A very few weeks ago, I was actually faced with what seemed a very mundane task-hiring a brand-new project manager. I currently have completed this an amount of times prior to, however for a bunch of cause, hiring for this particular position was actually more difficult compared to almost all.
I’d like to share to you exactly how we handled the particular task of finding the particular right raw hire. I may outline exactly how you contacted the position plus the criteria some of us chosen for evaluating candidates.
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Define the project manager position
The actual initially step ended up being to define what we all were seeking with regard to a project manager. Just what made filling this particular position harder was that you happened to be creating a new assistant project manager (APM) position for rolling out completely modern technology. There was clearly not an one out there alongside experience doing what we had been acquiring willing to be able to do. As a happen, some of us needed that would think inside terms of general techniques as well as grow the entire particular technical abilities about them.
For this project, the APM would be accountable for coordinating multiple rollout teams within the field. These teams will be within nonstop correspondence with all the APM, who consequently will be communicating project progress to be able to the particular customer representative. In this case, I decided that would focus on acquiring somebody who had strong project management abilities, ideally inside a field-force environment, nevertheless definitely not really any kind of technical project experience.
This might be really a pretty suitable strategy for hiring project managers total. My experience tells me personally that strong project management techniques usually are significantly more important (then conversely harder to find) compared to the specific technical techniques relevant to the actual project. For illustration, I have detected project managers within the construction and even healthcare fields successfully result in the transition that would running development projects, whilst I include detected excellent technical folks fail whenever moving into managing projects pretty similar in order to the ones the two currently have effectively worked with regard to the previous.
Not an luck finding a qualified project manager?
Anybody may call himself or alternatively herself a project manager (plus various do). I believe that PMI PMP certification (Project Management Institute’s Venture Management Professional) typically is a surefire signal of solid project management techniques and also preparing. Check out my recent post regarding the PMI PMP.
The particular ratio of PMPs in order to positions typically is astoundingly low, then because a result, the particular salaries PMPs will demand is actually commensurately very high. Within this case, the project budget (and in addition project timing) dictated that limiting the candidate pool to be able to PMPs ended up being unrealistic. Throughout this situation, I tend that would consider 2 key regions when examining candidates: experience as well as personal work habits.
Gauging experience
I believe which past experience is actually the number one signal of future performance. When looking at resumes, interviewing candidates, plus checking references, probe for specific project management experience.
Lots of persons will list project management on their resumes whenever with regard to fact the two were managing a particularly little venture team indeed: Themselves. Attain the facts on venture scope. An advantageous project manager might at least roughly keep in mind the dollar value associated with the projects the two include managed, in addition to the size of the project teams.
A person whom answers, “I wasn’t seriously taking part in the budget side of elements,” or throws numbers at your needs which don’t jive (such as a three-person team pulling off a $10 million project) can be overreaching.