Project Management

Abstract

This proposal is intended to inform you and educate you on the many benefits that are associated with choosing project management as your career choice after completing high school. Choosing to become a project manager either independently or working for a company has many benefits. Project managers do very limited physical work but instead do most of their work using their brain to solve problems that can occur during a project, they will lead a team and make sure start and deadlines are met to satisfy the clients. Project managers will plan, coordinate, and execute strategies that will yield a quality product or service in the end. There are many responsibilities that a project manager will be in charge of, tasks will be different with each project and there is a minimal chance that projects will be alike therefore reducing the repetition of doing the same thing over and over again as in many jobs is a rarity in this field. Having such important responsibilities, is part of the reason the position also pays great. The starting project manager will average between $55k to $70k yearly, with the more experienced project managers averaging at approximately $111k a year and the most lucrative project managers reaching $215k a year.

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Project management is a rapidly growing field chosen by many college freshmen as their career choice. It is evidently a great field to be part of as our world continues to modernize project managers will be needed to complete the many projects around the world. My research is on the key points of why choosing to become a project manager is a great choice with many opportunities to travel the world, great pay and benefits, as well as a satisfying career that has great job security. My research will focus on these key points of becoming a project manager as well as areas of concerns such as a high rate of project failures and the standardizing process that is negatively impacting this field.

Prior to conducting research in the field of project management I conducted a survey to find out what determines an individual’s career choice according to their educational background. Here are my results, After giving the survey to members whom I am currently hold employment with I have collected the following data from them and have made some conclusions. The older the person was in age the more education they had achieved. I used the following ages 23, 24, 26, and above 30 years old. The older persons had the most education, had degrees in careers with stability and were more than happy with their current positions. They planned on retiring with the current employer. The 26yr old, is recently out of college and is satisfied with his current position however he did want to eventually move on to a better position and only planned on staying at his position for a maximum of two years. The youngest ones are still in college and have high ambitions of making something for themselves. They plan on continuing with college until they reach their goals. Their current job status is only fulfilling until they reach their educational goals and upon completion of their degree they plan on moving up the corporate ladder as well. They also did not plan on staying in one position no longer than 5years at a time until they reached their dream job and then they would begin thinking about settling down in their position and focus more on job security. Satisfaction seemed to grow with age as the person was older his satisfaction was greater with the position he or she held. The younger people wanted to try more

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positions before they decided to stay with one. The most common reason for being unsatisfied with their jobs is pay and advancement opportunities. The pay was not satisfying the employees and some felt advancement was difficult. All did agree that education was the key to moving up and the reason behind their current success. The more education under ones belt the more opportunity they have to move up in the world. Education was a unanimous decision, all agreed that they would not be in the positions they are in without the education they are receiving or have received. The following chart illustrates what is important to an individual with age, the younger they are the more they are concerned with educational goals and wages as they become older advancement in the company and stability begin to take over.

What exactly is project management? “Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.” (Wikipedia.com 2008) A project has specific start and end deadlines that are