The document provides answers to frequently asked questions about project management careers. It discusses how to prepare for a transition to program or product management, the impact of artificial intelligence on the project management field, tips for staying updated on the latest trends, and how to excel as a program manager in a virtual work environment. The document recommends performing a self-assessment, finding a mentor, discussing career plans with one's manager, and obtaining PMP certification when preparing for a transition. It also emphasizes the importance of leadership skills like adaptability, communication, and strategic thinking for surviving as a project manager in the age of AI.

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Project Management Career FAQs
I have 10yrs of experience and am currently playing the role of project manager. I
want to take up program/product management. How to prepare towards this goal?
🡺 Perform self-assessment on the competencies needed for program
management. Program management guides from PMI can be referred to.
🡺 Post that, devise a learning plan to work on improvement areas
🡺 In your company or in LinkedIn , look for few persons who are in this role
already and request any one of them to be your mentor
🡺 Plan career discussion with your manager and work out next steps together
🡺 Optional -> Program Management Profession certification from PMP
Which is better: a technical career path or a project management career path ?
It depends upon your competencies, aspirations & personality preferences.
Will AI have an impact on Project Management? If so, what would be the high-level
impact?
According to a 2019 Garnet report “80 Percent of Today’s Project Management Tasks
Will Be Eliminated by 2030 as Artificial Intelligence Takes Over.”
There is no project manager role in the Agile way of working. After playing the PM
role, If I want to move to an Agile environment, how to prepare for it?
The role of product manager is closer to the project manager role. So, explore
opportunities to play this role to fulfil your skillset.

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How will I come to know, whether I will be a successful project manager ?
The success of a project manager depends on understanding both the strategic
objectives and operational objectives of the project and ensuring that you are able to
influence your team towards achieving both the objectives. Also, success depends
upon how well a project manager can operate within project constraints.
What are the benefits of obtaining a PMP certification?
Practitioners who hold the PMP certification are well-positioned to provide the
professional skills necessary to lead project teams and achieve successful project
results. Satisfies project experience for the PMI-ACP® or PgMP®. The PMP®
certification is accredited against the internationally recognized ISO 9001 and
ISO/ANSI 17024 standards. PMP certification establishes the credibility of you as a
seasoned project professional, makes it easy to be accepted by the project
management community in the workplace , especially while working with global
clients.
Being a project management professional and holding PMP, will I be successful if I
switch between industries?
Changing industries is a risky decision. Having said that, the project management
certification will surely aid in easy transition to the new industry provided that if the
industry is matured and follows the project management process.
How will my career as project/program manager survive in the age of Artificial
Intelligence (AI)?
AI is and will continue to dominate the project management area. Still as
project/program manager, we can thrive in the AI world by leveraging AI outcomes
with leadership skills like adapting to change, emotional intelligence, negotiation and
communication skills ,strategic thinking, and business acumen to achieve project
objectives.
What kind of mindset should I possess so that I am ready to handle any situation in
projects ?
You should be a multi model thinker, you should be able to analyse a situation using
the following 4 thinking dimensions.
a. Strategic Thinking
b. System Thinking
c. Design Thinking
d. Lean Thinking

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How can I stay updated with the latest trends in project management?
1) Being an active member in PMI, people would be having access to
www.projectmanagement.com. This website holds great knowledge on various
trending topics like Agile, AI, Career development, change management,
communication management, etc. It contains a forum where experts would
answer your queries.
2) Get subscribed to PMI newsletter, that brings the latest happenings in the
project management field.
3) Actively participate in the webinars and conferences organized by PMI as well
as from local chapters.
4) Enrol in the Community of Practice(COP)-Project Management in your company
and make active contributions.
When should one look for a job change
Below are the indicators:
a. learning saturated
b. current role doesn’t fulfil your aspirations
c. Reward & Recognitions are not matching with your effort/contributions
How we can use AI towards project management?
Helps to monitor specific patterns and forecasting project scenarios and outcomes and
that will help to increase in project success rate.
AI Tools: Automated meeting minutes.
Predictive analytics: can gather past project information and forecast, with high
degrees of accuracy about project completion date, health of a project progress.
Risk Management: AI has the ability to offset potential risks using data points and can
crunch that data in real-time as the project progresses and helps to take data driven
decisions.
Improve Efficiency/Productivity: AI can help automate repetitive manual tasks,
allowing teams and project managers to focus on more high-value delivering activities
How can I transition into project management from other domains like operations,
technical, etc?
First get enrolled into the course -> PMI Project Management Ready™. This entry-level
course brings together foundational project management knowledge, including basic
business analytics and agile methodologies. To perform this course, no
education/experience requirements are needed. Post this course, you know and
understand the language of business delivery. Then start with entry level project roles
and then slowly build your expertise in project management.

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How do we excel as program managers in today’s Virtual/Hybrid work environment?
1. Focus as usual on human connections - Know your stakeholders
2. Understand your stakeholder needs and organization objectives/strategies
3. Always be on video calls as much as possible
4. Ensure, you connect 1:1 with key stakeholders to handle any conflicting
situations or key alignments.
5. Plan to meet your team members on regulate basis
6. Be familiar with all virtual communication medium (MSteams, Menti, Trello,
Miro, etc.)
How do you stand out as program manager to be seen as a valued partner by core
engineering/product teams?
Even though programs can be managed without technical/functional knowledge, still
we always have an edge over others when you have high level knowledge of
functional/technical stuff, it helps us to ask the right questions and manage programs
more effectively and to deliver on time.
Invest your time on Business Acumen, whichever industry you are in.
How PMP certification can help a Sales & Marketing Professional / Non-Project
Professionals to grow in his career?
Project management, as a concept, can have a place in the context of most sales
processes. If we look at the sales process, right from prospecting to qualification to
pitching to closing — essentially qualifies as its own stage of a greater project. With
PMP certification, a lot of valuable methods, tools and framework are exposed to
practitioners which helps to manage projects in a more professional and structured
way. In the long run, below benefits are possible: Increased customer delights,
Increased customer portfolio, more closed sales & Increased revenues.