so you want to break into project management but technically have no experience so how do you break in well stay tuned because in this video i'll be talking all about that hello youtube family thank you so much for tuning in welcome to my channel i'm christina and this is cultivated chrissy here i'll be sharing all my tips and tricks to my pms and my aspiring pms looking to enhance their knowledge in the project management field master the role of a pm and truly elevate in this career because there is so much opportunity now how do you get into the project management field with no experience how are you going to break in well i will be sharing six tips today on how to get your foot in the door and break into the project management field let me start off by saying that you probably have more experience than you think you do right once you understand what project management is then it really is all about perspective and how you frame things right but stay tuned because i'll be getting into all of that in this video make sure you stick around so research indicates that employers will need to fill nearly 2.2 million new project oriented jobs through 2027 so like i said so much opportunity right these roles are currently and will continue to be in high demand right so it's great to get it now learn hone your skills master them right and then elevate in the coming years so to really frame how i came up with these tips i wanted to talk about how i got into the project management field right what did i do to get to where i am today um currently i'm 29 years old and i am a director of project management in the healthcare sector now that could be early for a lot of people right and so i really wanted to give you guys some context as to how i did that what i found to be the key things that work time and time again to get me to where i am today keyword that i think really describes how i've made it to where i am today and what you'll find is a recurring theme throughout my story is initiative right no matter where i was i made sure to take initiative and i always sought to provide value so let's get into the story briefly briefly okay so college okay let's start there um if this is where you are today right and you're aspiring for a job in project management when you get out make sure you immerse yourself in that experience right when i was in college i joined several clubs and organizations and i wasn't just a member right i became an e-board member right a contributing member of that club and i learned so many management and project management skills from those different clubs and organizations right things that i use even today so you want to make sure you immerse yourself into that experience right we through so many parties we through speaking engagements um panel discussions all types of things right um and those are valuable skills those are all projects by the way right um and so i was able to use those skills to land me my very first job so i graduated and i landed my first job outside of healthcare right it was in a middle school it is important to mention that this was a startup middle school and it had only been open for like two to three years prior to me coming there so definitely a startup and that definitely has something to do with these tips um that's a major key okay but i'll get into that so landing my first job i was an academic program coordinator um and one of the key things that i did there that really demonstrate the initiative right is one day i had been speaking with the um principal right and she mentioned that the kids fight a lot right they don't know how to resolve conflict they don't know how to talk to each other um things that middle schoolers do right right but we wanted to figure out how to help them resolve their conflicts in a more conducive way right um and so i remembered that in elementary school i was a peer mediator right and so i volunteered to implement a peer mediation program now this was a major project because i had to develop the curriculum i had to develop the application process for you know getting peer mediators right getting the teachers involved getting recommendations from them interviewing the students once i found the students i had to develop the curriculum and train them so there was a lot involved in that and it was a major project but it allowed me to show initiative and it also gave me the opportunity to then do other projects from there right it definitely opened those doors for me so first job out of college already doing projects um and that was a major one so then i moved on to finally get a role within public health that's what i went to school for um so i worked at a major health system in new york right it was a large health system now even though this was a large health system it's important to note that this was a brand new department within the health system so again a startup environment um we had been given a grant to um you know put on different programs within the state as part of this department right um we were tasked with reducing hospital utilization by 25 and there were several projects that needed to be done in order to achieve that goal right so i came in as a community liaison eventually went to a reporting specialist um and then once i got my pmp i became a reporting and project manager again the key here was taking initiative right um brand new department so i really found joy in creating structures where there wasn't any right finding the gaps filling them because there were tons of gaps right were brand new um and eventually i became even known for that in the office to the point where they were even putting it on my annual review like christina's gonna find gaps and fill them right um and every every year i would be able to list out the things that um i found were gaps and filled them in the organization right maybe small things like creating directories trackers templates for things to implementing full-scale projects right so definitely providing value in this process through taking initiative so one day same department at this time i was a reporting specialist and i had been finding gaps and filling them right doing several projects throughout the office and one day i was tasked with helping one of the other project managers in the office with a salesforce implementation right um and she was a pmp so she definitely had the skills knew what this was at this time i never really heard of the term project management as like a career like i didn't fully understand that this was a whole field i just knew that i loved to do projects right um but i didn't fully understand it as a field and so one day she told me like you would be great as a project manager like you should absolutely do this and technically you're already doing it um and then she handed me her pmbok um first time i saw that realized okay this is there's a whole institution for project management um and i was in love with it she showed me her gantt chart girl and everything absolutely loved it and the rest was honestly history from that point i went on to convince my organization to sponsor my pmp certification for me um and then i got the promotion from there as well to become a reporting and project manager so again taking initiative opens those doors creates those opportunities um and that was kind of my introduction into the project management field as a career so i eventually went on to my next job um i started as a project manager and again went there took initiative created value um with the goal of really being an irreplaceable asset to them right um and once i was able to do that that opened the door for the promotion where i became a director and there was honestly no arguments no back and forth i got exactly what i wanted because i