Project Manager

As a teenager, she enjoyed working as a “Nanny” to help manage other families’ activities. As an adult, she worked hard to learn with every job assigned. Earning respect along a winding career path, she ultimately found a management career which she had not known existed!

FAMILY BACKGROUND

CB’s father was a mechanic who worked all around the world, then served multiple tours of duty as a Marine in Viet Nam, followed by employment at a regional transportation agency where he rose from mechanic to a manager. Her father’s advice: “Nothing is easy; you have to work for it.” She always tries to follow his example – except for working overnight hours.

CB’s mother was also a hard worker as a teacher who always took on extra jobs at her school, ranging from helping with computers to special education students. 

The net result of family influence on CB’s career: work hard and when asked to take on extra duties, always say “Sure, I can do that!”

CHILDHOOD PREVIEW OF AN ADULT CAREER

CB enjoyed helping other families manage their daily activities while working as a Nanny. She would get the kids off to school, then take care of their laundry. CB became such a good manager that she was frequently invited along on other families’ vacations. 

HIGH SCHOOL DAYS

True crime stories interested CB so for a while, she pictured her future as a forensic scientist, peering through a microscope in a lab to solve crimes. However, she soon realized that such a career would require proficiency in math and science, neither of which were her interests. 

CB had no career path in mind when she applied to several colleges, but it was always her intention to go to college to find a career interest and learn more about it. Initially, she thought she would head to the largest public university in her home state, but a friend invited her to visit another state’s public university, where she fell in love with its campus, learned about its well-regarded business program and decided to apply for early admission, which was successful. So, by the Fall of her senior year in high school, CB knew where she would be headed the following year. 

COLLEGE DAYS

“Undecided” seemed best for CB rather than having to choose a major course of studies (“a major”) at the outset of her college career from one final choice which CB understood had to be made among either business, education, engineering, environmental science, or a trade. However, the university strongly recommended selecting a major within the first two weeks of freshman year, so CB chose “Business Management” essentially because each of the other options were less interesting as careers. 

Toward the end of her freshman year, CB thought about transferring her “major” to education so she could become a teacher, but she learned that would require extending her college studies beyond four years, which was the time limit to graduate, agreed upon by CB and her parents. 

As a college junior, CB took the opportunity to study abroad, in Argentina, where she took enough courses in economics to qualify that subject as her “minor.” However, CB doesn’t recall ever using any information from those courses within her eventual career path. 

FIRST ADULT JOBS ARE NEVER A BINDING CAREER COMMITMENT

College graduation day came and went for CB without any job lined up, much less a career path. So, she continued to work as a Nanny. Her parents were departing for their annual trip to visit with family in the western states, so they suggested that CB soon find a job. One employment possibility was printed within an ad which her mother had clipped from a newspaper: sales assistant for a cable equipment company. CB submitted her resume, was called to an interview, was hired and met a co-worker whom she eventually married. End of career story? Absolutely not!

When CB’s future husband first observed this female being interviewed by a manager for employment, he thought there was no way she would be hired for this male oriented business. Despite admitting that she knew next to nothing about cable equipment or how to assist any equipment sales process, the manager liked her “can do” enthusiasm to learn their business. CB was assigned to work with three salesmen, initially limited to taking orders by phone or from a computer. But soon management appreciated her ability to work with people both inside and outside the company while learning about the company’s products and procedures, so they asked her to attend trade shows on behalf of the company, where she was able to demonstrate cable splicing! 

CAREER CHALLENGE – ROMANCE WITH A CO-WORKER

Despite increasing social interest between CB and her co-worker, they were able to hide any outward indication of romantic involvement, as required by both employer’s requirement and their own common sense. But realizing they were headed for marriage, they decided that at least CB would look for a job with a different employer. 

Using her computer skills, CB found a job posting by a small, family-owned real estate company seeking an office assistant: manage the office, input new sales listings into a computer database and keep files organized. Soon another employee, a part-timer involved in the company’s marketing efforts, left so CB volunteered to take over that responsibility. To better serve the company’s clients, CB next volunteered to obtain her license as a notary public to sign as a witness certain documents. Now CB felt able to answer some clients’ real estate questions but due to legal requirements, could not do so. So, she studied for the real estate licensing exam and passed it on her first try! This enabled her to accept more responsibilities, including managing properties. 

