How to Become an IT Project Manager: Career Guide

Before you become an IT project manager you need to learn the specifics of the job, your future duties, and responsibilities. Below you will find the description of required skills and qualifications.

IT Project Manager Job Description

The job includes directing of the IT project as a whole: performing various tasks on time, managing personnel, checking that the project corresponds to the budget, planning and coordinating the activities of the team to complete the IT projects.

IT project managers work either full-time or telecommute. Though, many of them prefer to interact with the team face-to-face in the office.

Good news: the median salary of a project manager is up to $130,000 per year.

Required qualifications and skills

First of all, you need to have a bachelor’s degree (or higher) in Project Management. Apart from that, a previous working experience in the field is paramount – the more, the better. And the last important requirement is to have on-the-job training.

Now, let’s take a look at the set of required skills. Strong leadership skills, time management, and critical thinking are a must. You should also be able to use the software programs for project management and be acquainted with the database user interface. The list is actually endless: communication and analytical skills, monitoring, decision-making and problem-solving skills, information ordering skills. To make a successful career of IT project manager, a candidate must also know how to use ERP (enterprise resource planning) software and conduct system analysis.

Career plan

To pursue a career of the IT project manager you’ll need to make a few steps.

Step 1: Get a degree.

Every IT project manager must get a bachelor’s degree in one of the following fields:

IT project management
Information technology
Computer science

All of the above courses last for 4 years and include receiving a substantial knowledge in:

Database management systems
Programming fundamentals
Management information systems
IT security
Principles of project management
Project procurement management
Organizational behavior (optionally)
Quality management (optionally)
Storage management (optionally)

Note that a great advantage for your future successful career would be an internship. An IT internship job allows gaining a valuable experience in the field by getting acquainted with most common tasks and issues that arise during a working process. This will expand your opportunities to find a full-time IT project management position.

Step 2: Enroll in the internship.

Most of the time, it is not enough to have only a bachelor’s degree to get a position of either a computer manager or an information system manager. A job seeker in the field of information technology should have more than one year of working experience in project management. Any serious and self-respecting employer would rather prefer to hire a candidate who has a thorough understanding of the working specifics in the field of information technology, than a fresh graduate with nothing more than a bachelor’s degree.

Step 3: Gain Working Experience.

Working for more than three years in the field will help you get a better understanding of the project management and, therefore, advance in the career. By the way, many employers prefer to hire candidates with the MBA degree, which will take another two years to get.