Service Management into Project Management
Discussion
I've been working within Service Management for nearly 9 years now and would like to get into the Project Management world.
It's something that I have wanted to do for a while now having sat Prince2 foundation about 5 years ago. I contract for work and the contracts kept coming and the daily rate kept going up, as a single person at the time it was great so I just continued to work within Service Management.
Since having my son, I'd like to be closer to home (currently do a 5 hour daily commute) and it's got me looking at Project based role's too as there are an abundance of them within an hour's journey from home.
Now the issue I have is having agencies consider my CV for a PSO/PMO role. I'm happy with the reduction in rate and I know I can't just jump into a PM role, but I've even struggling to get down to the interview stage for project based roles. Granted my CV is very heavily tailored to Service Management but without lying what else can I do on my CV to help with this? Can anyone offer me any advice?
I am also looking into sitting Prince2 Practitioner and/or Agile/Scrum based qualifications as well which seem to get your
CV onto the hiring manager's desk.
I've done transition duties, change and HOTS activities and have a few ITIL qualifications to my name as well.
Thanks for your time
It's something that I have wanted to do for a while now having sat Prince2 foundation about 5 years ago. I contract for work and the contracts kept coming and the daily rate kept going up, as a single person at the time it was great so I just continued to work within Service Management.
Since having my son, I'd like to be closer to home (currently do a 5 hour daily commute) and it's got me looking at Project based role's too as there are an abundance of them within an hour's journey from home.
Now the issue I have is having agencies consider my CV for a PSO/PMO role. I'm happy with the reduction in rate and I know I can't just jump into a PM role, but I've even struggling to get down to the interview stage for project based roles. Granted my CV is very heavily tailored to Service Management but without lying what else can I do on my CV to help with this? Can anyone offer me any advice?
I am also looking into sitting Prince2 Practitioner and/or Agile/Scrum based qualifications as well which seem to get your
CV onto the hiring manager's desk.
I've done transition duties, change and HOTS activities and have a few ITIL qualifications to my name as well.
Thanks for your time
My be a case of re-wording your Service Management achievements to bring in project keywords, for example:
Service transition = successfully landing €x (Agile?) project
Service Improvement Programme = Implemented project to improve service availability by 20%
Loads of possibilities here - use your imagination!
I think the Prince2 practitioner course is one of the better ones, in part as it's not 100% IT focused - and it shouldn't be. A project is a project, whether that's replacing an application or refurbishing tennis courts (one of the Prince2 test questions) - so the methodology can be applied anywhere.
When looking for PMs, I do prefer those with operational experience. These days my company has removed the service management layer to create larger, end to end roles where the management team are responsible for entire application life cycle rather than project team throwing something over the fence to 'operations'. So far I think it's a massive improvement, both for IT staff and their business counterparts.
Service transition = successfully landing €x (Agile?) project
Service Improvement Programme = Implemented project to improve service availability by 20%
Loads of possibilities here - use your imagination!
I think the Prince2 practitioner course is one of the better ones, in part as it's not 100% IT focused - and it shouldn't be. A project is a project, whether that's replacing an application or refurbishing tennis courts (one of the Prince2 test questions) - so the methodology can be applied anywhere.
When looking for PMs, I do prefer those with operational experience. These days my company has removed the service management layer to create larger, end to end roles where the management team are responsible for entire application life cycle rather than project team throwing something over the fence to 'operations'. So far I think it's a massive improvement, both for IT staff and their business counterparts.
I'm sure you have the experience.
The overwhelming Project Managers I meet today (in IT and technology) are coordinators and task-list compilers. They tick boxes. Gone are the days when a PM actually had some foresight and provided technical direction on a project, planned and actively managed risks, found alternate solutions, managed stakeholders up and down the business, had an ounce of commercial acumen... today they just tick boxes, fill in the PMO forms and coordinate.
They usually pester some poor guy in Purchasing to release the PO, so they can quickly move on to the next project and tick the "closed" box. Quality of delivery is very rarely measured.
