PM Career Development

Repost of Episode 289: Optimize Your Project Management Career - Part 3 - Late Career & Consulting (Free)

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We are reposting this interview because the price for The Career Optimization Package has been reduced to $6.99
What's Included in the Package?
Dev Ramcharan, PMP
Dev Ramcharan, PMP, CSM, CCTC

This is the third and final of three interviews in which Dev Ramcharan (LinkedIn Profile) from AROUCA Career Coaching helps you to optimize and boost your career. In this interview we focus on the late career phase and also touch upon consulting.

Allow me to repeat my recommendation on listening to this series of interviews one final time: You will get the most out of this series of interviews if you listen to them in sequence, no matter if you are currently in your early career, mid career or late career. This is because each of the three interviews contains many nuggets of wisdom applicable to any career stage. And of course... Dev’s Career Optimization Package can be found on The PM Podcast website. Just go to www.pm-podcast.com/career and download the free version first.

In this final interview you learn that the late career is really the peak of your experience, knowledge and wisdom. As well as the money you earn. But at the same time, this is also the moment to think back to the time when you started out in your career, and now you need to help out and mentor an eager young project manager at the start of his or her career.

The one unexpected topic that you will also hear about is adversity in the sense of getting laid off or overlooked for a promotion during any of the stages in your career. Dev shows you that you can use adversity as your ally to move your career forward. And finally Dev closes with his suggestions for a structured approach to personal growth.

Repost of Episode 288: Optimize Your Project Management Career - Part 2 - Mid Career (Free)

Play Now:

We are reposting this interview because the price for The Career Optimization Package has been reduced to $6.99
What's Included in the Package?
Dev Ramcharan, PMP
Dev Ramcharan, PMP, CSM, CCTC

This is the second of three interviews in which Dev Ramcharan (LinkedIn Profile) from AROUCA Career Coaching helps you to optimize and boost your career. In this interview we focus on the mid-career phase, which starts about 2-3 years into your life as a project manager.

In this interview you learn that there is an early mid-career and also a late mid-career, and that both require a different optimization approach. We talk about when and how often you should update the Career Optimization Package and how to perform a career risk assessment.

As part of this interview, Dev also recommends the following two books:

My recommendation is still the same: To get the most out of this you should listen to all three interviews in sequence, no matter if you are currently in your early career, mid career or late career. And don’t forget to get Dev’s Career Optimization Package from The PM Podcast website. Just go to www.pm-podcast.com/career and download the free version first.

Repost of Episode 287: Optimize Your Project Management Career - Part 1 - Early Career (Free)

Play Now:

We are reposting this interview because the price for The Career Optimization Package has been reduced to $6.99
What's Included in the Package?
Dev Ramcharan, PMP
Dev Ramcharan, PMP, CSM, CCTC

If you are listening to this podcast, then you are most likely either someone who wants to start a career in project management or you are already working in the project management field and you want to advance in your career. Well… you have come to the right place. This is the first of three interviews that will help you optimize and boost your project management career.

My guest is Dev Ramcharan (LinkedIn Profile). Dev is not only a PMP certified project manager, but he is also a professional career coach with AROUCA Career Coaching in Canada. That means he not only understands the profession of project management but he also has the coaching background to guide you and me into successful project management careers! And my oh my is he good!

We have recorded three interviews and each focuses on one stage of your career. The stages are early career, mid career and late career. My recommendation is that you listen to all three interviews in sequence, irrespective of your current career stage. So no matter if you are an absolute newcomer to project management or if you are a highly respected and senior VP of project management… you should listen to all three interviews starting with this one here.

Also, Dev has developed the Career Optimization Package for you. This package is just over 30 pages long and contains templates, workbooks, tools and plans to help you review, optimize, plan and boost your project management career. You can download this package for free in both PDF and Microsoft Office format from The PM Podcast website. Just go to www.pm-podcast.com/career. You’ll see that there is a 32 page long free version (that’s the one we talk about during the interview) and there is also a premium version.

And with all that out the way here's an overview of our first interview with Dev Ramcharan: We start out by looking at the benefits that a career in project management gives you, discuss the key factors and skills that will help you make your project management career a success, then we move on to discussing how to optimize your early career and we close the interview by looking at how to use the Career Optimization Package.

Note: During the interview I say that the free package is about 50 pages long, but the correct number is 32 pages. I'm sorry! I was looking at the wrong file. My mistake!

