should be; I'm glad there are people penning down their thoughts on this.

I have met employees and industry peers who are vocal about the fact that expertise in the domain knowledge is a must and then they are some who believe that you really don't need to.

If you read the resume of Project Manager's, some of them are not in the same domain as their college days. I have always been intrigued by the fact- does it really work? It's more of a personal reason you see, I currently work in IT and belong to the communications background. So, I'm always looking for people to attest to the fact that you don't have to be an engineer to manage an IT project.

I hope some day, I can interview PM's and know their opinion on this. Of course, it goes without saying that basic domain knowledge helps and if you are an expert, merrier it is. However, it's perhaps not a necessity.

My mentor 1 (yes, I have 2, 3 and 4) always encouraged me to get into PM and said it helped that I was from non-technical background because it allowed me to connect to my clients very easily and the relationship boosted the communication process.

As long as someone was telling me I could be a PM- I was happy. So, while reading through PM blog's I found this article on PM's technical expertise, click here to read more on the subject.

(Picture: Google images)

CAPM and Life Thereafter

The Ambition
If you need reasons why you need to qualify the exam, take your pick:
*People (read team, your boss and future employers) will take you seriously and your ambition to become a PM
*Talk about getting the right opportunity
*You will be motivated to reach out for the next goal, no matter how tough it seems
*Career gets a boost
*You look forward to advance your stand as project management subject matter expert.
*A tad bit easier to get into entry level project management job profile.

The Preparation
You register for the exam through PMI and you get hold of the PMBOK. Is that enough? Ok, so now you start reading blogs, you are well informed but you have to get through the exam.

Tricks anyone?
*You have to think very clearly, so keep your mind fresh and ready.
* The questions are not as simple as they look. There will be a trick word or underlying meaning which affects the answers. Look out for the words.
*Out of the 4 multiple choice answers, chances are 2 will be wrong. The other 2 will be almost the same; the decision you make will have to be exclusively by re-reading the question (based on 1-2 words in the question).
*Understand the concepts and why a process is executed.
*The roles of the individuals and how it affects the projects

Don’t assume you will get the PMBOK right in your first reading, you won’t. Read the book without understanding the details. Once you have finished with your first reading, try it again- more you read better you understand the picture.

Reading the PMBOK is essential no matter what other books or prep materials you follow. Try starting as early as possible. Divide your time, to read through the material at your pace, re-read it and understand. Then take a break to think over the concepts. Resume with the reading of the book and the prep materials. If you know peers who have appeared for the exam it’s a great help. Unfortunately, I am not lucky here and relying more on my guts.

The Thereafter
Ok you have guessed it- I haven’t seen the thereafter.
Remember, my exam’s on September 15! How confident am I? Not much actually I’m completely blank at this point. I don’t want to take the pressure to pass the exam. Do I want to? Desperately. I have never taken an exam so publicly in my life as this one, my results will be somehow part of the blog for the entire world to read and of course my team at work will know it as well. Embarrassing I say (if I don't make it).

Never mind is what I say to myself- its part of the journey. Whether I get it or not the fact that I took up the challenge is a boost enough. I’ll get it.

To all dreamy eyed to-be PM’s- don’t give up your dream and there’s no shame in pursuing it. Take up the challenge and once you are in it and part of it- you will get it.

(Picture: Google Images)

This is your chance

Elizabeth of PM4 girls, is giving away 5 copies of her book to celebrate her blog winning in the Project Management blog category. To get hold of it, all you have to do is email her. I for one, am definitely not letting this chance go wasted.

To get hold of the much coveted book, please click here.

Picture: Amazon.com

To you- dear reader

Dear Reader,

Thank you for the comment (given below)

Good luck on your journey to PMship. Browsing PMHUB, I cannot help but noticing that there are many acronyms, like CAPM, PMP, PMI-SP, PMI-RMP and also PgMP. Hope you can cover this acronyms for me. I do not want to ask in PMHUB since it is probably for those who are already with lots of experience in their pocket.

The credentials are for:

• CAPM- The Certified Associate in Project Management
• PMP- The Project Management Professional
• PMI-SP- PMI Scheduling Professional
• PMI-RMP -PMI Risk Management Professional
• PgMP- Program Management Professional

Hope this is helpful.

Picture: PMI

Real Advise

Ok, advises are not to be wasted.

Here's one for the to -be young PMs. We are the "spring chickens" but aren't we glad to get some advise from Project Managers?

Honest Confessions

I have a few more days to get prepared for my CAPM exam. To be honest, I havent been doing much, which makes me nervous.

Long hours of work later, I haven't been studying. There are times when I have thought to postpone my exam, however I will appear for the exam no matter what.

Advantage: Since I have been studying for a while, I am hoping I can get through the exam.

Disadvantage: I perhaps need to focus a hell lot more.

Here's one mistake I made and you shoudn't. I read the PMBOK and then borrowed a preparation book for PMP from a friend of mine to get an idea. It has been going pretty well, till I saw some of the questions for CAPM through a trial version of some website and was stunned. The questions for CAPM are more of a test of your knowledge about Project Management than the indepth intricacies of it. So, finally I realised I was over-preparing for the exam.

Here's the fun part, while I am enjoying the challenge in a way, it is definietly not the wisest thing to do. So, please read up more and know about the exam before you start preparing for it.

Anyways to conclude, I am still up for the exam on September 15.

Here's something to relax your mind at work.

(Picture: Google images).