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Project Management Expected Career Growth

Aug 11, 2023 | Career Advice, Project Management Certificate, Tech Career Outlooks

What is Project Management?

Project Management is one of those career paths that can land you in really any industry that you could possibly think of. With a 33% increase in job opportunities through 2027, project management specialists can see an increase in demand for their skills from the tech industry to the healthcare or construction industry.

Project managers are essential to small and large companies to achieve business objectives, goals, and deadlines; they lead and manage “interdisciplinary teams of workers in executing plans designed to achieve either short-term or long-term results. Essentially, they’re the go-betweens that assemble the talent needed to get things done,” as noted by education and career writer, Jim Raychrudhury. With a blend of soft and hard skills, project management careers are lucrative and the industries that need project oriented professionals will turn to those who have the ideal skill sets.

The PMI Talent Triangle®, created by the Project Management Institute, recently evolved the three skill categories that make for successful PM professionals:

Project Management

Ways of Working point to how in our current economy, there is now more than one way to work and as PM professionals, mastering multiple ways of working will deliver success and positive results. Business Acumen relates to PM professionals understanding “the macro and micro influences in their organization and industry and having the function-specific or domain-specific knowledge to make good decisions.” As for Power Skills, PM professionals must ensure they have the interpersonal skills such as “collaborative leadership, communication, an innovative mindset, for-purpose orientation, and empathy” to allow them “to maintain influence with a variety of stakeholders – a critical component for making change.” Successfully finding a balance between these three skill categories can help current and future PM professionals find success in projects and careers.

Which industries need Project Managers?

The healthcare industry, one of the nation’s largest employers, is fueling the demand for project managers who have specialized skills in data management, process development, and service delivery streamlining.

In the tech world, information technology (IT) has a part in almost every business. IT project managers are indispensable as businesses often rely on them to lead teams to solutions, manage major technology infrastructure deployments, and help introduce new technologies to make operations more efficient and effective.

The Construction industry is also fueling the demand for project managers as companies across the world strive to find more environmentally friendly ideas and solutions to implement in future infrastructure projects. Also, the financial sector seeks out project managers to perform a variety of tasks, like risk identification and mergers and acquisitions.

Project management careers can also often be interdisciplinary as many project managers can freelance their work to businesses that might only need short term expertise. This means once someone has the balance of technical and soft skills necessary for a project management role, opportunities arise out of multiple directions. PM professionals have the freedom to pursue projects and industries that best suit their passions and ideas; the skills learned through a project management career are transferable and relevant to find the dream project and job.

project management

What is the expected career growth in the Project Management field?

According to the Project Management Institute’s report on Job Growth and Talent Gap 2017-2027, employers around the world will need “87.7 million individuals working in project management-oriented roles,” a number that will only continue to grow as more individuals hit retirement age. Employers who rely on PM professionals to “implement strategic initiatives, drive change and deliver innovation” are seeking those who have the skills and qualifications to do so at a growing rate. This means the expected pool of opportunities in the PM career track seems to be becoming limitless across industries and across countries.

Back in 2012, PMI analyzed and found that the demand for project managers in the future was growing faster than the demand for individuals in any other occupations. The 2021 analysis “estimated that project-related jobs would number 52.4 million by 2020,” but “by early 2017, the number of project management jobs had already reached almost 66 million, exceeding that original projection.”

The role of a project manager is pivotal in a digital economy that has transformed how many industries have operated; as businesses and organizations increasingly rely on new technologies, the need for individuals to oversee, manage, and deliver on projects that support these new reliances also increases. Due to this and attrition, over the next few years, sectors like…

  • The Manufacturing and Construction industry will need to fulfill a PM need of 9.7 million,
  • The Information Services and Publishing industry will need to fulfill a 5.5 million need,
  • and the Finance and Insurance sector will need to find 4.6 million PM professionals.

With more opportunities come more opportunities to see an increase in salary. According to the Job Growth report, wages of PM oriented workers in the U.S in 2017 “were far higher than wages of non-project-oriented professionals—a premium of 82 percent.” The expected growth of a project management career is increasing at a rate that many employers are struggling to keep up with. As more industries need individuals with the skills that align with the three categories of the PMI Talent Triangle, more opportunities will arise for those who have the skills to succeed in a pivotal, crucial, and flexible role.

project management

Becoming PMP® Certified

There are a few paths to take in order to become certified. While certifications are recommended  by the PM Institute and encouraged for validating credibility and knowledge, it is not a necessary part of becoming a successful project manager. However, as shown in PMI’s Earning Power: Project Management Salary Survey, “among those surveyed, salaries of practitioners with the Project Management Professional certification are 20 percent higher on average than those without a PMP®.”

Project managers are a crucial part of the global economy and by the recommendations of the Project Management Institute, it is encouraged for those who are interested in a career as a PM, to ensure that they have the qualifications that make it clear they have the skills to successfully manage, execute, and deliver on projects for businesses across the globe. A PMP® certification “validates that you are highly skilled in:

  • People: recognizing you have the skills to effectively lead and motivate a project team throughout a project.
  • Process: using predictive, agile and hybrid approaches to determine which way of working is best for each project.
  • Business Environment: highlighting the success of a project and its impact on overall strategic organizational goals.”

Earning a PMP® certification enables a PM professional to grow their credibility of having deep knowledge of project management and opens the door to even more opportunities for career success and advancement. For more information on how to become certified with the Project Management Institute, check out what they say about their eligibility requirements and how to apply: Why You Should Get the PMP.

project management

Advance or Jumpstart a Project Management Career

While a PMP® certification can take a PM career to the next level, what employers look for the most in their future employees are the in-demand technical and leadership skills that are crucial for a PM to be successful. In order to refresh or gain those skills, educational opportunities such as certificate programs can be the leverage that is needed to also take a PM career to the next level. A certificate program in project management can be what employers look for when noting an employee’s educational background; it can validate the years of experience a person already has in the PM career track.

DWC’s project management certificate program is led by PMP® certified instructors who use PMI’s textbooks and resources to give you the best live instruction of project management knowledge. Included in the program are practice exams, including a final comprehensive exam that aligns with PMI standards, and support to create and submit an application to PMI with confidence. Upon successful completion of our PM certificate program, students will have learned how to develop a project management plan, understand processes and integration management, identify key features of a real world project management life cycle, and so much more.

Advance or jumpstart your project management career today; opportunities await you!

Attend an info session to learn more about the Project Management curriculum currently being offered and then fill out a program application to get started with DWC!

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