Episode 373: Stuck on your Project? Get Un-Stuck with ProjectManagement.com (Free)

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The best Project Management Professional (PMP)® exam prep is PMP Training on your mobile device:
The PM PrepCast for the PMP Exam

Danielle Ritter
Dani Ritter and Cornelius Fichtner

This interview with Dani Ritter was recorded at the 2016 PMI® Global Congress in San Diego, California. Dani is the Manager, Community Engagement at Project Management Institute and her primary focus is the PM community of www.projectmanagement.com.

In the interview we discuss:

  • Why projectmanagement.com is at the congress
  • Its mission and relationship to PMI
  • How much it costs being a member (spoiler alert: it's free!)
  • The available resources, some of which are free PM templates, white papers, or webinars
  • How the community can help you if you have a PM related question
  • The online games (PM Wars and PM Challenge) that it offers
  • How members can get the most out of the site
  • How anyone can earn free PDUs by reading articles and attending virtual events

PDU Tip

This interview is 14 minutes 46 seconds long. This means that you can "legally" not claim any PDUs at all, because the minimum is 15 minutes for 0.25 PDUs. However... if you first listen to the interview and then also visit the site and spend at least 14 seconds reviewing all the great templates that they offer, then you can go ahead and claim 0.25 PMP PDUs in the technical category!

Click to visit the website

Episode 361: How to Become a Project Leader (Free)

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This episode is sponsored by the PMP Exam Simulator:
PMP Exam Simulator

Niraj Kumar
Niraj Kumar, PMP

Leadership in project management is an important topic these days. And if you are like most project managers then you may have fallen into project management a bit by accident. And then, after you have successfully delivered a few projects, suddenly everyone tells you that you must improve your project management leadership skills.

Effective project management, they say, depends a lot on your project leadership, and we have many leadership podcasts in the archives to help you do that.

But today we are tuning in to another expert in the field. Once you realise that you have to transform into a project leader then leadership training will be part of your ongoing professional development, and that is where our guest can help.

Niraj Kumar (www.leadproje.com -- http://www.linkedin.com/in/thenirajkumar) is a leadership expert and proponent of self-growth through continuous learning. Together we explore his view on leadership, how these skills help you as a project manager, how they help you when dealing with senior executives. We talk about the power of project leadership and as always we include a lot of tips on how you yourself can improve how you approach project management and leadership starting today.

Leadership Checklist

As part of this interview Niraj offers a free leadership checklist to all our listeners. Please click here to sign up and download your checklist...

Episode 336: The PMP® Exam is Changing on January 11, 2016 (Free)

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Simona Fallavollita, PMI Product Manager
Cornelius Fichtner and Simona Fallavollita

Are you studying for your PMP Exam, and did you know that the exam is changing soon? And maybe you are wondering about one of the following questions:

  • Why is the PMP exam changing in 2016?
  • Wait... wasn't it supposed to change in 2015?!
  • So when exactly is the PMP exam changing?
  • What exactly is changing with the PMP exam?
  • Do I have to study new topics?
  • Is there a new PMBOK® Guide?
  • Are my study materials still OK after the PMP exam changes?

We have the answers to these and many more questions about the upcoming changes.

This interview with Simona Fallavollita (Program Manager, PMI) was recorded at the 2015 Global Congress in Orlando, Florida. We review the upcoming PMP exam changes, how this affects training companies, what PMP students can do to prepare for this change, and look at some of the detailed changes that are coming to the PMP exam early next year.

Spoiler alert: The PMP exam changes were originally scheduled to go into effect in 2015 but were later moved to early 2016 for scheduling reasons, and no there is NO new PMBOK Guide.

Episode 335: Key Steps to Advance Your Project Management Career Path (Premium)

This episode is reserved for subscribers of the Premium Podcast. Learn how to subscribe to the Premium Podcast to access this interview and transcript...

Emad Rahim
Dr. Emad Rahim, PMP, OMCP

Do you feel stuck in your project management career? Or maybe you know that you need to do something to advance but there are so many other things competing for your attention that you just have no time?

Dr. Emad Rahim, DM, PMP (www.linkedin.com/in/erahim, @DrEmadRahim) has a few ideas for you that will most certainly help you out.

This is not only about making a career plan, and getting certified. But it’s also about making sure that people in your industry -- and more importantly -- the senior executives at your place of work actually notice you and the value you provide so that you can walk the project manager career path.