CAREER CHALLENGE – OVERLY STRESSFUL WORKING CONDITIONS

Editor’s note: Life is generally stressful; there is rarely enough money to buy everything you and your family need and want and then ….. your car is hit in the parking lot, or your child needs a larger bike or your dog has fleas…. Meanwhile at the office, you need to work but no one is available to fix your computer and the boss has no time to review the report requested be done immediately……these are normal stresses. But when job stress interferes with mental or physical health beyond your individual ability to cope, it’s time to make a significant change.

A family business can be a supportive employment environment, or it can devolve into disagreement, just like (too) many families. The business nightmare for CB began when the brothers owning the family business got into a physical fight in her presence. The situation became so serious that CB called the police to intervene. As a result, she was required to literally lock one of the brothers out of the business. She tried to cope with the stress by focusing on her value to the business, remaining loyal and willing to add further responsibilities if she could receive a raise in her salary. But her manager declined her request, telling CB that while she was “good at everything, (she) did nothing great.” While CB replied that office tension interfered with her ability to properly focus, she also realized that she had to find another job to keep her sanity and decrease avoidable anxiety. 

A BETTER JOB IS NOT NECESSARILY A FINAL JOB

At the advice of her husband’s friend who learned CB was unhappy at her job, CB submitted her resume – now with real estate experience – to a business related to real estate transactions: a mortgage company, which hired CB to serve as Assistant to the President. Initially, CB enjoyed – as she always does – learning all about her employer’s business – but after ten months of working while learning and – as she always does – volunteering to add extra duties, CB came to realize that she was not growing intellectually, and she had no deep interest in the mortgage business. She explained this problem to her employer, who offered to transfer her job focus to audits, which she liked even less than mortgages. 

A friend of CB’s mother somehow knew of CB’s work ethic: work hard, learn the business, volunteer for extra duties. The friend referred CB to a law firm looking for a legal assistant. During her interview, CB admitted zero knowledge of the law and legal procedures but stated her love for assisting others while learning “the ropes.” CB was hired to assist the attorneys working within several departments of the law firm: the head of the tax and estates department plus others within real estate and corporate law areas of the law practice. After only two months, she was assigned to work with additional attorneys. She enjoyed talking to different clients. One senior attorney taught CB about the documents she was involved with, eventually asking her to prepare the documents at the outset of some of the transactions. This senior attorney was known by his co-workers to often be miserable to work with but CB, always known to “speak truth to power” used her commonsense diplomacy to keep him “in line.” CB earned wide respect within the law firm as an organized “gate keeper.” She knew what should be – and what should not be – included in client invoices. She would schedule herself onto his business calendar and do whatever it would take to make him more successful in dealing with his clients and co-workers.

CAREER CHALLENGE: BALANCING FAMILY PRIORITIES

CB appreciated the respect she had earned at her employment but after taking time off for maternity leave – gladly provided by her employer, though without any compensation – CB realized that she needed to find a new job with a different employer to better accommodate a work / life balance in coordination with her husband’s job location and schedule. She chose to explore new employment opportunities through confidential job postings on a computer website. A job recruiter (aka “headhunter”) called to refer CB to an Executive Assistant job at a computer manufacturing company. 

WEIRD INTERVIEW DIDN’T DISCOURAGE PURSUING A NEW JOB

CB’s interview with the computer company was, as she described it, “the weirdest interview process ever!” It started with a telephone interview with one person; if she “passed” that interview, the call would be transferred to another person for a second interview. CB sold herself as a “can do” person with organizing skills and willingness to accept expanding duties but she made sure to add her requirement for a work / life balance. Apparently the first interview was successful and the process ultimately involved three successive, individual phone discussions, followed by a group call with the company’s Chief of Staff, who offered the job to CB despite CB never having met anyone there in person! 

CB was instructed to start the next day at 10 a.m. Telling her father about the interview process and her first day start time, he questioned whether this was a real job?

When CB first appeared at the computer company’s office, she was dressed in formal office attire. However, all her co-workers were dressed in sweatshirts. She learned that management’s only hesitancy in hiring her was that while they appreciated her drive to be organized, this workplace involved daily chaos in dealing with clients of varied sophistication with computers while the hardware and software were constantly evolving. But soon the company appreciated CB’s daily ability to bring organization to chaos.

