Foul Tech Sours

"On an annualized basis, employers will need to fill nearly 2.2 MILLION new project-oriented roles each year through 2027." - PMI, Job Growth and Talent Gap in Project Management 2017 With many seasoned project management practitioners reaching retirement age, there has been a threat of a potential gap in the availability of qualified talent in project management. As the global economy becomes more project-oriented, the demand for project management has continued to grow. Although project management professionals are trained and certified regularly, there are many factors that contribute to the loss of value of project management as an art form. In today's business environment, we want things fast, cheap, and potentially virtual if it will help reduce overhead costs. While many organizations have turned to third party project management consulting as a way to fill this gap internally, a newly emerging method of consulting is coming to change the game: micro-consulting

In the fall of 2016, I had the pleasure of taking Mr. Leslie "Jim" Sklenar as a professor for my Communications Management course. While there were many key takeaways from this course, the biggest takeaway for me concerned conflict resolution and management. Although this was not the primary purpose of the course, the brief overview of conflict resolution and management led me to a simple yet very relevant thought: It is not only the responsibility of a project manager to manage and control the triple constraint, but a project manager may need to also be a peer mediator. This year, during the fall of 2017 in an elective course titled "Special Topics in Project Management", Mr. Marcus Parker further broadened this perspective for me. A project manager's responsibility regarding conflict management is not limited to just peer mediation, but at times may require the project manager to be a teacher, a mentor, and (dare I say it), a referee. Though initially insult

In my short time as a professional, I've performed a few actions that I personally consider "checking the box": Graduated high school. Check. Got a government internship. Check. Got a technical undergraduate degree. Check. Obtained a job as a software developer. Check.  Got a job in project management. Check. Got my CAPM. Check. Completed a Master in Project Management. Check (Almost..two weeks left!) Although I have already gotten my foot in the door as a Technical Project Manager, I realize that many of my classmates have not yet penetrated the field. Being among my actual peers (age-wise) has made me realize that we are all completing these "checks in boxes", but don't know what to do next. We (yes, we) often find ourselves performing these accomplishments then asking "How do I...?", "What if I...?", or just straight up "Now what?" especially when it comes to entering the project management fie