3. Get a job
To get your first contract / perm job you should be searching on
http://www.jobserve.com
http://www.CWJobs.com
http://www.Seek.com.au
You can choose whether to look at permanent or contract work or both.
Put in IT as the industry and PMO as a key word, if you have no experience yet use keywords such as PMO Admin / Coordinator or Project / Programme Support – apply for as many as possible. It is extremely unlikely that you will get one close to home, unless you live in London where there are ample roles and Reading, Bristol, Swindon, Edinburgh, Leeds seem to also be hotspots, do be prepared to move where the work is – do not restrict your search to a certain area if possible to give you the widest choice for getting into the career.
Make friends with the recruitment consultants, recruit them on LinkedIn and eventually the jobs will start coming to you without you having to even look. Identify relevant recruiters by making a note of who has advertised a job and go and register on their sites as well. Upload your CV wherever you can to enable the most exposure.
The banks pay the best so if you can get a PMO Admin / Coordinator or Project support role in a bank on a low wage that’s a very good starting point. If not, try again next time. The main industries that you will find PMO jobs include councils, government agencies, service management companies such as Fujitsi, Atos, Serco, Logica, Oil and Gas companies, Utilities, Mobile Phone providers, Call Centres, Insurance companies and as mentioned banks. I have seen a lot of retail supermarkets advertising for PMO skills recently also. I started as a Project Admin Support in a local council (Matlock = Beautiful) and given their structured PRINCE2 approach and constant streams of new initiatives I would recommend this to anyone as a starting point / apprenticeship.
I offer a PMO Job Search Coaching Service if you are interested drop me an email
Once you have the first position, I can guarantee, unless you never turn up to work, are rude, or don’t even try to meet deadlines you will never look back and within a year or so your wage will have doubled – as a contractor this is. Then the sky is the limit really – the rest is down to you.
Make the most of every opportunity, complete any training you come across, pick the brains of everyone you meet – planners, technical people, suppliers and try and get them to show you how to work as many of the tools they use as possible – SharePoint, Clarity, MS Project are all good ones – there will be plenty of opportunity for you to get into these areas.
Tip: A smile and hint of enthusiasm goes a long way
You can remain as a PMO if this suits you – it suits me because I get to do all the Programme / Project Management activity but do not have the responsibility for delivery which suits me just fine. The PMO is responsible for supporting the project through its life cycle and coordinating required activity and I will do my upmost to make it a success but the buck does not stop with me. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink!
For those who are interested there will also be opportunity to apply for and work on Project management roles, do this also if possible to gain the experience – look for junior and deputy PM roles in the first instance, but do look at senior PM and PMO salaries just to get an idea of where I am leading you to (especially Contracting salaries). PMO Manager Salaries are good, PMO Director and Consultancy perm jobs are even better and sometimes can compare to contracting wages.
If you do decide to investigate the contracting route please look at my other blogs on this topic as I have explained a lot about how to manage this and the financial aspects and options for Limited or Umbrella company etc. If you have any further questions I’d be happy to help and will start to create a FAQs list to update this blog.
http://informationferret.co.uk/2012/03/13/hints-and-tips-on-contracting-jobs-and-getting-them/
http://informationferret.co.uk/2012/03/12/contractor-perm-dilemma-part-1/
http://informationferret.co.uk/2012/04/07/contracting-umbrella-vs-limited-company/
Also, if you do use the advice provided above I would love to know how it all turns out and see examples of your activity.
info@informationferret.co.uk
Final thought
A good way to promote yourself in business or just to keep the family updated on your movements and progress is to set up a blog. There are many free tools out there to help you set this up and I would recommend you do; it is a useful skill to have not only technically but also creating, planning and managing your blog content are all transferable skills that can be added to your CV. Use of these tools demonstrates an ability to keep up with and utilise fast moving technology trends and make you seem more attractive to an employer. I use mine in the hope that it will promote my services to the right kind of employers and establish me as a credible player in the PMO market.
Thats all folks … Good Luck
