Project Manager Interview with Sierra

At 18 years old, Sierra was employed by a Northern California construction company in the payroll department.  Before long, she was given small, additional duties assisting ongoing projects.  As her talent and potential in the role was recognized, she was continually tasked with increasingly complex roles and greater responsibility under the mentorship of the owner.  She credits his confidence in her ability and guidance as an invaluable catalyst to her growth and success.  Her title soon evolved to project manager and Sierra managed her first $1 million project at 20 years old.  She now has over 10 years of experience in the project manager field.  

Her career progressed as the company grew and project bids were won.  She enjoyed the high stress environment, the problem-solving, organizing, and working with a diverse set of people.  The less enjoyable part of the career is that the stress was not left at work; it permeated her off time as well.  She would bring work home, always be on-call for problems, always worrying if the project was progressing as planned and if the budget was running over- would it be possible to fix.  These are the by-products of caring about the job and you have to care in order to do the job well, but it can be overwhelming at times. 

When discussing the field of Project Management, Sierra identified communication, organization, and an ability to work under pressure as the most important skills to bring to the career.  In her experience, the technical side can be taught and team members can be assigned the tech-heavy duties, but being able to communicate needs, obtain key information, and monitor an entire project are skills the project manager must have and are much harder to teach.  No introverts in this field.  With the many moving parts of projects, one broken piece can impact the entire project and one must be able to work with all kinds of people in order to make the project come together. 

Three keys to success:

1.   Know who to assign to specific jobs.  For example, some people are best at new projects, others with modification jobs.  Some people are best for military contracts, others with school projects.  Assigning man hours based on the capabilities of the team members is important.     
2.  Double check budgets yourself.  The project team’s estimator will present their final estimate at the beginning of the project meeting.  How the estimate was developed is discussed openly.  Your own estimate should be completed with separate interviews of subcontractors in order to compare and contrast the final numbers.  Having a second set of eyes will catch missing pieces and lower the risk of running over budget.  Any discrepancies are discussed and strategized.  At the end of the day, there are no excuses only unhappy customers and diminished reputation (and possibly your job) if you get it wrong.
3. People communicate differently; figure out how to get the information you need.  For example, she worked with one subcontractor who would simply not return phone calls.  Once she realized this she tried e-mail.  If that didn’t work, she would make a personal visit to their office.   You will work with people who yelled at you, people who simply wouldn’t do what they should, but you have to work through it, shutting down is not an option.

  As a final note, Sierra has found that working in project management has helped her to better handle projects in her personal life and to become a natural leader.  She finds herself assuming the leadership role in daily tasks and many situations outside of work.  It can be hard to let others run the show. Perhaps it can be said, once a project manager, always a project manager.