You’ve experienced a good service or a working product before, right? Odds are you are looking at a screen from a reputable company right now. Things don’t fall into place from scratch though. Behind any successful product or service available, there’s a good team headed up by a proficient project manager.
What is a project manager?
The project manager is needed to ensure the smooth sailing of an organisation’s project through the oversight of the budget, team, and schedule of the project. Within project management, there are different roles and titles. Some organisations have a more structured approach to project management, while others are more flexible.
The different positions of project management
In most industries, there are common titles for the different ranks of project management. These generally come down to the project manager’s experience and range between entry level and senior managerial positions.
Project team member
Any member in the team of an organisation generally has responsibilities to fulfil for a project to be completed. The team members in a project are critically important for the success of a project. Without a team, a project manager has no way to move a project forward. Productive team members make for a happy team.
Project manager coordinator
The project manager coordinator is the entry-level position in the world of project management. This is an administrative role, with the coordinator relaying important information to the project team members. The role also includes coordinating schedules, reports and doing behind-the-scenes management related to the general activities of the project.
Project management assistant
Despite what the title might imply, the project management assistant is not necessarily the assistant to the project manager. The project management assistant is involved in the administrative process such as the correspondence of documents, as well as managing particular aspects of the schedule and budget of a project. In certain company’s, elements of human relations might fall into the assistant manager’s role, such as liaising with clients or delegating duties to the team. The assistant manager is usually expected to meet with the project manager to report on issues that might arise, or provide feedback on the tasks at hand.
Junior project manager
Larger corporations might employ junior project managers to look after teams for smaller projects. The junior project manager differs from a project management assistant because the role involves more hands-on management and team responsibility. This role overseers budgeting, scheduling, and delegating aspects of a project.
Senior project manager
The senior project manager is the most experienced project manager in a company or workforce. Corporations will hire a senior project manager to manage highly valued projects, sometimes looking after large teams. The senior manager might also have several projects at a time to manage. The role involves overseeing the entire project, while delegating duties to the right team members.
If you are looking to become one of the project managers listed above, you could expect to enjoy an approximate salary expectation, according to Payscale:
Project management salary expectations - Payscale