Episode 334: PMP® PDU Program Updates are Coming On December 1st 2015 (Free)

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Victor Carter-Bey, Director Certifications
Cornelius Fichtner and Victor Carter-Bey

Do you have a PMI® certification like PMP®, PgMP®, PfMP®, PMI-ACP®, PMI-RMP®, PMI-SP® or PMI-PBA®?

If yes, then this interview is extremely important to you because the rules on earning PDUs are changing on December 1st, 2015.

In a nutshell: PMI is introducing the Talent Triangle, which has Technical Project Management, Leadership, as well as Strategic and Business Management on its three sides. Going forward you must earn 60 PDUs every three years including PDUs in each of these three areas.

This interview with Victor Carter-Bey (Director Certifications, PMI) was recorded at the 2015 Global Congress in Orlando Florida. We review the Talent Triangle, the details of what exactly changes with the PDUs including the PMP PDU categories, the timeline of implementation and how to report them going forward.

Please visit the PMI website for all the details on these changes...

Episode 333: Project Manager Career Path Boost Through Thought Leadership (Free)

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This episode is sponsored by The Agile PrepCast for the PMI-ACP® Exam:
Earn 37 PDUs with The Agile PrepCast

Emad Rahim
Dr. Emad Rahim, PMP, OMCP

If you are looking to boost your project manager career then you are very likely thinking along the lines of getting a mentor, taking on a stretch assignment, going back to school to get a degree or certification, or maybe even improving your public speaking skills.

But most likely you haven’t thought about accelerating your project manager career path through thought leadership in project management and joining the ranks of famous project managers out there.

And if you think that becoming a thought leader in project management is hard to do, then think again.

Our guest Dr. Emad Rahim, DM, PMP (www.linkedin.com/in/erahim, @DrEmadRahim) assures us that talking about what you love -- project management -- through writing, speaking or simply by finding and sharing pertinent articles will make you get noticed as a thought leader in our industry.

It’s a simple but powerful concept to boost your career in project management.

Episode 330: Project Coaching makes you a better Project Leader (Freemium)

This is a Premium episode that we are making available to all our listeners. Please click here to learn more about The Premium PM Podcast...

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Susanne Madsen, Author
Susanne Madsen - Author and Leadership Expert

Generally speaking there are six leadership styles: authoritative, democratic, affiliative, pace setting, commanding and coaching. Each one of these has its time and place.

But for you and me as project leaders, project management coaching should be at the top of our list. After all, it is the people working on our projects who get things done, so we want to unlock their potential.

And leadership coaching may just be the answer.

A little while back we had Susanne Madsen on one of our leadership podcasts to discuss how her Project Management Coaching Workbook can help unleash your potential. And today, we are going to do a deep dive into various coaching techniques and how it can make you a better project leader. The tips you'll pick up will help you get better at motivation and coaching skills and working with your colleagues.

Episode 325: Project Management Coaching and Mentoring - A How-To Guide (Free)

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This episode is sponsored by The PM PrepCast for The PMP® Exam:
The PM PrepCast for the PMP Exam

Jeff Furman
Jeff Furman, PMP - Project Management Coach

Have you ever considered being a project management mentor to another PM in your network? I can tell you from personal experience that while project management coaching sounds like a lot of work the return on investment that you personally get out of it is immense.

And so, when I received an email from Jeff Furman (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jefffurmanlinkedin) and he offered to discuss some of the mentoring approaches that he uses as a project management coach I was all for it.

In our discussion Jeff and I review:

  • Staying in touch
  • Answering questions
  • Helping people connect
  • Helping out on social media for project managers
  • Writing recommendations
  • Recommending resources
  • Guiding your mentees to become mentors themselves
  • And last but not least… Speed Mentoring

As you can probably already tell, none of these project management mentoring approaches are rocket science. But we still have some good best practices for you to follow.

Coaching and mentoring is useful for all project managers, but it's especially useful in emerging roles, or where you don't feel that your job description is particularly clear -- the role of project manager in SAFe agile springs to mind as an important position, but perhaps one that is less understood than 'traditional' approaches to being a project manager.

Episode 295: PMI Certifications and their Value for Your Project Management Career (Free)

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Frank Schettini and Cornelius Fichtner

This Interview with Frank Schettini was recorded at the PMI® Global Congress 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona.

Frank Schettini is Vice President of Information Technology for the Project Management Institute (PMI). But our interview has nothing to do with IT whatsoever. Instead, we focus on PMI's suite of professional certifications and their value to project managers in their careers.

