Last Updated: June 27th, 2022 by
All businesses have strategic goals that they want to reach. To do so, they’ll plan projects that bring them closer to success and assign a project manager to lead the entire effort.
Keep reading this guide to discover how to become a project manager. Here, you’ll learn about the process to become one, the responsibilities you’ll have in that role, and the average salary you’ll earn.
Visit our Career Guide for a list of all our job insights for an in depth look at the new career path you are considering.
Job Description
As a project manager, your responsibility is to plan projects and lead a team to finish them on time and within budget.
To do that successfully, you must plan tasks for your team and prepare the resources they need to do them.
At the same time, you’ll regularly update any stakeholders on the project’s progress while answering any concerns they might have.
Throughout the entire process, you’ll help your team to solve any problems that appear. Some of those problems will likely happen outside of working hours, so you must always be reachable to your team.
Read our related article on How to Become a Product Manager. Manage the quality of products to ensure customers’ needs and wants are met.
What Does an Average Day for a Project Manager Look Like?
Before learning how to become a project manager, you must first decide if that’s the career for you. The best way to figure that out is to understand what a project manager does every day.
Here’s what a day on the job will look like for you:
Check Project Updates
Your average workday will begin with project updates.
Whether you’re working on just 1 project or a few of them at the same time, you’ll probably get lots of project-related emails or messages after working hours.
So, your day begins by going through all of those messages and replying to them as needed.
For example, you might get updates about:
- Changes in the project’s scheduling
- Problems that happened while you were away
- Challenges your project team members are experiencing
Remember: You’re the project manager, so you must be aware of everything in your projects. That begins with checking project updates each morning.
Meet With Team Members
Most of your day as a project manager involves meeting with your team members.
Some of those meetings will be formal meetings. These are scheduled meetings typically held in meeting rooms. Gathering your team this way ensures that nobody is left behind.
Meetings are also an opportunity for you and your team to plan what they need to do and how they will do it.
However, meetings can also be informal. For example, a quick chat around the office water cooler can help to resolve minor issues without taking too much time.
Update Clients And Other Stakeholders
The projects you manage will involve stakeholders. These are people who are interested in the project, such as your bosses or even clients of the company.
Whoever they are, you must take some time in your day to update them on how the project is going.
Of course, they’ll want to know that the project:
- Is on schedule
- Is within budget
- Isn’t facing too many obstacles
You can update them through phone calls, email, or face-to-face meetings.
Resolve Any Sudden Issues
Being a project manager means being a ‘firefighter’. That means you’ll help your team members resolve any issues that come up, regardless of when that happens.
When your team members can’t solve a problem independently, they’ll bring it to you. Then, you’ll help them figure out the best solution so that the project can continue on schedule.
Daily Wrap-Up
At the end of your workday, you’ll do a ‘wrap-up’. Essentially, that means you’ll note which parts of the project are complete and which ones are still left to do.
That way, you’ll keep track of the big picture and ensure that your project experiences no delays.
Process for Becoming a Project Manager
Your journey to learn how to become a project manager will require you to go through many stages. However, you can start early by preparing in high school, depending on your age.
You’ll find that the process gives you a few options. So, your journey will probably differ slightly from that of other project managers you meet during your career.
Still, here are some of the stages you’ll go through in your journey to become a project manager:
Read More: How to Become a Music Manager. Learn what it takes to get started in the music business!
1. Start Preparing in High School
Suppose you’re still in high school right now. In that case, you can get a head start on your career by taking courses to support your project management ambitions.
Some helpful high school courses to take include:
- Project management or planning courses
- Accounting or finance-related courses
- Introductory business courses
By taking these courses, you’ll gain early exposure to skills that will help you throughout your career.
2. Get a College Degree
Getting a college degree is incredibly helpful for becoming a project manager. However, you should know that it’s not a compulsory requirement in all cases.
When it comes to college degrees, there are two paths you can take:
- Get a project management degree: Suppose you want to become a project manager but don’t know which industry you’d like to work in. In that case, you can pursue a project management degree. That kind will equip you with project management skills applicable to almost any industry.
- Get an industry-specific degree: Your second option is to pursue an industry-specific degree. For example, if you’d like to be a project manager in the tech industry specifically, then a computer science degree could be of great help. Your industry-specific skills and knowledge will be helpful when you work on assignments as a project manager.
3. Gain Industry Experience
After getting your college degree, you must then gain hands-on work experience. Again, you have 2 possible paths you can take, which are:
- Gain project management experience: Firstly, you can choose to gain project management experience wherever it’s available. For example, you can get an internship or an entry-level project management position in a company you like.
- Gain industry-specific experience: Your process might differ slightly if you want to specialize in a specific industry. Using the same example earlier, if you’re going to be a project manager in the tech industry, you must first gain work experience in that industry. That experience will be beneficial when you work your way to a project management role in your company.
4. Pursue a Project Management Certification
Regardless of your chosen approach, you must pursue project management certification.
There are several project management methodologies that you can get qualifications for, such as:
- Agile
- Scrub
- Six Sigma
- PRINCE2
- And others
Different companies will prefer a specific project management methodology that suits their business the best. So, the certification you have might be valuable to some employers but not others.
For that reason, some project managers choose to pursue more than 1 certification. That way, they’ll increase their chances of landing a job.
5. Further Your Studies
As an optional step, you can choose to further your studies. For example, you can pursue a project management master’s degree or doctorate.
Doing that will deepen your understanding of the field and potentially increase your salary in the long run.
Are You Suited for a Project Manager Career? Skills, Credentials, Tools, and Technology
When learning how to become a project manager, it’s also essential to consider the personality traits, skills, and proficiencies that you’ll need to succeed in that role.
