Can you become a Project Manager? - YouTube

Can you become a Project Manager? Project manager is a profession that has become  

increasingly popular. So, there is a good chance  that you may have considered becoming one. But  

you have doubts whether you cover the requirements  for the job? Or the thing that bothers you is what  

qualification is needed to become a PM? The answers to all these questions are  

quite subjective, but still project  managers have a lot in common. There  

are certain traits and skills most of them share. To get a better idea of the typical PM profile,  

our team collected information from the  LinkedIn profiles of 500 project managers. 

We divided the information into  several categories such as education,  

previous work experience, country, certifications,  company of employment and industry. And we  

did not forget to look at the professional  skills of these project managers as well. 

To help you see the bigger picture, we monitored  project managers from all around the globe. 

USA, Europe and India are just some of the  countries represented in our study. So,  

we categorized the industries, in which  their representatives are working,  

into 5 main clusters - Technology/IT,  Healthcare, Education, Industrial, and Finance. 

Now, we’re ready to show you the  actual numbers we have gathered,  

and hopefully, they will help you make a decision! Let us begin with the most important things you  

should know about the typical project manager. The data suggests that men and women are  

equally represented in this field. The typical  project manager speaks at least 2 languages,  

has around 12 years of working experience, and  has been working as one for almost 4 years.  

Having post-graduate professional qualification  certificates is not an uncommon thing as well. 

Alright! This gives a general idea. It is time to take a closer look at the  

research and get to the heart of the matter. As we pointed out earlier the ratio of women  

to men in our study, is well balanced as the  percentages are 43% for women and 57% for men. 

In spheres like IT, data science, finance,  and engineering things do not look this way,  

while here, in the project manager field, the  difference is not that overwhelming at all. 

Speaking a foreign language can be an  important advantage when one applies  

for a project manager role. We see that  most project managers speak at least  

2 languages. Not only that, but some people spoke  3, 4 or even 5 languages. This number, of course,  

includes people who are immigrants  or have a multicultural past.  

English language is, as expected, the most common  one, spoken by the project managers in our cohort.

Previous work experience is another factor  we should pay attention to. In our research,  

we show that on average people needed 8 years  of experience to become a project manager.  

Sounds reasonable, right? We also looked at the  career path one takes to reach this job. It is  

not surprising that a big part of the people  had previous experience as managers – 34%. 

At the same time the majority  of 66% worked as non-managers,  

or had not worked at all, before  becoming a project manager. 

In terms of education, the overwhelming  part of our sample had at least a bachelor’s  

degree. Their percentage is 82%, while those with  master’s degree are 18%. Anyway, the type of your  

degree is not of such importance, as well as the  ranking of your university. Even if you have not  

graduated from one of the top universities, you  do not have to worry too much about it. You can  

always compensate with hardwork and enthusiasm  during the selection and interview process. 

Let’s consider the skills needed  to become a project manager. 

Working with Excel is vital for project  managers. More than 40 % of the people  

in our study were endorsed for Excel, so it is  definitely an important tool for this profession. 

Microsoft Project is another important  software as 39 % possess that skill.. 

You are probably asking yourselves  how can you acquire such skills? 

Fortunately, in the modern times we live  in, there is a very effective way to  

acquire them - Online courses! Such courses  do not have a deadline for their completion  

and usually come with a certificate of completion. 11 % of the project managers we looked at have  

completed online courses to  perfect themselves in the job.  

A number which will surely increase in the future. Equally important are the professional designation  

certificates that project managers  earn in addition to their education. 

Around 25% of the project managers  we looked at have at least one  

professional designation certificate. Topping  the list is the PMP Certificate with 10%,  

followed by PRINCE 2 with 6%, and respectively  Scrum Master (4%), CAPM and Agile, each with 2%. 

Finally, we looked at where project managers work  and what their industries and employers are like. 

Based on our research, 57% of the project managers  from US, Europe, India and rest of the world  

work in the industrial sector. In second  place are those working in the Technology/IT  

sector – 27%, and in third place – the  financial sector, which accounts for 12%. 

We hope that this information gives you a  good idea of of what you need to become a  

project manager and which are the items you  need to emphasize on during your preparation.  

We strongly hope that this will facilitate  your career choice and that we were helpful. 

Of course, if you are interested in a good  preparation for a stable start in the profession,  

you can take a look at the links we  have placed below. There you will find  

a link for our online course – The Project  Manager Course: Beginner to PROject Manager. 

Thank you for staying with us until  the end of this video. If you found  

it useful and interesting, subscribe  and like for more similar content.