had been providing value taking initiative um and so again that's the theme here um and so if you want to know more about my journey make sure you comment down below let me know what questions you have i can also do a video you know that's more in depth talking about all of that so let me know in the comments below but that's my journey and that's how i was able to formulate the six tips that i'm about to share with you right now so using my own story and experiences right i'm going to be giving you those six tips right tip number one if you haven't guessed it already it's about taking initiative and creating value right wherever you are right now in your existing role whether you're a project manager or not i want you to take that initiative solve a problem okay and it doesn't have to be this full-scale implementation it could be something small a tracker a guide um a directory of some sort right doing something to make a process more efficient right um and you want the people in your organization to feel that value that you provided you know a weight lifted off their shoulders something that can help them work easier right so think about those opportunities in your organization right now um and take the initiative to fill that right you want to create the path towards more experience for yourself and again once you do that the doors will open for you so tip number two we're going to make some resume edits we want to take your current and your previous roles and whether they're project management related or not and formulate them into more project management related activities right um so you're gonna do that by thinking about what a project is right what is project management this concept of taking something from beginning to end creating a unique product service or result right knowing that and also knowing the five phases of the project life cycle in its most basic form right initiate plan execute monitor and control and close knowing that in its most basic form right we're going to look at those activities and we're going to reframe the language and there are two documents that can help out with that i'll mention that in a second and make sure you subscribe by the way because in an upcoming video i'll be talking about my top 10 key project management terms that every project manager needs to know um you're definitely not going to want to miss that so again make sure you go ahead and subscribe um but you're going to want to use those key terms now two examples of how to reframe things right the first example um one of my jobs this was the school i had to keep track of staff that would call out and find replacements for them right i didn't just say on the resume you know track staff pto requests and find replacements daily right i could have said that um but i made it bigger okay made it bigger um i added in project management key terms right those kind of key buzzwords that show leadership that show initiative um and so this is what i said instead right i said formulated and managed the execution of the daily staffing process there was no process right for how to do this when i started right they gave me the number that i needed to call but they didn't really define a process for me right so i formulated and managed the execution of the daily staffing process i developed a centralized system for collection and processing of staff pto requests right so again making this bigger adding some fluff you know really being a wordsmith okay um so that's example number one example number two right i talked about creating the peer mediation program at the school right i didn't just say started a peer mediation program for middle school students right could have said that it's not really giving me anything right i want to show the organization the value in that like what value what pain point did that really fill right so i said i instituted the peer mediation program define the program's scope and standards through stakeholder interviews right that's just kind of one piece one component of what i did and of course added to that um but again using those project management words that show the leadership that show the taking of initiative adding more fluff making it bigger okay it is the same thing i'm not lying about what i did right i did those things um but we're just we're making it bigger okay so two examples so the two documents that can help with wordsmithing right the resume one is pmi's process groups um it has the five phases of the life cycle um the 13 knowledge areas and 49 different process groups within it so in that you want to review this document um there are a lot of recurring terms in there right that's the first indicator that these are words that you should be using right things like stakeholder things like plan control scope um you want to use those words right define monitor um use those words that are recurring most often that's an indicator to you that these are some some key terms that you want to use um secondly are the action words from bloom's taxonomy um i discovered this document a while ago and i have to say like it it absolutely changed the game for me um it helped to really elevate my writing skills right taking it up several notches it just had so much more words in my repertoire that i can use right and so um i love the create column if you download it you'll see uh it's perfect for things like the resume um and so you want to make sure you use these two documents i will link them below absolutely free just press the link press download and the documents will pop right up you don't have to enter anything um but definitely download that you want to make these resume updates it's absolutely vital right it's the first thing that people are going to see um and a lot of these jobs when you are applying they use um an automated system to kind of pick up resumes based on some keywords i don't know if you know that but sometimes that happens right and so you want to make sure that you're using some of these keywords so that your resume can get picked so you've been taking initiative right creating value you made your resume edits and now you've landed an interview so how do you prepare for that this is tip number three so the interviewer is going to ask you situational based questions as well as technical project management questions right the ratio of that is going to be different based on the organization but expect those two types of questions for the project management role in both cases when you're answering the questions you want to make sure that again you're using those project management key terms right just like in your resume when you were being a word smither and reframing things making it bigger really talking about the value that you created in that step not just the step itself right or the task itself um we're going to do the same thing when vocalizing that to the interviewer right we still want to be a word smither in that process so when i'm preparing for an interview i like to look up the questions that are most likely to be asked right both again within the situational and technical space i want to make sure that i'm you know writing down some questions in both areas and what i like to do is fully write out an answer okay if you know this i'm a c type personality i like to be prepared i do not like to be caught off guard okay so i will write out every word okay that's me um so you want to make sure for me what has worked i write out the full answer to the question again making sure that i'm wordsmithing right because that way you know i'm i don't have to try to think about this wordsmithing on the spot right i'm writing it out and then i try to you know memorize that i practice it memorize it right think about alternative questions if they ask