WORK DEDICATION FINALLY MEETS THE RIGHT OPPORTUNITY

CB commenced her career with the computer company as the Executive Assistant to the Head of Engineering, who soon recognized her organization and management skills, suggesting that she could work well within the company’s Facilities Division. CB characteristically replied: “I’m not sure what is involved with “facilities” but I’ll give it a try.” Accordingly, CB became the Executive Assistant to the Chief Operations Officer. She was initially nervous because her new manager was known to be difficult to work with, but CB quietly reminded herself that “I had tamed that beast before.” Soon the difficult manager appreciated CB’s drive to succeed so when the covid pandemic hit the world and every U.S. business, the company made it easy for CB to balance her work and home priorities by authorizing remote work to enable having a three-year-old on her lap during a work call, even if she had to suddenly go off-line to tend to her child. 

Working within Facilities provided the opportunity for CB to be involved in – and of course learn about – multiple types of building projects, ranging from deconstruction to build-outs, one of which was based in Exeter, England! CB’s comfort level was high despite the potential for job stress, since the company’s (wise) attitude upon encountering a problem was “Let’s figure out what went wrong, fix it and learn from it.” So, fear of failure was decreased. And declining travel was respected in recognition of CB’s family priorities. 

ALWAYS SEEKING CAREER EDUCATION IMPROVES CAREER SECURITY

Though already successfully managing multiple facilities projects, CB learned that someone in her position could possibly learn more and pass an exam to be a Certified Project Management Professional. Never one to back away from a challenge to continue learning, CB wanted to know what was available to learn to do her job even better. So, she took a course on project management, studied for the exam but failed the exam. 

CAREER CHALLENGE – FAILING CERTIFICATION TEST ON FIRST TRY

CB briefly considered studying and promptly re-taking the certification test, but a move of the family residence was then more of a priority. After the move was completed and the family settled into their new neighborhood, CB made time to study and on her second attempt, she passed the exam to become a Certified Project Management Professional. 

RECOGNITION OF TALENT LED TO CREATION OF A NEW JOB TITLE

As the computer company’s business grew, so did its need for facilities management, occasionally involving selling some of its buildings, in what is called within the industry, a “divestiture.” CB initially knew nothing about the divestiture process but as always, pushed herself to learn. While CB pondered her new responsibilities, a manager told her: “No one else knows facilities like you do and no one else has ever handled a divestiture so you’ll do fine.” 

After completing her first divestiture process, CB received a call from her manager: “You have grown professionally beyond being my assistant so for the good of the company and for your own professional development, we need to move you along; we’re going to create a role for you on our professional organization management team; you’ll be a Senior Analyst, serving essentially as a Project Manager.” 

CB notes: “When I achieved my project management certificate, I really did it to better support my executive and the company, but when they presented the opportunity to me to try something I knew, I figured that it was my chance. I have always thought of myself as a lifer assistant but also wanted to give myself the opportunity to try something different which might spark my interest / joy. Also, I felt undervalued in my role, both for compensation and not using all my talents, so I didn’t see anything holding me back from trying something new.”

An increased salary was offered, which CB discussed with her husband, who suggested that since they now value your services so highly, you should ask for an even higher, though still reasonable, salary. She did and the company agreed. 

CAREER SATISFACTION

CB had sufficient experience from her different jobs to appreciate her future career direction as a Senior Analyst / Project Manager, for several reasons, each one of which is very important to her: 

* Being told directly that she has earned the respect of management and co-workers

* Taking advantage of the opportunity to balance work / life priorities

* Working in a field which meets her interests and self-assessed talents

* Realizing she can master the knowledge required to tackle any job assigned

* Proudly reflecting her parents’ work ethic, which she now hopes to pass along within her own family

EPILOGUE

After being in the PMO role for about 6 months, CB realized that she was happier in her previous role, supporting the executive as an assistant plus his project manager. Her new role as Project Manager was not what she expected, being a lot of meetings “where I was just carrying out the plans of others, holding them accountable, assigning tasks and following-up to make sure their tasks were properly completed. But I realized that I am a doer; I wanted to be the one with the task and wanted to just be able to focus and get things done and not be hustling from one meeting to the next.”

So, CB spoke directly to the executive, hoping to return to her previous position but advising (politely) that if a better fit at the company was not available, she would need to look elsewhere. (Editor’s note – because CB had proven herself competent and caring about quality performance, the manager wisely found a fit!). CB received a promotion while transferring her duties to support the executive in a position with which she was most comfortable and now she is much happier. 

Editor: Two old sayings (‘adages’) apply: “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Also: “The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.” CB had the courage and self-confidence to try a new position; she also had the self-awareness and judgment to change her mind and initiate a change toward long term career satisfaction. CB had earned that right. Fortunately, her management agreed.