Advice please: career change - project management?

[NativeWildlife]

Hello,

I'm thinking about a career change into project management, but I have no idea where to start.

If you know about project management, please help me out!

Background: I'm mid 40s, been a secondary science teacher for 15 years so need to match salary of about £40k (so going to entry level is a problem).

I love teaching, I'm good at it. I don't want to leave. But I also do not want to go into management, and so I'm looking at a pay cut every year now. We can't afford that.

Do you think I can retrain?
What kind of courses do you recommend?
Which flavour of project management do you think is best?

I've also started doing some data camp courses. Not sure what I can do with that but it's interesting.

Good morning, just a hopeful bump.
Forgot to say I've namechanged, obviously. Not my first time here.

Sign up to APM. Their website has a lot of free resources.

Project management is really varied, e.g. construction project management is pretty different to IT project management. Do you have any idea what sector you want to work in?

It would be unusual to jump straight into a PM role without experience first.

I work with PMs in a Client role, and have managed teams of PMs. I was a PM a long time ago, but jumped to Client when my organisation restructured.

By far and away the best PMs I have ever worked with, are these who've worked jn the industry- in my case construction. My best PMs have all been design engineers, site managers etc before moving to PM roles. One who stands out, has worked his way up from driving dumpers as a school leaver.

Is there any kind of educational organisation who employs PMs you could look at? DfE? Local authority ? Oak Academy?

PRINCE2 gets mixed reviews, but if you want to work in the public sector, it will open a lot of doors. It still has collateral in the private sector too.

This, in a nutshell. A lot of people in my former career think that they’ll jump into a project management role because they’ve managed projects. But it’s a discipline and a professional skill set.

You can do courses and qualifications that will teach you project management in general (Prince 2 etc.), but usually not for a particular industry or field. For example, you might know how to organise and prioritise, but if you went into construction as a PM, how would you know whether to get the plasterers or the joiners in first? For that reason, most PMs have worked their way into the role having spent some time ‘on the shop floor’ as it were. Unless there are education based PM roles, in which case you may have that pre-requisite specialist knowledge? It’s not an area I have any experience of.

Even for more generic roles, you’d still suffer the disadvantage of not being an experienced PM with a successful track record under your belt, and in competition with those who are.

Of course, it’s possible to become a junior/assistant PM and learn/gain experience that way. But that route probably won’t give you the salary that you need.

YY to looking at APM

What about pursuing coding as a career change? As others say, industry knowledge is really important for pm.
The whole field of data science etc is rapidly growing and you will have transferable skills.
speak to the national careers service? There are also a number of threads on here with some experts on.

As others have said it’s much easier to get a PM role with domain experience. I manage large IT projects for a niche industry and do not have any PM qualifications but have worked in that industry for 30 years in varying roles. Without blowing my own trumpet I know how much easier it makes the job for me because I understand the terminology/process/nuance and business needs of our clients. I manage people who do the job that I did for about 20 years.

Agree with PPs, all good PMs have an understanding of the trade they are working in.

Presumably you have a good understanding of how a school works, so I suggest you start looking at any role involved in implementing change in an educational environment. This covers anything from physical change through to process/organisational change.

As a challenge, could you give an overview of the steps and sequence of opening a 6th form in an existing secondary school?

My DH studied to be an engineer for years. He worked his way through from being hands on in designing projects to project management in a specific construction area. He had to manage a huge number of workers in every type of construction role as well as bringing in the project on time. He was self employed, so no holiday or sick pay.

I cannot imagine a teacher with no experience in the field doing this job, which is highly competitive.

Incidentally, and not in anyway what you’re asking, but have you considered auditing? At the stand next to me at a recruitment fair I recently attended was from an auditing company, 36k starting salary plus 4K car allowance and the usual perks (healthcare etc.) for new auditors.

No qualifications needed as they’ll train you. Key skills are being able to engage with people, present findings and write reports on those findings, so should fit in well with your experience.

I’ve just completed an ISO:9001 Lead Auditor course with my current role (which isn’t being an auditor), and I’m tempted myself.

Have you thought about looking at civil service roles? You can work up to PM roles.
I don't think you can gain a PM qualification and go straight into a PM role with no experience in the field.
Its usually project assistant or project support officer first.

Sorry for quoting your opening post, I didn’t mean to!

I think in general its hard to career change without a pay cut initially in most cases.

I’m a PM in the financial sector. I agree with pps that most good PMs bring previous experience of their sector - I was an operations administrator then manager for years before moving to PMing. It would be v hard to work as a PM without the industry background, understanding of the jargon and fundamental principles etc.

So in your shoes I would focus on looking for PM roles in the education sector. (I work on short term contracts - 6-12 months - so I keep an eye on PM roles being advertised. There are always a few PM roles being advertised in the education sector). Your industry experience, organisational skills, common sense and previous PM experience are more important than formal PM qualifications, so if you can land your first project assistant / PM role that will be great for your CV.

Also, would you consider training and education roles rather than PM-ing. That is also a good transferable skill from teaching that you could use in my industry - running training workshops and the like. Again previous industry experience would be helpful, but you would quickly learn as you prepare the training materials etc. just a thought, as there are a few trainer/training manager roles being advertised in my line of wrk at the moment.

I’m a PM in the public sector and earn less than £40k

i’ve got a relevant MSc, prince, apm, as well as various other specialist qualifications and 15 years experience. You might struggle to achieve £40k off the bat.

Thanks folks.
That's the reality check I needed.

I'm not keen on staying in the education sector, education is weird, I can't explain it properly. Don't get me wrong, I really do love teaching, but management is not for me.

Thanks to the poster who suggested data science - this is something I've thought about. I need to plan my lessons (and do my marking) and then get back on Data Camp to actually learn something. Any more tips there would be welcome!

And the PP that suggested auditing - thanks for that, I'll have a look. Do you have any extra info?

Thank you, yes, this is something else I've thought about.

Any tips here would be great - DataCamp have lovely basic intros to R, Python & SQL. My SIL works for ONS and reeled off another 3 languages that I immediately forgot!

@DomesticShortHair thanks for your message, that's really helpful and one to look into.

I know, and we really can't afford a pay cut right now.

I'm already tutoring to help pay for the ... everything

Thanks for this too, I have been keeping an eye the civil service jobs - I have a friend that keeps trying to recruit me, but not found the right area yet.

I'm going to have to rejoin linked in, aren't I?
I hate linked in (and I hate Twitter). I'm not cut out for self promotion.

😂 I feel your pain. I hate LinkedIn and self promotion too, but yes sadly needs must! Good luck!

Yes I agree with this. It tends to be a combination of industry experience and then having the right sort of 'ability' to manage projects. It's quite hard to be a good PM. A lot of people are PMs but their ability is pretty questionable in my view. I think you need to have some natural ability really succeed in it.

Big4? That sounds quite a lot higher than average starting salary for a graduate audit trainee as far as I was aware.