We begin by discussing the 30th anniversary of the Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential and if the PMI® Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)® will ever overtake the PMP certificate. Then we switch gears and look at the talent triangle (which encompasses your technical skills, leadership and business acumen) and how the trend for "fast, online PDUs" is a bit counter to the central concept of the triangle. We close our discussion by taking a detailed look at both the Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)® and the PMI® Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)®.

Episode 289: Optimize Your Project Management Career - Part 3 - Late Career & Consulting (Free)

Play Now:

Dev Ramcharan, PMP
Dev Ramcharan, PMP, CSM, CCTC

This is the third and final of three interviews in which Dev Ramcharan (LinkedIn Profile) from AROUCA Career Coaching helps you to optimize and boost your career. In this interview we focus on the late career phase and also touch upon consulting.

Allow me to repeat my recommendation on listening to this series of interviews one final time: You will get the most out of this series of interviews if you listen to them in sequence, no matter if you are currently in your early career, mid career or late career. This is because each of the three interviews contains many nuggets of wisdom applicable to any career stage. And of course... Dev’s Career Optimization Package can be found on The PM Podcast website. Just go to www.pm-podcast.com/career and download the free version first.

In this final interview you learn that the late career is really the peak of your experience, knowledge and wisdom. As well as the money you earn. But at the same time, this is also the moment to think back to the time when you started out in your career, and now you need to help out and mentor an eager young project manager at the start of his or her career.

The one unexpected topic that you will also hear about is adversity in the sense of getting laid off or overlooked for a promotion during any of the stages in your career. Dev shows you that you can use adversity as your ally to move your career forward. And finally Dev closes with his suggestions for a structured approach to personal growth.

Episode 288: Optimize Your Project Management Career - Part 2 - Mid Career (Free)

Play Now:

Dev Ramcharan, PMP
Dev Ramcharan, PMP, CSM, CCTC

This is the second of three interviews in which Dev Ramcharan (LinkedIn Profile) from AROUCA Career Coaching helps you to optimize and boost your career. In this interview we focus on the mid-career phase, which starts about 2-3 years into your life as a project manager.

In this interview you learn that there is an early mid-career and also a late mid-career, and that both require a different optimization approach. We talk about when and how often you should update the Career Optimization Package and how to perform a career risk assessment.

As part of this interview, Dev also recommends the following two books:

My recommendation is still the same: To get the most out of this you should listen to all three interviews in sequence, no matter if you are currently in your early career, mid career or late career. And don’t forget to get Dev’s Career Optimization Package from The PM Podcast website. Just go to www.pm-podcast.com/career and download the free version first.

Episode 287: Optimize Your Project Management Career - Part 1 - Early Career (Free)

Play Now:

Dev Ramcharan, PMP
Dev Ramcharan, PMP, CSM, CCTC

If you are listening to this podcast, then you are most likely either someone who wants to start a career in project management or you are already working in the project management field and you want to advance in your career. Well… you have come to the right place. This is the first of three interviews that will help you optimize and boost your project management career.

My guest is Dev Ramcharan (LinkedIn Profile). Dev is not only a PMP certified project manager, but he is also a professional career coach with AROUCA Career Coaching in Canada. That means he not only understands the profession of project management but he also has the coaching background to guide you and me into successful project management careers! And my oh my is he good!

We have recorded three interviews and each focuses on one stage of your career. The stages are early career, mid career and late career. My recommendation is that you listen to all three interviews in sequence, irrespective of your current career stage. So no matter if you are an absolute newcomer to project management or if you are a highly respected and senior VP of project management… you should listen to all three interviews starting with this one here.

Also, Dev has developed the Career Optimization Package for you. This package is just over 30 pages long and contains templates, workbooks, tools and plans to help you review, optimize, plan and boost your project management career. You can download this package for free in both PDF and Microsoft Office format from The PM Podcast website. Just go to www.pm-podcast.com/career. You’ll see that there is a 32 page long free version (that’s the one we talk about during the interview) and there is also a premium version.

The premium version is a much more complete package, because it contains additional career tools, checklists and workbooks. So compared to the free version, the premium gives you a comprehensive, full career-life-cycle coverage with a powerful toolset. We are launching this  premium version initially at the price of $6.99 but we are also giving away FOUR copies. As always… two copies are reserved for our Premium listeners and two copies are open for grabs. Please go to www.facebook.com/pmpodcast and participate in the giveaway. We will draw a winner at the end of October 2014.

