CAPM and Beyond: Tips to Start and Grow Your Project Management Career

One way around imposter syndrome is like, how can I add the resumable skills? And so part of that is pursuing a certification.

Part of that is on the job.

Once you decided to go for it, what did that plan look like? This is what I need to take what I think I'm good at and show the world that I'm good at it.

What really helped me figure out that I had the qualifications to do it was just looking over the background and what I had implemented in different ways.

That's one thing that they tell you is that project management can be small or it can be really, really large.

So being able to look back at my career at different areas, I was an aquatics director for a while, managing people, making sure we had safety in place, things like that.

That was probably one of the things that took the longest, though, was really acknowledging what skills that I had and what areas that I had them and not feeling like I was embellishing.

Before I even had my CAPM, I actually was able to start working for a company that kind of took me on to help build me up and really gave me that opportunity and chance to show my skills.

I think that that's one area that businesses and companies actually can really, really key into is that just because something doesn't always fit exactly inside a resume, things are still able to work.

And if someone has passion and ability and has the communication skills or the thought processes, those are some people that you really, really should take a risk on.

I actually have a pretty similar answer like Krista.

I started doing project management because I was called up in the company I was previously in.

From the first moment, I knew that it's something that I like doing.

For me, it was very hard in the beginning to manage conflicts and stakeholders because It's something that I was not used to.

But as Krista said, you look at everything you know, you look back and you see all you've done.

You realize that you're actually very good at what you're doing and that you can be even better and you can see where you're going.

Also getting a lot of help from my managers that helped me to see the mistakes that I'm doing, how can I handle these stressful situations, and so on, and also letting them take some responsibility for my mistakes as a junior project manager.

That helped me a lot, and it actually helped me develop to this point where now I can do these things with other junior project managers.

What about when you started to look forward, not just thriving in your current role, but starting to think, okay, what's the step after this? So what do I need to do to get ready for that?

Yeah, it was right on the first project.

I started looking into specifics and theory about project management because it was something that I was doing just based on what I was thinking I should do, not about something I studied.

So right away you started checking on what's the career path.

When it comes to that, you fall right away into PMI.

And for me, certifications that PMI provides are a very good way not only to improve your CV, but also to have a proof and formalize all this knowledge that you had before and put it into, let's say, official words.

When you initially went to BMI and sought out first the CAPM certification, later the PMP, was that primarily with the sort of certification in view and what that would do to your career positioning or was that for knowledge?