In this podcast, Ricardo reflects on the profession of project management and talks about three links that the project manager needs to build during his career to make the profession worthwhile for him to society and to the company. He comments that the project manager needs to prepare like any other profession and that the path to becoming a great project manager is not simple.

Poll Results

Results Analysis

In this survey, with 413 participants, the result in favor of project management was overwhelming. 70% of participants believe that project management is an extremely promising career. Only 4% said the opposite.

Of course this result is directly related to people’s expectations. As my site discusses project management, it is obvious that the majority of participants visit the site because they are interested in project management and think this is a promising career. Those who don’t agree with this, probably, won’t even log in to answer the enquiry.

Personally, I think this is a good result and it is within my expectations. Of course I may sound biased saying that its worth or not to be a project manager. My life is totally connected to this subject for many years. But now I would suggest caution. As I said, and reinforced in the podcast I’ve recorded on this subject, the path to success is winding, difficult and risky.

Undoubtedly, project management is a wonderful profession and it can be very promising if properly managed. But we must not forget that is very hard to be a project manager. It is living on a tightrope walking, often without a support and a sponsorship, with a crowd down there, hoping to see you smash on the floor… Of course I don’t need to say that there is no safety net for this tightrope and an error can be fatal.

So let’s not delude ourselves thinking there is an easy result. In this profession, there is no easy way and there is a lot of hard work. And there are things that won’t give you the expected results. Knowing how to choose is a kind of art!