To the Next Generation of Project Managers
Advice for aspiring project managers: ask questions, embrace what you don't know, and remember that leadership is ultimately about people.
To the Young Woman Thinking About a Career in Project Management
I was once asked what advice I would give a young woman considering a career in project management.
At first, it seemed like a simple question. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized my answer couldn't come from a textbook, a certification guide, or a list of project management best practices. It had to come from my own journey.
If I could sit across from a young woman today who was considering this profession, the first thing I would tell her is this:
You do not have to know everything before you begin.
I wish more people understood that about project management.
At first, this profession can feel intimidating. Methodologies, certifications, schedules, budgets, risks, stakeholders, technical terminology, and countless tools to learn. You may walk into meetings where people have years more experience than you. You may work with engineers, developers, executives, architects, vendors, and subject matter experts who understand things you do not.
That doesn't mean you don't belong in the room.
One of the most important lessons my career has taught me is that a project manager does not have to be the smartest person in the room or have every answer. Our responsibility is often to ask the questions that help the people in that room find the right answer.
That distinction changed the way I viewed my profession.
Learn to Ask Questions
When I was newer in my career, I sometimes felt I needed to understand everything before I could speak confidently. Experience taught me something different.
Sometimes the most valuable thing I can say in a meeting is:
Can you explain that to me?
Or:
What happens if we do not do this?
Who is responsible for the next step?
What are we missing?
What could prevent us from finishing this on time?
Strength lies in asking a thoughtful question.
Never pretend to understand something because you are afraid of looking inexperienced. Ask. Listen. Take notes. Go back and learn.
Your knowledge will grow.
Project Management Is About People
Schedules matter. Budgets matter. Risks, requirements, scope, documentation, and deadlines all matter.
But after years in project management, I have come to believe this profession is ultimately about people.
You will work with people who communicate differently than you. Some will give you too much information. Others will give you almost none. Some will respond immediately. Others will need three follow-ups.
You will work with people who disagree.
You will sit in meetings where priorities compete, deadlines move, requirements change, and unexpected problems appear.
Your job is not simply to manage a schedule.
You are often the person who helps everyone keep moving in the same direction.
That requires communication, patience, organization, emotional intelligence, curiosity, and sometimes the courage to have an uncomfortable conversation.
Those skills are just as important as knowing how to build a project plan.
Do Not Be Afraid of What You Do Not Know
Technology has been a significant part of my project management career, and I have worked alongside people with highly technical expertise.
I am not expected to do their jobs.
I am expected to understand enough to ask good questions, recognize dependencies, identify risks, communicate what is happening, and help remove obstacles.
That is something I would especially tell a young woman entering technology project management.
Do not allow technical terminology to convince you that you do not belong.
Listen.
Ask questions.
Learn.
Eventually, the language that once sounded foreign will become familiar.
And then one day, someone newer in the profession may be sitting beside you feeling exactly as you once did.
Remember that feeling and help her.
Your Mistakes Will Teach You
I would also tell her that she is going to make mistakes.
I certainly have.
You'll have a meeting you wish you had handled differently. You'll have a question you realize later you should have asked. You may have missed a risk early on or had a communication that could have been clearer.
Learn from it.
Project management is a profession where experience matters because every project teaches you something that the previous project could not.
Do not measure your career only by the projects that went perfectly.
Some of your greatest professional growth will come from the projects that challenged you the most.
Never Stop Learning
Another lesson I would share is to remain a student of your profession.
My career did not stop developing when I learned the fundamentals of project management. I continued learning because the profession continued changing.
Today, that change includes artificial intelligence.
AI is already changing how project managers organize information, prepare communications, summarize meetings, analyze information, develop questions, and approach everyday project work.
I do not believe that means the project manager becomes less important.
I believe it changes what will make a project manager valuable.
The project manager of the future will need to know how to work with technology without surrendering judgment to it.
AI can help us organize information.
It can help us communicate.
It can help us identify questions we may not have considered.
But it cannot replace accountability, relationships, organizational knowledge, leadership, ethics, or human judgment.
That responsibility still belongs to us.
The future project manager will need both technological confidence and human skills.
Protect Your Human Voice
As technology becomes more capable, I believe something else will become increasingly valuable: being human.
Learn how to communicate with people.
Learn how to listen when someone is frustrated.
Learn how to recognize when a stakeholder needs a conversation instead of another email.
Learn when to challenge something respectfully.
Learn when to admit that you do not know.
And learn how to build trust.
You can't simply automate those abilities.
They are part of leadership.
You Do Not Become a Project Manager Overnight
If I could go back and speak to a younger version of myself, I would tell her not to be so concerned about having everything figured out.
Careers are built gradually.
- One project.
- One difficult conversation.
- One mistake.
- One lesson.
- One new responsibility.
- One person who believes in you.
And eventually, you look back and realize how much you have grown.
I am still learning.
I hope I never reach a point in my career where I believe there is nothing left for me to learn.
So, Should You Choose Project Management?
If you enjoy bringing order to uncertainty, solving problems, helping people work together, asking questions, learning new things, communicating, and seeing something move from an idea to a completed result, project management may be a wonderful profession for you.
But understand that it is not always easy.
There will be pressure.
There will be difficult days.
Projects will test your patience and your confidence.
There will also be moments when you look at something that now exists because a group of people came together, worked through the problems, and finished what they started.
You helped make that happen.
There is something incredibly rewarding about that.
So, to the young woman wondering whether she belongs in project management, my advice is simple:
Walk into the room.
You do not need to have every answer.
Bring your curiosity. Bring your willingness to learn. Bring your ability to listen. Bring your work ethic. Ask questions. Find good mentors. Learn from the people around you. Keep developing your skills, and don't let what you don't know today convince you that you cannot become the person who knows it tomorrow.
And when you have been in the profession long enough to have a seat at the table, remember to look behind you.
Another young woman may be standing at the beginning of her career, wondering whether she belongs there too.
Make room for her.
