[AMA] I'm a Project Manager - with Extra's

weezlebub on 04/09/2019 - 14:40
Last edited 06/09/2019 - 11:51 by 1 other user

Sooooo, I've worked in projects the last 12 odd years, some highligths:
- A project showcased to 50,000 group westpac staff
- $90m reconciliation 'black hole' fixed
- Unified communications
- Security, Identity & Access Management
- Video recording & streaming
- Contract management

Industries
- banking, finance, superannuation
- state government
- commonwealth government
- defence
- construction
- ICT

Also have a bit of experience in:
- owning / running businesses & partnerships
- politics (2013 federal candidate)
- psychology
- steering committee's / boards of management

But if you'd just like some dating advice, I'm happy to oblige :)

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  Mackeg02 on 04/09/2019 - 14:56

  +6

  do you drive a hilux?

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    weezlebub on 04/09/2019 - 16:27

    nope, i've got a really old land over discovery (circa 1999)

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  Changskies on 04/09/2019 - 15:50

  As a person working with a lot of Project Managers, I'm a tad curious if you run multiple projects from different company at once? Also, how do you manage your time well?

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    weezlebub on 04/09/2019 - 16:30

    +1

    Generally not, some consultants try to … and fail poorly …

    There's the official approach of "schedule, plan and keep on top of things"

    My unofficial approach is to reply to emails as quick as possible, do a 'quick and dirty' version of everything as soon as you can, then make it nice and pretty as time allows (then you're never caught behind when they want something early) … avoid unnecessary meetings as they can waste your time very quickly …

    The biggest thing for me is to do what I feel like doing at the time - if I feel like playing with excel, I'll do that for a while, if i need a break from the desk, I'll go for a wander around the office and touch base with stakeholders, it keeps you busy, productive, without feeling like you're working too hard

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  Changskies on 04/09/2019 - 15:51

  Dating advice needed too - what's your secret ;)

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    weezlebub on 04/09/2019 - 16:31

    Be loud, be fun, enjoy yourself and have no shame … if you like a girl, tell her, the worst thing you can do is not act because that will always lead to nothing …

    Once you're in a relationship, I'm not too sure, I've had a LOT of 6 month relationships, so I'm obviously doing something wrong :)

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  Serathis on 04/09/2019 - 16:02

  How do you become a Project Manager?

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    weezlebub on 04/09/2019 - 16:33

    My path was a little out of the ordinary … started in telecommunications, then went to a scheduling coordinator role, took a job in finance, then back to IT in the asset & procurement space …

    Applied for a job with part of the Westpac group when they first introduced their 'gallop' survey and managed to be one of the few to pass, before i even knew what a business analyst was (the job specs just sounded interesting) … That's where you get to apply the knowledge from a range of areas into a project environment, learn the lingo, work on a few smaller projects autonymously, then take on bigger and better projects

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      Serathis on 04/09/2019 - 17:19

      ok I'm confused, so are you a Project Manager in Construction?

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  GG57 on 04/09/2019 - 16:09

  Is there some sort of rule for AMA posts, that the OP is expected to respond to questions within a defined timeframe?

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    weezlebub on 04/09/2019 - 16:34

    Sorry, just had to finish a specs document and send a few emails, I'm all yours for a little longer, then will resume when back in the office

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  DarthAntz on 04/09/2019 - 16:21

  What's the deal with project management?

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    weezlebub on 04/09/2019 - 16:38

    +1

    Again, the 'official' vs 'my' perspective …

    officially, project managers manage the time, quality and budget of a project …

    my approach is more of a methodology, for example, in a small business, if you want to change your accounting software to a different program you kind of just do it … when companies get bigger, roles turn into more 'functional' jobs, people do work, team leaders manage teams, managers manage team leaders and executives manage managers … they're great at doing their job, but they're not so good at implementing change and understanding the flow-on effect of the change …

    So you go in, find out what they want to do, figure out all the messy bits (processes, licenses, technology), write a document that gives them a few options with some really rough costings, get a signature, get funding, figure out all of the stuff that you missed the first time around :)

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  serpserpserp on 04/09/2019 - 18:19

  As a Project Manager have you ever hired people into your team?

  If so, have you taken on Business Analysts that are not "traditional" in both experience and training?

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    weezlebub on 05/09/2019 - 09:27

    I actually hired staff as a BA, but that was a technical writer and a data entry person …

    As for BA's, I don't think there's really much of a 'traditional' job spec, they're more of a specialist-generalist … so depending on the project, if you have transferable skills, you may be considered … Projects vary greatly, so sometimes technical skills or business knowledge are more important than project skills

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  specks on 04/09/2019 - 18:36

  Do you have any advice as to those studying to become a PM?
  How do you find the balance between being bossy and getting others to get the job done?
  How/was it easy to start a career in pm?
  Thanks!

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    weezlebub on 05/09/2019 - 09:28

    Advice … a lot of book-learnt PM's are kind of hopeless and a lot of organisations don't really care …

    With state government, we once had a lady who had completed a communications degree and had no project management experience, she managed to negotiate a rate almost triple what the other PM's were on and didn't actually 'do' much other than go to meetings

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  johndowy on 04/09/2019 - 19:02

  How much did you earn last financial year?

