Why I'm Grateful for My Career in Project Management

At the PMI Global Summit about a month ago, I attended a session by Erica Jorde and Maia Hyary of JBS International about helping people who already work at your company see their potential to grow into project management roles, and creating a clear and supported pathway for them to transition to these roles successfully.

To open their presentation, each woman described her journey to becoming an “accidental project manager,” walking us through her previous career roles that seemingly had nothing to do with project management, but highlighting the skills she developed in each role that set her up to be a great project manager today. The women then asked who in the audience considered themselves accidental project managers, and invited a few to share their journeys as well.

Where my journey started

I didn’t raise my hand, but I certainly could have. I trace my journey to project management back to high school. As a shy freshman (first-year student), I signed up to help backstage during the fall theater production. I hung around the theater crowd for a few weeks, found miscellaneous ways to contribute, and had a ton of fun. So I signed up to help backstage again for the next production in the spring, expecting a similar experience. To my surprise, the director asked me to serve as stage manager—basically, to be in charge of everything and everyone backstage. My first reaction was terror: I was a freshman, and he wanted me to tell the seniors (fourth-year students) on the set crew what to do?!? But I liked the director a lot, and I trusted him, so I took a leap of faith and agreed.

And I absolutely loved it. I was the stage manager for every theater production after that until I graduated, and I’d be hard-pressed to think of fonder memories from high school than those shows. I’d found something that made me light up inside. Something about managing a ton of moving parts and a bunch of people, and getting them to produce a single cohesive creation that brought joy to an audience…I felt like I was doing something I was made to do.

For a limited period, I thought I might be a stage manager professionally, but I knew it wasn’t the smartest career path because the opportunities would be limited. Then I discovered event planning. I volunteered for a behind-the-scenes leadership role at my high school’s charity auction, and I experienced a similar form of exhilaration to what I’d felt backstage: many moving people and parts producing one cohesive experience for our guests that I was proud of. I sought out event production jobs and volunteer roles for the rest of high school and throughout college, expecting the job title of Event Planner when I graduated.

My detour...or was it?

Then I moved to a new city after college, and an event planning job didn’t materialize. What did materialize was gig work in writing and web development through contacts in my church network. I decided to make that my full-time job for a year and a half, and I had a ton of fun in a different way. I learned a lot from other freelancers and startup founders while working at coworking spaces. And then, just as the time was right for a change, there was a full-time project manager opening with one of my client companies, and the role was focused on a program I believed in. I expressed interest, and they couldn’t get me in the door fast enough.

So there I was, in a project management role, without really understanding what that meant. At the time, my employer wasn’t working with a PMI-style definition of project management either; as part of a small team developing a program, the expectation was that I manage the aspects of the program that fit my skills. But in another part of the company, another employee was growing in her understanding of and advocacy for the function of project management as commonly understood across companies and industries, and just over a year later, a company restructure put the two of us together in a fledgling project management department that would serve the company as a whole.

And suddenly I realized I’d stumbled backward into yet another role where the essential function was to get many people and moving parts to align to produce specific, cohesive results. But this was bigger than stage management or event planning because I learned that project management is about coordinating people and resources in order to produce…anything. Any desired result or outcome. And becoming a great project manager is studying and practicing the diverse set of skills that enables you to shepherd any result into existence in any domain or industry. In terms of this special type of role I discovered back in high school that makes me light up inside, I’d hit the jackpot with project management. I built my skills, earned my PMP, and now here I am, trying to help YOU become an awesome project manager, even as I’m always working to become a better one myself.

Leaning into gratitude

I consider myself a Christian, and so for me, looking back on this journey includes the belief that God made me the way he did on purpose, led me through this journey on purpose, and prepared specific work he wanted me to do at each step of the way—and on top of this, that he was incredibly generous to make me in such a way that I’ve enjoyed it all so much. I am the type of person whose brain tends to be stuck in the future and focused on what’s next, but it’s healthy (and timely, on this Thanksgiving weekend in the United States), to stop and look back on where I’ve been, feel proud of everything I’ve accomplished, and just sit in gratitude for the journey I’ve been able to take and the person I’ve become.

Whether belief in a higher power is part of your story or not, what has brought you to the point of leading projects and getting to be the person who facilitates really cool results, changes, or outcomes coming into existence so they can have a positive impact on the world? Whether you’re partway through your career, or you’re still in school and considering if project management is the path you want to take, some set of skills and experiences has brought you to this moment. There are things you’ve already enjoyed or accomplished that have led you to managing or considering managing projects today. What are they? If you were in the room at the PMI Global Summit with Erica, Maia, and me, how would you have told your story?

Take a moment today to tell that story to a loved one, or even just review the main plot points in your mind. As you look toward leading your next project and need the confidence to face the challenges it will throw at you, remember everything you’ve already been through, done, and become. I’m sure you have a story to be proud of and grateful for.