Kick starting your career in Project Management, University of Hertfordshire

Around twenty students mostly from the host university attended this event to hear from sector experts and University of Hertfordshire alumni about the exciting prospect of a career in project management.

The three Alumni Speakers were: Sagal Dirie, Project Manager, Transport for London; Anny Levett, Assistant Project Manager, CPC Project Services LLP and Jay Ward, Signalling Project Manager at Transport for London

Each speaker had followed a different career path.  Sagal had moved within different roles and finally settled in project management within IT.  Anny moved into construction with no prior knowledge of the field and had to learn completely from scratch.  Jay studied engineering at degree level and then started working within the transport sector and later studied the masters in project management that enabled him to progress within engineering project management.

They all gave useful tips and advice on their experiences after having completed their Masters in Project Management at the University of Hertfordshire.  Students had the opportunity to ask questions during and after the session.

The second part of the event was delivered by Vince Hines, Director of Wellingtone, a specialist project management company, who spoke to students about careers in project management, the different career paths, the selection process and salaries within the profession.

Vince explained that different organisations favour certain project management qualifications and students should do some research before embarking on Prince2 or APM qualifications.  However, Vince highly recommended the quality of the APM qualifications, training courses and volunteering opportunities to become a successful project manager.  He also explained that project management could be done as a contractor or as an employee.  A contractor can earn more money as it is equivalent to freelance work but you would need to have extensive experience and you will not have as much security as in a traditional salaried role.

You can contact Vince Hines on vince.hines@wellingtone.co.uk and if you are interested in starting a Masters in Project Management at the University of Hertfordshire, you might want to visit: http://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/project-management

Maria Duncan,
APM East of England branch committee member