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    weezlebub on 05/09/2019 - 09:31

    Very little, I was talking to an associate who had a construction compnay and he wanted a project manager and someone to do the book work / invoices / all of the back office, contract and admin stuff … the deal was 50-50 with a slow lead-in time … 9 months later, when the first invoices started rolling in I was told that the deal was off and he wasn't going to pay a cent (80k ish) … that's currently going through litigation …

    While I was doing that, I was supporting myself with tenants, mobile computer repair and assisting a friend writing psychological reports … do what you have to do to get by

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      dtxau on 05/09/2019 - 20:24

      How about which bracket, as "very little" could mean $150k, $200k, etc:

      $80-$100k
      $100-$120k
      $120-$150k
      $150-$175k
      $175-$200k
      $200k+ excluding super, gross.

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        weezlebub on 06/09/2019 - 11:08

        less than 80k last year, but I was on full time hours @ 100$/hour on previous roles

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  yellowfever on 04/09/2019 - 20:59

  Do you wear a puffer vest and/or RM Williams shoes

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    serpserpserp on 05/09/2019 - 09:29

    That is the Melbourne casual Friday's uniform you know…

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      weezlebub on 05/09/2019 - 09:32

      bloody hipster w*nkers!

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    weezlebub on 05/09/2019 - 09:32

    No to the puffy vest, yes to RM Williams … bought my first pair a few years ago and I'm never looking back!!

    Sure, they're expensive, but they just look good, last and don't stink like your 300$ myer shoes

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  djones145 on 04/09/2019 - 21:16

  agile or waterfall

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    weezlebub on 05/09/2019 - 09:36

    Good question and one of my favourites … a friend and I often joke about agile …

    Agile can be great, if you're doing software development on a mobile app with a dispersed team that you don't really trust …

    Waterfall has clear stage gates and set deliverables, which I much prefer, as long as there's accountability to not let things drag on for too long and status updates …

    When I was with a commonwealth government agency in Canberra, they had zero capital expenditure for the previous 20 years, they managed to secure $250m to spend before the next government came in … they had no PMO, no maturity, no templates, standards, governance, or anything … they called this 'agile' and had well over a dozen consultants from different agencies working on anything and everything (every system, the processes, the methodology, the strategic plan - EVERYTHING) … in that instance, my role was to identify and define user roles and permissions in the current state and future state with everything shifting and no transparency … great fun, but a mess that didn't work too well …

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  GG57 on 05/09/2019 - 08:58

  I've found your answers to date pretty much aligned with my views on PM roles.

  I get a little frustrated when "Technology PMs" view technology as the primary focus of a project. In my view, technology is a tool that can be used / changed to deliver project goals. Even a project such as changing an accounting software package or program would only be undertaken to deliver some sort of benefit, most likely business-related. Otherwise why would anyone do it.

  Do you have a similar or alternate view?

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    weezlebub on 05/09/2019 - 09:45

    It really depends on the project …

    Unified Communications (instant message to voice to video conference) was all about the technology to get the current state and to define how any solution would work, from there, the documents just dumbed everything down for management to sign something to get approval for the money …

    The situation that I thought worked the best was with a shared services agency in state government … every fortnight a group of 'operational managers' would meet to assess all new requests for change … we'd get a ball-park figure of how long it would take to get some really rough effort estimates:
    - if it was under 20 hours (and only involved one function or agency), we'd call it business as usual (BAU)
    - if it was over 20 hours, we'd call it a project and I'd do some more investigating and throw together a 3 page business case

    From the business case, we knew who needed to be involved, what needed to be done, what would be impacted and a rough idea of the benefit (legislation, machinery of government and other project types just had to be done though)

    If the business case was approved, it'd either be allocated to a project team with a scheduled date, or I'd just run with it (if it was quick'n'easy or something i wanted to do)

    Back on technology PM's, I'd much rather one of them to a PM-PM, they care about the solution and tend to have less 'fluff' involved in the project "what do they need", "how do we do it", "get it done"

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  timmy_tam on 09/09/2019 - 15:29

  hi OP,
  do you have to go find your own work? i guess alot of it would be on a temp basis? ie. 6 month contracts etc?

  do you worry about being out of work?

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    weezlebub on 12/09/2019 - 15:37

    Hi there, just saw the post (sorry about that)

    Yes, I do it as a contractor most of the time, good rates, but gaps between

    Being between gig's is difficult, but I tend to minimise costs and spend a lot of time paying off debt that's been accrued :) currently living with girlfriend and renting out my house, but previously lived with housemates quite a bit

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  TheSithLife on 17/09/2019 - 11:06

  Hi OP! Currently a Design Manager (6 months in) in an SME engineering firm (previously worked as an engineer 3 years prior - same firm) and planning on taking on a Project Manager role in the near future.

  I have been told to start looking at obtaining additional qualifications to assist me with the role. I have completed a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering nearly 4 years ago. I am looking at either Grad Cert or Grad Dip. I understand that both are the same in terms of AQF level. However, Grad Dip comprises of more units.

  My problem is, there are so many universities offering online courses (I've got no choice but to do online due to when I currently reside) and I have no idea which university to choose. Another thing is whether to do Grad Cert or Grad Dip. Both still lead to Masters (if I ever want to do one).

  My long term career vision is to climb up the ladder into the Corporate Tree (so not just stuck project managing big projects for the rest of my life).

  Long story short (if it's ok), I would like your advice in regards to the following:
  - Grad Cert or Gard Dip
  - Which university (or Organisation)
  - Any tips on climbing up the Corporate Tree?

  Thanks! (apologies for the long post!)