The following is a guest-post by Katharine Schweitzer, a former academic philosopher who recently transitioned to a non-academic career in project management, and who also kindly volunteered to be listed in my new Philosophers in Industry directory. Katherine's post seems to me a profoundly helpful step-by-step guide detailing the general kind of process that an effective transition from academia to non-academic industry can involve. I am very grateful to her for putting it together and encouraging me to share it here!:
Many job descriptions include “project management” as a responsibility. Project management is also a profession. Learning about how to manage projects is useful in many domains of life.
The Project Management Institute defines a project as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.” A project has a beginning and an end, is carried out for a purpose, and is comprised of a series of related activities. As a graduate student or a university professor, you have probably managed many projects, such as:
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- Applying for a grant or fellowship
- Creating the curriculum for a class and teaching it
- Designing and carrying out a piece of independent research
- Supervising a student’s independent research project, such as an honors thesis or independent study
- Establishing and running a research lab
- Organizing a conference or a conference session
- Creating and publishing a website for a professional organization
- Chairing a search committee to hire a colleague
- Chairing a committee to create a component of your university’s core curriculum
Many of my friends and family are engineers, and project manager has become an option in the professional advancement of engineers after they prove that they are competent individual contributors. I learned about the profession of project management from my engineer friends. When they told me about their job responsibilities, I thought, “I would be great at that!” Managing projects involves being attentive to details, communicating clearly and concisely with people at all levels of the organization, and gauging the interpersonal dynamics of the team members who are carrying out the project work.
In summer 2018, I had no technical qualifications in engineering or IT, but I had plenty of project experience after five years of being a philosophy professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. For three years, I considered leaving academia. In June 2018, I communicated to my department chair that I intended to resign my position as a tenure-track professor, effective June 2019. In my final year as a professor, I created and executed a plan to start a non-academic job in project management in July 2019. Here’s how I did it. I hope that sharing my story will help others if they are considering a similar career pivot.
To demonstrate to future employers that I had project management skills, I took the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam. Many employers list this certification in job ads, and I learned so much as I prepared for the exam. It took me three months to earn the PMP, including completing the required hours of project management education. It cost me $835 to earn the PMP: $169 to join PMI, the organization that offers the credential, $197 for a 35-hour online class to earn the required education hours, $405 to take the exam, and $64 for study guides to help me pass the exam.
Earning the PMP
The prerequisites for applying to take the PMP exam include proving that one has 4,500 hours of experience leading and directing projects. Here are two examples from my application to take the PMP exam in which I demonstrated how I tabulated my project hours.
Example 1: [student’s name] MA thesis (100 hours)
Project Role: Project Leader
Description: The objective was for my master’s student to design and complete an original work of philosophy. My roles included subject matter expert and team manager.
Initiating the project: 5 hrs. I helped my student to define the initial scope of her thesis.
Planning the project: 20 hrs. I helped my student to define the activities, sequence them, and estimate their duration.
Executing the project: 30 hours. I tracked student progress and provided feedback on thesis drafts.
Controlling and monitoring the project: 40 hours. I ensured that the thesis (the project outcome) confirmed to quality standards.
Closing the project: 5 hrs. I finalized project activities when the thesis was accepted by all committee members.
Example 2: Bioethics class, spring 2018 (140 hours)
Project Role: Project Leader
Description: The objective was to teach students the skills and knowledge associated with bioethics. My roles included subject matter expert, course instructor, and team manager.
Initiating the project: 5 hours. The philosophy department identified four student learning outcomes. I aligned my curriculum with department strategic objectives.
Planning the project: 42 hours. I developed the syllabus and curriculum.
Executing the project: 48 hours. I lectured and facilitated learning.
Controlling and monitoring the project: 40 hours. I graded student work (the project outcome) and ensured that it conformed to quality standards.
Closing the project: 5 hours. I reviewed student evaluations and submitted a final report to my department chair.
If you have 4 years of work experience as an academic, it is likely that you can identify enough project hours. 40 hours a week for 30 weeks a year for 4 years is 4,800 hours, and only 4,500 are required to register for the PMP exam.