And with all that out the way here's an overview of our first interview with Dev Ramcharan: We start out by looking at the benefits that a career in project management gives you, discuss the key factors and skills that will help you make your project management career a success, then we move on to discussing how to optimize your early career and we close the interview by looking at how to use the Career Optimization Package.

Note: During the interview I say that the free package is about 50 pages long, but the correct number is 32 pages. I'm sorry! I was looking at the wrong file. My mistake!

Episode 287: Download Your Free Career Optimization Package

Download PDF Version... Download DOC Version...

Career Optimization Package

The Free Career Optimization Package is developed and provided to you by Dev Ramcharan from AROUCA Career Coaching. It gives you the basics you need to optimize your career.

Note: In episode 287, 288 and 289 I say that the free package is about 50 pages long, but the correct number is 32 pages. I'm sorry! I was looking at the wrong file. My mistake!

Get the Premium Career Optimization Package

The Career Optimization Package is also available as a Premium version. The Premium Package with its powerful toolset provides comprehensive, full career-life-cycle coverage.

Click here to compare Free and Premium side by side...

Episode 284: Project Management as a Career - The Wideman Education Foundation (Free)

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Episode 284: Project Management as a Career - The Wideman Education Foundation (Free) #PMOTAre you an accidental project manager? You know, someone who was thrust into the project management role without much fanfare, introduction or even education? Well… you are not alone. It happened to you, it happened to me and it continues to happen to thousands of other project managers throughout the world.

Wouldn’t it be great, if there were organizations out there who introduced young people to the concepts and approaches of project management? There are! And that’s good news for the future of our profession.

Joan Vincent (www.linkedin.com/pub/joan-vincent/4/902/531) is President of the Wideman Education Foundation (www.widemaneducationfoundation.org) whose goal is to promote sound project management principles and skills, especially among young people.

As part of this the Wideman Education Foundation is dedicated to attracting young individuals into the project management profession and helping them develop the organizational and leadership skills they will need to succeed in today’s job market. Through workshops and competitions the foundation fosters essential, basic, practical skills like preparation, planning, teamwork, communication, and delivering presentations.

It’s all about getting the next generation of project managers interested in the profession.

Episode 166 Premium: Career Networking with a Purpose

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Episode 166 Premium: Career Networking with a Purpose

This episode is not about project management. It's about how to find your next project management job.

This is a premium episode. And normally, that means that only our paying, premium subscribers can listen to it. But we have decided that for a second time in just 2 weeks we are giving everyone access to this premium episode.

Why? Because this episode is once again not about project management per se, but it is about job searching strategies. In particular, it is a discussion with Career Coach Tim Tyrell-Smith (www.timsstrategy.com) about a presentation he recently gave called: Career Networking with a Purpose. And because there are so many PMs out there looking for a job, I found that it's important to let everyone hear this and help them find a job. 

Episode 146: Projects, Programs, Portfolios & Career Advice

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This episode is sponsored by:
The PDU Podcast

Episode 146: Projects, Programs, Portfolios & Career AdviceAt this year's PMI Atlanta Chapter's Professional Development Day, Tom Mochal, PMP (www.tenstep.com) presented a 2.5 hour long workshop. It was simply called "Successful Project Management" and was based on the premise that the days of the monolithic, complex, multi-year project are over. Tom says that they are just too hard to plan, manage and complete within expectations. He argues that the better approach is to break large initiatives into multiple smaller projects. These smaller projects are easier to manage and they each have a much better chance to be successful.

Of course, if each project was managed independently, the entire initiative would be at risk of losing focus and getting out-of-control. So... Enter the Program.

A program is the organizational structure that is established to coordinate and guide a large initiative made up of multiple related projects. The program provides an umbrella structure over the entire initiative and has the high-level visibility and continuity to guide all of the underlying projects toward overall success.

Shortly after the workshop ended, I had a chance to sit down with Tom and discuss his approach to project, program and portfolio management. And we even manage to sneak in some career advice for you as well.

W also announce a giveaway where one lucky Project Management Professional(PMP)® out there is going to win a copy of The PDU Podcast. The PDU Podcast is our sister podcast and you can learn more about it at www.pducast.com. It's a convenient way for PMP® and PgMP® credential holders to earn their PDUs through webinars that are delivered to you as a Podcast. Listen to the first 5 minutes of this episode to learn how to participate.

 

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