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My Job Description… I manage a group of senior technical project/process managers for a major bank in San Francisco. Since the banking business has evolved from simple banking into more entrepreneurial financial services, my team of high-tech managers is critical to the success of our computer department. And How I Got It… I love the field of technical project management. I literally stumbled into it; I was in the hardware/software consulting department at another company when my boss asked me to supervise the combination of two separate ordering processes (on microcomputers), that were costing the company money and confusion. This project had a short deadline ... he said I was the only one on his staff that could do it. I had no idea how big the project really was but was confident I could do it, so I agreed. At that time, I didn't know that what I was doing was called "project management." And Why I Was Well Suited For It (And It For Me)… That project gave me an opportunity to use all the skills I knew I had and some I didn't know I had: planning, organizing, co-developing and conducting training, and developing reference manuals which people later used as a standard for other projects. I also conducted meetings, gained consensus between people, and changed the minds of some very skeptical employees. Today we call these "people skills". Over the years, I've worked with a couple of great project managers. I have gone on to become a senior technical project manager and eventually mentored other project managers. I believe that good project managers are born, not made, and that you need to have a passion for project management. But you can discover these skills in yourself quite by accident! When I’m Not Working, I’m… Jazzercising for exercise (and the fun of dancing to the latest music), traveling to far away places (Paris, Spain, Morocco, Japan), or just relaxing by going to the movies with my husband. We're real movie buffs! |
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