TheIronSheik
SUPER ELITE UPPER TIER
I've done project management at many jobs, but never on like an actual huge project. I am not certified, although I have taken some classes and been in a bunch of lectures.
Anyway, I was just looking over some old notepads and got reminded of this. Kind of odd. Here's the scenario:
Interviewed for a company and they asked if I ever was a PM. I told them I was, but not in the sense of a certified, huge project PM. The position was not for a PM and I made sure I told them in great detail that I was not certified, had never run a large scale project, didn't know any terminology or even used Project. Yes, never used Project. We had Excel sheets that we used. Like I said, small scale projects.
Dude told me not a problem, he just wanted to know if I had any experience. I eventually got the job and went in to work my first day. The guy shows me my office, gets me all set up with my laptop, some notepads and says to meet him in his office once I got settled in.
Right off the bat, the company seemed odd. I won't say the name of the company, but it was a very large company. Not like Chevron large, but large enough that it wasn't a small little business. The people there were creepy nice. People would come to my office and introduce themselves. Then tell me how I should sign up for a part in the company play before all the good parts were taken. Not joking. Even one of the VP's came to my office and sat down. She asked me about my family, which was fine. But then she started asking about if we were all coming to the company party next week. I don't remember exactly, but it was like some celebration of summer and they had a baking contest each year or something.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some people like this stuff. I mean, obviously, since everyone there seemed to enjoy it. But, to me, it seemed very Stepford Wives-ish.
I eventually made my way to my boss's office and he told me that he had a bunch of projects coming up. I guess I should point out that I was hired as a BA/Technical Writer. But I quickly learned that would not be the case. My boss said he had about 9 projects he wanted me to run. He named them off as I scribbled them down. They were things like "Laptop Upgrades", "Office Move" or other basic named things. No info to go along with them.
After listing them all, he said something like, "OK. So I guess we'll meet each Monday to go over the progress, but for your first week, let's meet every day so I can make sure you're doing OK." I remember being completely nonplussed. He said "Any questions?" I didn't want to look stupid, but I was completely lost. I said something like, "I'm not sure what you're looking for here." So he apologized and said, "Just work on the Office Move and Laptop Upgrades, since you can do those without needing to know the ins and outs of our business."
I went back to my office. A lot of times, if I don't know something in business, I can fake it and try to work a solution. But I was completely lost here. How do I develop a project if I don't know anyone at the office? Like who does what? The Office Move needed phones to be moved but hooked up before everyone got there. Same with computers. Plus a lot of things like how the office needed to be set up.
Luckily, I hated that job and the drive (about a 90 minute drive each way) so much, I quit on that Friday. But to this day, I'm still confused how he expected me to work those projects. Is this my inexperience as a PM?
In other projects I've worked, I knew who the people were who could help me, or the managers who I could talk to to request help from their people. But here, I didn't know anyone. It was the strangest thing.
Anyway, I was just looking over some old notepads and got reminded of this. Kind of odd. Here's the scenario:
Interviewed for a company and they asked if I ever was a PM. I told them I was, but not in the sense of a certified, huge project PM. The position was not for a PM and I made sure I told them in great detail that I was not certified, had never run a large scale project, didn't know any terminology or even used Project. Yes, never used Project. We had Excel sheets that we used. Like I said, small scale projects.
Dude told me not a problem, he just wanted to know if I had any experience. I eventually got the job and went in to work my first day. The guy shows me my office, gets me all set up with my laptop, some notepads and says to meet him in his office once I got settled in.
Right off the bat, the company seemed odd. I won't say the name of the company, but it was a very large company. Not like Chevron large, but large enough that it wasn't a small little business. The people there were creepy nice. People would come to my office and introduce themselves. Then tell me how I should sign up for a part in the company play before all the good parts were taken. Not joking. Even one of the VP's came to my office and sat down. She asked me about my family, which was fine. But then she started asking about if we were all coming to the company party next week. I don't remember exactly, but it was like some celebration of summer and they had a baking contest each year or something.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some people like this stuff. I mean, obviously, since everyone there seemed to enjoy it. But, to me, it seemed very Stepford Wives-ish.
I eventually made my way to my boss's office and he told me that he had a bunch of projects coming up. I guess I should point out that I was hired as a BA/Technical Writer. But I quickly learned that would not be the case. My boss said he had about 9 projects he wanted me to run. He named them off as I scribbled them down. They were things like "Laptop Upgrades", "Office Move" or other basic named things. No info to go along with them.
After listing them all, he said something like, "OK. So I guess we'll meet each Monday to go over the progress, but for your first week, let's meet every day so I can make sure you're doing OK." I remember being completely nonplussed. He said "Any questions?" I didn't want to look stupid, but I was completely lost. I said something like, "I'm not sure what you're looking for here." So he apologized and said, "Just work on the Office Move and Laptop Upgrades, since you can do those without needing to know the ins and outs of our business."
I went back to my office. A lot of times, if I don't know something in business, I can fake it and try to work a solution. But I was completely lost here. How do I develop a project if I don't know anyone at the office? Like who does what? The Office Move needed phones to be moved but hooked up before everyone got there. Same with computers. Plus a lot of things like how the office needed to be set up.
Luckily, I hated that job and the drive (about a 90 minute drive each way) so much, I quit on that Friday. But to this day, I'm still confused how he expected me to work those projects. Is this my inexperience as a PM?
In other projects I've worked, I knew who the people were who could help me, or the managers who I could talk to to request help from their people. But here, I didn't know anyone. It was the strangest thing.
