Project manager insights: An analysis of career progression

Abstract

The project manager is key to the success of any project. But the path to becoming a successful project manager is ill defined. In this study, the authors analyzed interview results of 87 project managers' responses to questions associated with entry into the field, career progression, and advice for the new project manager, seeking to better understand practicing project manager career progression. Qualitative analysis techniques were used to identify recurring themes from the interview summaries. The themes and the resulting conceptual framework provide evidence that supports the development of successful project manager career path. Further, the results suggest individual project management competencies in soft skills as a key enabler of project execution.

Is the Project Manager’s Road to Success Paved Only with Clear Career Paths?

“…As for the individual side of employability enhancement, contrary to the arguments we provided (Hobfoll, 1989; 2002), according to the available evidence (De Vos & Soens, 2008), as well as insights from the project management literature (Marion et al, 2014), employability was not associated with subjective and objective career success. This is somewhat surprising and implies that employability, as an individual resource that individuals can nurture and develop, plays no role in increasing project managers’ career success.…”

“…These relationships can support knowledge exchange and development and may be helpful with future career progressions and project assignments. Marion et al (2014), analyzing the interviews of 87 project managers, found self-improvement as a core theme in their discourse. In particular, they found that project managers were particularly keen in improving themselves over the course of their careers by taking an active role in preparing themselves for future assignments and projects.…”

“…Moreover, although protean and boundaryless career concepts have often been empirically examined via their respective subdimensions (e.g., boundaryless career as composed by boundaryless mindset and organizational mobility preference), because for more traditional occupational groups some assumptions of such concepts could not hold (e.g., a higher organizational mobility preference for open-ended employees that showed a stronger boundaryless mindset), we advocate that project managers emblematically embody both the protean and boundaryless ideas. As several scholars have stressed (Marion et al, 2014), given the peculiarities of project management, project managers need to be autonomous in their career management, follow their aspirations (Lloyd-Walker et al, 2016), and develop a propensity for collaborating with several colleagues both within and outside their own employing organization (Bredin & Söderlund, 2013; El-Sabaa, 2001). Crawford et al (2013, p. 1178) clearly exemplified this project management peculiarity when they stated: “Project workers, who move from organisation to organisation to lead or work on projects often seek out project roles that will enable them to develop increased knowledge and skills to build their career profile for future project roles.…”

Is Project Management Still an Accidental Profession? A Qualitative Study of Career Trajectory

“…In this analysis, two themes observed from "Project Manager Insights: An Analysis of Career Progression" (Marion, Richardson, & Earnhardt, 2014) were further analyzed to better understand the following:…”

From the Editors: Introducing the Special Issue on Megaprojects—“Symbolic and Sublime”

“…Rarely does a project management career begin within the profession. The typical project management career follows as a consequence of another career within the industry (Marion, Richardson, & Earnhardt, 2014). How well do we understand these entry routes?…”