Moving from a senior admin role to project work

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Funky316
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Joined: Tue 29 Mar 2016 7:04 pm

Good evening all,

New user to the site, good to be here, looking forward to hearing your views and offering some of my own.

I have been working in a senior admin role of a leading accountancy body's exams department for 5 years in the UK. My role has evolved in the past year and I have been heavily involved (from the business side) in the development of a new system to handle applications in a more effective manner and improve the customer journey. This experience has pushed me towards project management and I think I have the skills to succeed in this field. I signed up to an online course which deals with the following areas/methodologies:

PRINCE2 FOUNDATION | PRINCE2 PRACTITIONER | Six Sigma Green Belt | Six Sigma Black Belt (SSBB) | Project Management Professional (PMP®) - PMBOK® Guide - Fifth Edition-aligned | PMI Risk Management Professional | ITIL V3 Foundation | ScrumMaster (SM) | Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)

Is it normal/wise for those interested in project management to focus on one type of methodology or to cover a range to determine which they can most relate to? Are any of the above deemed redundant in 2016? Are there some that are used heavily in some countries but never touched in other countries? How hard is it to bag a project officer/administrator role without any qualification? Anything specific I should be adding to cover letters when applying for roles to get ahead?

PRINCE2 is the one I am gunning for but do not want to put the blinkers on if there is value to be had elsewhere. I am also meeting with a project management recruitment expert soon to discuss the matter. Any top questions I can ask him/her?

I am aware a similar query will have been put forth prior to this query, but was unsure of where to position it so I created a new topic, for better or worse.

Also, I am aware that a good project manager requires to be clear and concise in his/her communication, which is ironic with this lengthy post!!

Any input/advice would be much appreciated.

Many cheers.
D
stonesfan
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Joined: Thu 15 Aug 2013 1:43 pm

Hi D

Sounds like you are motivated enough to make the jump into PM. I don't work as a Project Management Professional, but am hopefully well on my way there. As far as qualifications go you have done the right thing.

I'd suggest out of those PRINCE2 Foundation and then Practitioner. Employers seem to value this qualification highly. Its possibly the best value qualification for the effort required and the value added to your CV. Interesting that they list PMP on their portfolio. This qualification is highly regarding in North America, and I believe Australasia. However, and others more senior to me on here have alluded to it, it doesn't carry that much value in the UK considering the effort required to achieve it. This is mentioned in a sticky thread at the top of this page. You also need a high number of hours of PM experience in order to take the course and exam. It appears that some 'cheat' the entry prerequisites but with other highly valued qualifications available why defraud yourself? I've recommended it on other threads but take a look at APMP certification. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be listed on your package but having attended the course and sat the exam I'd suggest this is the 'must do' for any aspiring PM. Will say again :) Think of PRINCE2 as training, APMP as education. It's becoming highly valued in the UK and I believe is considered comparable to PMP if you want to use it abroad.

Good luck

Adam
Funky316
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Joined: Tue 29 Mar 2016 7:04 pm

Good evening Adam,

Thanks for taking the time out to offer some interesting feedback.

I plan to concentrate on the PRINCE2 Foundation, then move onto the Practitioner and hopefully it will become evident to me along the way which others I should dip into. It is particularly interesting to learn of PMP's reduced value in the UK. I do not want to go down the fraudster path, or 'waste time' when I could be investing my time in other more rewarding areas...such as APMP. I have never heard of this so will be doing some research this evening to see what it is all about.

Do you have anything specific to add about SCRUM and Six Sigma?

Are you involved in a project role at the moment? If so, did you reach here after studying project management, falling into it via an evolving work role or via another route? I am applying for project officer roles so just trying to determine how best to approach my applications.

Thanks again Adam.

Kind regards
Duncan
stonesfan
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Duncan

Unfortunately have absolutely no knowledge on six sigma or SCRUM. My present role is actually 'Senior ICT Analyst' which started out as a primarily technical support role. However, I've 'fallen' into managing projects and actually find this a lot more enjoyable than the techie stuff. Finally found something of which appears to come naturally! I believe a fair number of Project Management Professionals started in this fashion.

Regards

Adam
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