Earning Agile certifications
There are two main styles of project management: waterfall and Agile. The waterfall method is often used in projects where the requirements for the end result can be clearly identified at the beginning of the project. The waterfall method works particularly well on projects that are linear and that require the team to complete one phase before beginning the next phase. In contrast, the Agile method is best suited for business contexts that are unpredictable and in which teams must react quickly to new situations. Working on an Agile project involves completing work in “sprints” of up to 30 days. Many teams plan and carry out work in one-week increments. Because the end result is decomposed into small increments, it is easier to make changes to the product or project over the course of multiple sprints than it is in a waterfall project. An organization may use the waterfall method in some parts of the business and Agile in other parts of the business.
The Agile Manifesto was devised in February 2001, so Agile is a relatively new methodology. At one time, there was a sharp division between the waterfall and Agile philosophies of doing work. In 2020, the attitudes of opposition and antagonism have decreased among many project professionals. Advocates of each approach have become less interested in proving the ultimate superiority of their methodology. Some companies use a hybrid of waterfall and Agile, and PMI, which was formerly seen as a bastion of the waterfall method, acquired Discipline Agile in August 2019.
Because I wanted to be able to prove that I could also work in an Agile environment, after I passed the PMP, I earned two entry-level certifications that are specific to Agile project management in spring 2019. Earning the Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) certification cost $150, and earning the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) certification cost $995.
One can study online for the PSM exam and register to take the exam without having taken any formal coursework. The CSM exam can be taken after attending a two-day class. I was highly satisfied with the class, which felt to me like a year of business school, taught interactively, crammed into two days.
Getting My First and Second Project Management Jobs
The Project Management Institute has local chapters. If you are considering a career in project management, I recommend attending one of their events once the COVID-19 pandemic subsides. In June 2018, I attended my first educational dinner meeting hosted by my local PMI chapter. Once a month, the professional organization hosts a networking happy hour, followed by a 1-hour presentation on a topic related to project management, over dinner at a local restaurant. I attended almost every monthly meeting from June 2018 to June 2019. When I began looking for my first project management job in spring 2019, many fellow members of the organization advocated for me at their companies. I got my first job at a software development company through a fellow member of my local chapter. At that job, a colleague who subsequently moved to a different organization recruited me to his team.
At my first job at the software development company, my title was Business Analyst. We worked within a waterfall methodology, so my having the PMP was most important to my employer during the hiring process.
At my current job in the Business Intelligence department of a healthcare network, my title is Business Intelligence Analyst, and the department uses Scrum, one of the many Agile methodologies. My full-time responsibilities are to serve as the Scrum Master for two of the four teams in Business Intelligence. Here, having the CSM and PSM allowed me to demonstrate my competency in the interviewing process. But because my employer doesn’t have “Scrum Master” as a position title and thus the job could not be advertised as focusing on project management rather than on the standard work as a Business Intelligence Analyst, it was essential that the people in my network knew from LinkedIn and the local PMI chapter meetings that I held the Agile certifications.
My success in transitioning from academia to project management would not have been possible had I not earned the PMP and CSM and had I not networked actively within my local PMI chapter.
The Delights of Being a Scrum Master as a Former Philosophy Professor
Serving as a Scrum Master for my teams is particularly enjoyable for me as a philosopher and a former philosophy professor. Agile is a mindset that informs the team’s way of working. Respect, trust, collaboration, and honesty are Agile values, and as a philosopher, I care deeply about values. I love that helping my Scrum team to work together well is my central job responsibility.
A Scrum Master is a servant leader, and this approach to leadership fits well with my philosophy of education. Many educators, including myself, view their role as facilitating and supporting their students in achieving their learning goals. I viewed each class as my invitation to the students to think, challenge, and reflect on the subject matter. My goal was to create a learning environment in which my students and I collaborated on finding meaning in the topic. As a Scrum Master, I spend much of my workday pursuing the goal of helping my teams perform at a high level and co-creating an environment in which it is enjoyable to work.
If you have questions about pursuing a career in project management, please connect with me on LinkedIn and send me a message.
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