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Project Manager Jobs: How Prepared Am I To Get One?

Project manager jobs are among the toughest ones in almost all industries. In order to get qualified for a project manager job, technical or trade skills are not enough, even if you are the best specialist of all in your domain of activity. Why is that? Simply because the project manager is the piece that holds everything together and makes the machine function. As a project manager, you need to be aware permanently of the evolution and the situation of each of your team members, of each part of the project you are coordinating. You must have a global vision of things, you need to be able to think in a visionary manner, to figure out how hundreds of small steps can be combined into what we call a dance.

Must Have Skills for Good Project Managers

If the dream of your life is how to get a project manager job, you'd better sit down and think this into more depth. Do you know what skills you need as a project manager? We assume that you want to be a good one, not just another bureaucrat walking with papers from door to door.

First of all, project manager jobs require excellent comunication and negotiation skills. These abilities are necessary because you'll be dealing with a team of people belonging to different departments in your company, people who have different bosses, with different priorities. Your project is your priority, but if the boss of one of your team members tells him to work to something else than you project, you cannot interfere with his decision. Here's where your negotiating skills come into play: make that boss allow his inferior help you, make him understad and feel that your project is a priority for the company above all other things. Why would you need communication skills? Your team members know that you are not their boss, so they can choose to disobey your directions.

Flexibility is another must-have skill on a project manager job description. Some wise guy said that in any organization, victory belongs to the most flexible element. Indeed, flexibility and a little bit of the NLP technique called mirroring can do wonders for your project development. Being flexible does not mean that you let everybody do whatever they want. It rather means that you activate your lstening skills, and hear what each member of your team has to say. In this way you'll be able to understand their objections, thus making it easier for you to shatter them down one by one.

Is a leader born or made? Maybe it's a bit of both. Nevertheless, project manager jobs certainly require leadership skills. People in your team need to recognize you as a leader. Most of the times, humans like to be led. All you have to do is find the way of doing it without offending anybody. Respect them and lead them. Listen to them and tell them what to do. Watch your project grow and celebrate each success with your team. Celebration should be part of our live. Always make sure to give feedback to your co-workers. Make this feedback balanced and constructive and they will respect you and follow you in everything you'll say. 

Psychologists have determined that project management jobs are some of the most stressful. The pressure of deadlines can be immense. Many times, respecting those deadlines is beyond the project manager's powers and capabilities, because of the unknown that may happen in every second. This is very much in line with Myrphy's law: if something can go wrong, don't worry, it will! You need to remain calm and responsible and come up with solutions and ideas for the most crazy situations. Besides, if anything goes wrong, it will always be your falut and everybody will hate you, from your team members to your boos and even your client. Moreover, it is very probable that your family would hate you, too, because you'd be tempted to neglect them in favor of your job as a project manager. If you asked me, I'd never do that again in my life, but who am I to talk? If you are reading this, you are probably young, daring and motivated, so please, go on, find the cool project manager jobs you want so much and take the challenge of being the best.