Project management is the art of managing all parts and stages of a project. A Project Manager’s most important responsibility is ensuring a project is completed on time and under budget. Being a Project Manager requires a combination of hard skills and soft skills, such as communication, time management, and leadership skills. 

If you are unsure that learning Project Management is right for you, consider reading on to learn more about the myriad uses of Project Management tools and techniques. Not only will learning Project Management open up many new career opportunities, but it also has a lot of potential personal uses.

What is Project Management?

Project management describes the process of managing the successful completion of a project. A Project Manager guides a project through the different stages of what is known as “The Project LifeCycle,” which comprises five stages: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure. A Project Manager’s most important goal is ensuring a project is completed on time and under budget.

A Project Manager is responsible for creating a project plan to establish project goals and deadlines, delegating tasks to team members, motivating team members to meet deadlines, risk management, communicating with upper management, and resource management. Experts in Project Management estimate that around 90% of a Project Manager’s time is spent communicating. Soft skills such as communication, leadership, time management, and budgeting are required in Project Management. 

Project management as a field is defined by the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) created by the Project Management Institute (PMI), which outlines best practices, methodologies, and processes for professional Project Managers. Aspiring Project Managers will want to seek out training in PMBOK as well as experience in managing real-world projects. 

Project management is a hot career path that is expected to add over 22 million jobs by 2027. In addition to this booming job growth, Project Managers earn lucrative, six-figure salaries. The average salary for a Project Manager is around $115,000 annually. That’s more than double the national average across all occupations. 

Read more about what project management is and why you should learn it.

Professional Uses for Project Management

Project management is a very hot career path. People with project management skills are in extremely high demand and this exponential growth is expected to continue until the end of the decade. 

According to the 2021 Talent Gap Report compiled by the Project Management Institute (PMI), more than 2.3 million new project management jobs will be added every year until 2030. Given the number of jobs that are expected to be created, Project Managers will be highly sought after in every industry. Some of the top industries hiring Project Managers include construction & manufacturing, management & professional services, information & publishing, and finance. 

Project Manager

Project Manager is the most popular career among people with project management skills. Project Managers are responsible for ensuring that projects are successfully completed, on time and under budget. To do this, they must have a mixture of hard and soft skills, such as leadership ability and strong communication. 

Project Managers must be excellent communicators, leaders, time managers, and multitaskers. They are responsible for the planning, execution, management, and outcome of a project. 

This means that they are required to wear many hats, juggle many responsibilities and tasks, and motivate teams to complete the project on schedule. 

Project Managers earn lucrative salaries, with an average annual income of around $116,000. That’s more than double the national average, which means that training in project management skills could double your salary. Project Managers who work in certain industries earn more on average. For example, the average salary for a Project Manager in the pharmaceutical industry is around $133,000 a year. 

Product Manager

A Product Manager combines project management skills with design and technical skills to manage a product. This role is similar to being a Project Manager, but they focus on successfully managing a product instead of a series of projects. Product Managers combine technical knowledge of product development and coding with user-driven design skills and project management training. Many Project Managers pivot into Product Manager roles later in their careers. 

Product Managers work with different teams developing, designing, and marketing products. Because of this cross-functional role, they’ll be in regular communication with the development team, the marketing team, and the customers who will be using the product. You might think of a Product Manager as a liaison between those who use a product and those who create it. 

CAPM Certification

The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) is an entry-level project management professional certification offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Founded in 1969, PMI is the oldest and most influential project management professional organization. They have offered professional project management certifications since the 1980s, including the entry-level CAPM and more advanced, industry-standard Project Management Professional (PMP). 

CAPM certification is highly recommended for anyone interested in launching a new career in project management. Becoming CAPM certified is an excellent way to establish credibility with potential employers, especially if you have no prior professional experience managing projects. CAPM certification can also increase your salary: PMI reports that certified Project Managers earn around 25% more than uncertified Project Managers. 

Before you can take the exam to become CAPM certified, PMI requires that you complete 18 hours of structured training in project management, such as Noble Desktop’s Project Management Bootcamp. The CAPM exam includes 150 questions and four core testing areas: project management fundamentals and core concepts, predictive and plan-based methodologies, agile frameworks, and business analysis frameworks. 

Other Uses for Project Management

Project management skills aren’t just for Project Managers; there are other uses for project management skills outside of a career, including managing your own business and organizing volunteer projects in your community. 

Managing Your Own Business

Developing project management skills could be a great advantage if you’re thinking of starting your own business or you already own one. Entrepreneurs need to have many of the same skills as Project Managers, such as strong leadership, excellent communication, budgeting, and time and resource management. 

Like Project Managers, entrepreneurs and small business owners must wear many hats and juggle many different responsibilities. Training in project management could be very useful in successfully running your own business.

Managing Volunteer Projects

If you are a community-minded person, you might have ideas for projects that would improve your local community. For example, you might manage a project of cleaning up a riverbed or local park or a project that distributes food to people who are homebound. 

Training in project management skills could help you better manage volunteer projects that could make your community a better place for everybody. This is also an excellent way to gain some concrete experience in project management outside of your job role. This could be an excellent way to demonstrate project management skills on your resume without professional job experience. 

Learning How to Juggle Multiple Projects

Project Managers are multitaskers. They must manage teams, deadlines, stakeholders, budgets, and tasks. Learning project management skills is a great way to gain more experience in multitasking. 

This could be useful for success at your current job, as a parent or partner, running your own side hustle, or improving your community. Many of the soft skills acquired through project management training could help handle the current responsibilities in your life, including time management, budgeting, resource management, problem-solving, and conflict resolution.

Learning How to Effectively Communicate with Others

Project Managers must be really excellent communicators since they’re responsible for communicating with many different types of people, including team members, stakeholders, and upper management. 

Professional Project Managers report that they spend around 90% of their time communicating. This means that you’ll need excellent communication skills to be a Project Manager. Getting trained in project management could greatly increase your written and verbal communication skills. 

Learn Project Management Skills with Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop is a coding, design, and business school based in NYC. They offer courses on various topics, including project management courses and bootcamps, both live online and at their state-of-the-art campus in Midtown Manhattan. All of their classes feature small class sizes and are taught by instructors who are experts in their industry. PMP-Certified professional Project Managers teach all their project management courses. Graduates can retake their course for up to one year for free to continue developing their knowledge and refresh their skills. 

Noble Desktop’s Project Management Bootcamp provides hands-on instruction in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) theories and methodologies needed to get hired as an entry-level Project Manager. Students receive hands-on, project-based training in topics that include the five phases of project management, creating project proposals, and working with a project team. Graduates receive a verified digital certificate of completion to help them get hired as entry-level Project Managers. This bootcamp is also recommended for those planning to pursue either a CAPM or a PMP Certification. Both certifications require formal project management education, which this bootcamp provides. 

Graduates seeking professional certification should consider Noble Desktop’s CAPM Certification Bootcamp, which guides students through PMI’s entry-level Certified Associate in Project Management Certification Exam. This four-day bootcamp includes 35 hours of hands-on instruction, live project-based training, an exam preparation guide, a video curriculum, lessons taught by a PMP Certified Project Manager, and a digital certificate of completion.

Key Takeaways

• Some of the uses of project management skills include becoming a Project Manager, becoming a Product Manager, and/or preparing to pass the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) exam. 
• Project management skills can be useful outside of job roles. Project management skills can make you a better entrepreneur, multitasker, communicator, and community leader. 
• You can receive comprehensive Project Management training through Noble Desktop, either in person or online.