I'd be careful which organisation you join and really ask some probing questions about how they do work, what the culture is. You could be the "administrator" for a project - which is basically a s
t job putting out mini fires on a regular basis and managing that glorious to-do list, with a few GANTT charts thrown in to show people you know what you're doing.
The overwhelming Project Managers I meet today (in IT and technology) are coordinators and task-list compilers. They tick boxes. Gone are the days when a PM actually had some foresight and provided technical direction on a project, planned and actively managed risks, found alternate solutions, managed stakeholders up and down the business, had an ounce of commercial acumen... today they just tick boxes, fill in the PMO forms and coordinate.
They usually pester some poor guy in Purchasing to release the PO, so they can quickly move on to the next project and tick the "closed" box. Quality of delivery is very rarely measured.
I'd be careful which organisation you join and really ask some probing questions about how they do work, what the culture is. You could be the "administrator" for a project - which is basically a s
t job putting out mini fires on a regular basis and managing that glorious to-do list, with a few GANTT charts thrown in to show people you know what you're doing.Thank you all for the responses. I'll forward my CV on to the poster's above.
I personally have no doubt that I don't have the right experience for the role, within my time as a Major Incident Manager I've had to present updates directly to the board of directors for some major outsourcing companies and to CEO's for the customer's as well.
Just need to get my foot into the door.
Mini rant time but my current role is driving me mad, only been in it for 2 months but sadly we are all treated like 5 year olds, never had a manager so power hungry that literally has no clue on what they are doing. My agency are aware and it's not the first time someone has raised an issue about this individual as well.
I went to a 2 hour Service Review meeting last week for the sole purpose of clicking next page on a PowerPoint presentation while making a paragraph of notes. Something that I challenged as not an appropriate use of my time (having ran these meetings before you don't need a note taker) and I was told your going as I told you too.
I need to use two hands to count how many times I have been close to handing in my notice. It is an option but not the smartest moves for me to make as I used up a fair amount of my reserves during the couple of months I had off after my son was born. It is also the main reason why I would like to make this jump as quick as possible.
I personally have no doubt that I don't have the right experience for the role, within my time as a Major Incident Manager I've had to present updates directly to the board of directors for some major outsourcing companies and to CEO's for the customer's as well.
Just need to get my foot into the door.
Mini rant time but my current role is driving me mad, only been in it for 2 months but sadly we are all treated like 5 year olds, never had a manager so power hungry that literally has no clue on what they are doing. My agency are aware and it's not the first time someone has raised an issue about this individual as well.
I went to a 2 hour Service Review meeting last week for the sole purpose of clicking next page on a PowerPoint presentation while making a paragraph of notes. Something that I challenged as not an appropriate use of my time (having ran these meetings before you don't need a note taker) and I was told your going as I told you too.
I need to use two hands to count how many times I have been close to handing in my notice. It is an option but not the smartest moves for me to make as I used up a fair amount of my reserves during the couple of months I had off after my son was born. It is also the main reason why I would like to make this jump as quick as possible.
EmilA said:
Mini rant time but my current role is driving me mad, only been in it for 2 months but sadly we are all treated like 5 year olds, never had a manager so power hungry that literally has no clue on what they are doing.
Some may have heard me talk about this before; you have to do your due diligence before taking on a new role otherwise this is a not unusual outcome.Get to know the organisation and the hiring manager as well as you can before you say yes.
I see many who spend hours and days pouring over the details of a new car or house before purchase, but when it comes to a new job, zilch!
IME Project Management isn't difficult but it's hard to get into.
I work in research/engineering and kind of just fell into it, a PM I was working with on my projects as the lead engineer moved on so short term I was asked if I fancied taking on some PM responsibilities. To me on a basic level it's just about talking to people and being able to hold people to account as and when required.
I've no experience outside my own sector but it does seem to vary from one organisation to another in terms of what they look for. For example I've not come across anyone who has done the prince stuff, the APM route seem to be the one the company I work for value but it's difficult to compare the 2. We're quite heavy on PM's doing a lot of the bean counting and financial forecasting/reporting, other companies I've worked with have cost engineer/accountants doing that stuff.