In this section, you’ll discover the qualities that Northeastern University highlights as being incredibly important for project managers.
Personality and Skills
You must be excellent at communication, negotiation, and leadership in terms of skills.
Projects involve teams of people from many different backgrounds. As a project manager, your communication skills are necessary to ensure that everyone understands their role in making the project a success.
Besides that, you must also have strong negotiation abilities. Those will come in handy when you need to get the best prices possible to stay within your project’s budget.
Lastly, you must also have leadership abilities to help your team members work together and resolve any conflicts or issues that come up along the way.
READ MORE: How to Become a Data Analyst. Data Analysts evaluate a business’s data to help in decision-making regarding a company’s day-to-day or long-term goals. See what it takes to pursue this career!
Credentials and Proficiencies
Your success as a project manager will also require you to be proficient in scheduling and time management, project management tools and software, and technical expertise.
A successful project is one that finishes on time. You’re responsible for making that happen with your scheduling and time management ability that ensures all parts of the project happen without any delays.
These days, project managers like yourself rely on project management tools and software. Therefore, you must have a deep understanding of using those tools to coordinate your team members, the work they do, and the resources they’ll use.
Lastly, you must also be proficient with the technical expertise necessary to make your project a success. Your team members are experts in their industry, so your technical expertise will help you communicate with them and understand their contributions to the project.
How Does a Project Manager Find Work?
As you learn how to become a project manager, you must also learn how to find work as one. The most effective way is to aim for industries that hire project managers the most.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), some of the industries that hire the most project managers are:
- Management companies
- Computer system design companies
- Consulting services (e.g., management, scientific, and technical consulting)
- Higher education institutions (e.g., colleges, universities, etc.)
These industry sectors have a strong need for people with your project management skills and knowledge. So, that means they’ll have more job roles that you can apply for.
You can start your job search by identifying the companies in your local area that are part of those sectors.
Once you’ve found a few potential employers you’d like to work for, you can:
- Browse their official websites and check their careers pages for job openings.
- Contact them directly through phone, email, or by visiting them (if possible).
- Share your CV or resume with them to keep on file. Then, even if they have no current openings, they can refer to it when they need project managers in the future.
As you continue your job hunt, be sure to check back with companies regularly. While they might not have an available project manager position today, that might change in the near future.
What Is the Average Salary of a Project Manager?
When thinking about learning how to become a project manager, an essential factor to consider is how much you can earn in that role. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has information on that.
According to the BLS, project management specialists earn an average of $84,290 a year.
They also add that:
- Those in the top 90th percentile earn an average of $135,220 a year
- Those in the bottom 10th percentile earn an average of $42,180 a year
Where Do Project Managers Get Paid the Most?
The BLS also finds that you can earn the most as a project manager in these the 5 highest-paying states for that role:
- District of Columbia: $105,730 a year
- Maryland: $99,170 a year
- Virginia: $97,580 a year
- New York: $97,340 a year
- Massachusetts: $96,960 a year
How Can You Earn More as a Project Manager?
You can increase your earning potential as a project manager in a few different ways, like:
- Continuing to educate yourself with more training and learning.
- Gaining industry-specific knowledge. For example, if you’re working with a fashion-related company, you should learn as much as possible about the fashion industry.
- Pursuing professional certifications, like the PMP certification by the Project Management Institute (PMI).
- Volunteering for larger projects that involve more complex planning and resource management.
Project Manager Job Outlook
The job outlook for project managers is positive. The Occupational Information Network (O*Net) shows that this sector will grow by 5%-10% between 2020 and 2030.
O*Net describes that growth rate as being ‘average’. Still, it’s a positive number that means more project manager jobs will be available in the near future.
That’s great news for you and anyone else who wants to learn how to become a project manager.
Top 7 Project Manager Specializations for 2022
You can expect a reasonable amount of competition in the industry for project management roles.
To stand out from your peers, you can choose to specialize in one or more project management approaches, like:
Waterfall Project Management
This approach is an older one that’s still widely used for its predictable approach. Here, you’ll plan your projects in waves. Each step of that wave depends heavily on completing the one before it.
Agile Project Management
This approach provides more speed and flexibility. With this approach, you’ll organize your projects in small chunks of work, making it easier to make changes along the way.
Scrum Project Management
Scrum is a popular version of Agile project management that’s suitable for smaller teams. Here, your planning also involves small chunks of work, typically within a monthly time frame.
Kanban Project Management
Kanban is another version of Agile project management. The difference here is that this approach focuses on structure and efficiency. Unlike the methods above, this one fits well for projects that don’t involve many variations.
Lean Project Management
Lean project management focuses a lot on the process, similar to Kanban. As the name suggests, this is about keeping the project lean, making it as efficient as possible for the customer.
Six Sigma Project Management
Six Sigma is a project management approach that has been around for quite some time. It’s still popular because it stresses a project’s output quality, and you can use it alongside other management styles.
PRINCE2 Project Management
If you’re working on a project that requires efficiency and minimizing risks, PRINCE2 is the approach for you. This process is incredibly thorough when it comes to project details, so there’s little room for mistakes.
READ MORE: How to Become a Mediator. Mediators help to resolve disputes between two opposing sides. Delve into what it takes to become a Mediator and what taking this career path could mean for you!
Professional Associations
You can’t learn how to become a project manager by yourself. Instead, you’ll need to network with a wide range of professionals. You can meet fellow project managers through associations like:
Association for Project Management (APM)
International Project Management Association (IPMA)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
The American Academy of Project Management (AAPM)
Top Colleges and Universities
When you apply to college to learn how to become a project manager, you can pursue a degree in business administration or project management in top institutions like:
MIT Sloan School of Management
University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Los Angeles