it kind of like this i know that i can use that particular answer right so that i can kind of pick from it because it won't be exactly what you know you practice sometimes it will be and that's a great surprise but sometimes it won't right um so you want to look up kind of alternatives to that rightfully write out your answer make sure you're using the wordsmithing technique um and you know make sure you're practicing to prepare yourself as far as where i get the questions from i love using glassdoor um glassdoor is great as well because you know if you're interviewing at a certain organization sometimes that organization hat is up on glassdoor and people who have interviewed for the exact position that you're going for have written out written out some of the questions that were asked in the interview so that's definitely what you want to look at and practice those questions write out your answers to those questions so that's really how i prepare um foolproof way for me to have a great interview i know that once i make it to the resume or once i make it to the interview phase um they're gonna offer me the job okay it's happening um and again stay tuned because uh if you guys are interested i could tell you how i got three highly competitive okay highly competitive salary job offers within 30 days um from three different companies okay all within the healthcare sector absolutely amazing but again a strong interview a strong resume being that word smither these things are really important and so you want to make sure you do that okay so tip number four okay when you're applying to jobs you can either apply to smaller companies right startups or startup organizations or larger companies right both provide different experiences and different opportunities right and both are great right um for me and what i have found as a great strategy to be able to elevate quickly to have a lot of opportunity to learn and grow and create value is to work in a startup type of environment right um and so i did that most of the time um again there were some organizations that you know one of the organizations was a startup department but in a larger organization so i was still able to work with other project managers and things like that and kind of work you know learn from them and that kind of thing um but lots of opportunity in a startup right i already explained that um in the other examples but lots of opportunity there okay so i think that that's key number five on the flip side right you can work for the larger organization right now for this still some opportunities there to create value of course right um it may be harder because within the sm this the startup right they may not have certain structures or processes yet and you can kind of easily pick those out to find them and start to you know solve a problem but for the larger organizations a lot more is going to be in place there right but that doesn't mean things are running smoothly right what are the pain points really you're gonna have to talk to some people okay you know have some conversations hold some interviews and really try to immerse yourself in the organization to uncover what those gaps are and how you can create value okay but the opportunities are there you're just gonna have to look harder to find them okay um now in terms of roles for this you're gonna have to come in more entry level if you don't have as much experience okay um but hopefully by now it looks like you do because we reframed some um some tasks right we're not gonna keep it super duper simplified we're going to make things bigger we're going to wordsmith okay still keeping the integrity that you did do these tasks right um but we're going to reframe those things right um and so if you've done that you know you're definitely going to be able to get some of these entry-level positions now some of what um these roles look like you'll see things like project coordinator junior project manager um in healthcare they'd like to do project management one or project manager one project manager two right go to different levels i think they also do that in the government sector as well um so project associate implementation manager right different types of titles but those you know are kind of the more entry level project management jobs okay so definitely you can apply to those as well so whether startup organization or a larger organization there's still opportunity to create value take initiative right and be able to elevate in your career through those organizations also the benefit of working with a larger organization is just better benefits okay healthcare benefits um you know all all types of things time off all of that um so that's going to be better in a larger organization as well so definitely something to consider so next okay this is tip number six what i think you can really do to help you grow and learn more about project management and really get the experience is volunteering okay um now with this it's a lot more lighthearted right these people aren't looking for you to have you know this insane resume with all these projects on it in order to give you the job and you can absolutely do this alongside whatever job you're doing to start to immerse yourself in the field see if you even like it okay and you know start to get the experience and learn you can definitely find volunteer opportunities on websites like volunteermatch.org your governmental websites whether it's city state county you know local groups in your or you know local groups in your city also things like your church if you're going to church you know you can do some project management things there um so definitely lots of opportunities to volunteer um and again they're not looking for this long extensive resume but you can learn from there and see if you like it and just like i said when i was talking about college where you join these organizations even though they're not paying you okay you want to fully immerse yourself into the role right and really try to create value for yourself even you know for them of course but also for yourself right um really stretch yourself and try to you know do some big things make some big moves in these different organizations and again those can lead to doors opening because some of the people that you're volunteering with especially if it's in government and things like that right that can open bigger doors so you want to make sure that you're doing that as well right that's a hopefully a great tip for you guys so you can definitely put these opportunities on your resume as well um even if you're not getting paid they're not going to ask you how much money you're making from these things or you're not going to write that on your resume right but you could put there you know put that there put that your project manager at this organization using the same techniques as we talked about before um and you know this can only add to what your experience looks like on that resume alright so those are the six tips make sure that you stick around you subscribe because in my next video i'm going to be giving you my top 10 basic project management tips okay if you just landed your project management job and you're like what do i do next right how can i be successful in this role if you do these 10 things okay you will have success in this role right i'm giving you those major key items so make sure you stick around you subscribe you like and comment i really want to create a community for you guys where i can share a lot of this information a lot of the things that i've learned throughout the years that have really helped um so make sure you stick around subscribe and i will see you guys in my next video all right thank you so much for coming see you in the next