IMO it's worth getting into, I always have a engineering background and degree to fall back on but at the moment I could more easily find work as a PM than engineer.
I work in research/engineering and kind of just fell into it, a PM I was working with on my projects as the lead engineer moved on so short term I was asked if I fancied taking on some PM responsibilities. To me on a basic level it's just about talking to people and being able to hold people to account as and when required.
I've no experience outside my own sector but it does seem to vary from one organisation to another in terms of what they look for. For example I've not come across anyone who has done the prince stuff, the APM route seem to be the one the company I work for value but it's difficult to compare the 2. We're quite heavy on PM's doing a lot of the bean counting and financial forecasting/reporting, other companies I've worked with have cost engineer/accountants doing that stuff.
IMO it's worth getting into, I always have a engineering background and degree to fall back on but at the moment I could more easily find work as a PM than engineer.
Thanks Rog. You've seen my CV since you posted that comment and can possibly understand why it wasn't possible for me to learn everything about the job. I was also told one thing in the interview/job description compared to experienced something else doing the actual job.
The funny thing is that even though this team has been operating for 5 years, there are a lot of people who don't actually know what this team does.
Back on topic, I also agree that being a PM isn't hard, I've worked with a few over the years and they have also given me some tips, with all of them saying to me to sit Prince2 first of all and then watch the phone buzz for interviews.
I'll keep this thread updated with my journey incase anyone else is interested.
The funny thing is that even though this team has been operating for 5 years, there are a lot of people who don't actually know what this team does.
Back on topic, I also agree that being a PM isn't hard, I've worked with a few over the years and they have also given me some tips, with all of them saying to me to sit Prince2 first of all and then watch the phone buzz for interviews.
I'll keep this thread updated with my journey incase anyone else is interested.
I made this exact move (as many have). I worked in Service Mgmt for 10 years+. I would definitely advocate doing this.
There are many more avenues to follow in the project world. Without being vulgar, it’s possible to make a lot more money if that’s important to you.
I’d be happy to review your cv too, if needed.
Personally, ITSM lost its allure after a while - effectively damage limitation, having to apologise for piss poor quality and delivery.
There are many more avenues to follow in the project world. Without being vulgar, it’s possible to make a lot more money if that’s important to you.
I’d be happy to review your cv too, if needed.
Personally, ITSM lost its allure after a while - effectively damage limitation, having to apologise for piss poor quality and delivery.
paul789 said:
Personally, ITSM lost its allure after a while - effectively damage limitation, having to apologise for piss poor quality and delivery.
Thank you Paul, will also contact you when my CV is ready. Money is a factor but its more the work/life balance.
In an ideal world I'd love to be like a PM that I've worked with before, he contracts and does one project then takes 3/6/9 months off and then does another and so on. That would be perfect.
onedsla said:
.....These days my company has removed the service management layer to create larger, end to end roles where the management team are responsible for entire application life cycle rather than project team throwing something over the fence to 'operations'. So far I think it's a massive improvement, both for IT staff and their business counterparts.........
Massive generalisation on my behalf, but that's the way to do it. The Service Management layer is the problem; it's a silo generation methodology.EmilA said:
paul789 said:
Personally, ITSM lost its allure after a while - effectively damage limitation, having to apologise for piss poor quality and delivery.
Thank you Paul, will also contact you when my CV is ready. Money is a factor but its more the work/life balance.
In an ideal world I'd love to be like a PM that I've worked with before, he contracts and does one project then takes 3/6/9 months off and then does another and so on. That would be perfect.
EmilA said:
Thank you again gents.
The last contract I was working on ended on Wednesday last week. Taking on board alot of CV feedback and glad I made this thread.
Hi Emil - Just emailed through my thoughts. I think you're actually in a quite a good position to make the transition. Good luck!The last contract I was working on ended on Wednesday last week. Taking on board alot of CV feedback and glad I made this thread.
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