Now is the time to maximize your PMI membership to access powerful career tools. PMI’s PathPro® and career framework help you or those on your project team take your careers to the next level. PathPro is useful if your organization does not have a career track in project management. Use PathPro to:
- Immediately identify gaps in your skill set
- Position yourself for the next step in your career
- Assess your project team
Global assignments allow project managers to learn new and innovative methods, exchange ideas and expand the boundaries of their knowledge and practice, says Ms. Skrabak. The PMP credential often serves as the key to these opportunities by providing instant credibility.
In an assignment with CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business in Torrence, California, USA, Ms. Skrabak managed a project that included a 500-member, cross-functional, cross-site team of project managers, business analysts, developers, quality assurance and product managers located in four U.S. states and multiple offshore teams in India.
“In these situations, the PMP credential serves as the foundation for the professional to embrace versatility, a tolerance for ambiguity and openness for innovation, while leading with a clear vision and unwavering patience,” she says.
For Ms. Skrabak, the credential goes beyond project management knowledge and extends into knowing how to apply that knowledge in a variety of situations to do the right thing.
“It [enables you to] embrace versatility by stressing the breadth of situations that a project manager may be confronted with, but emphasizes that the underlying values and professional responsibilities that the project manager must demonstrate don't change,” she says.
She believes that the types of situations that project managers encounter in the global environment help them grow and sometimes force them to turn to creative and innovative solutions that they may not have thought about while working with a project team from the same culture.
For career-minded project managers like Mr. Vaalsalam, the abundant opportunities associated with global assignments are understandably enticing.
“The levels of necessary skills, competency and experience are higher and expectations keep growing exponentially,” he says.Mr. Vaalsalam says having a PMP credential is often the key to securing these assignments.
For instance, he recently worked with a healthcare institution in Singapore to automate operations of rehabilitative services center. In this assignment his team developed an IT solution integrating the client’s core applications through a web-based solution. This project specifically required PMP certified managers.
Mr. Vaalsalam says there is a respect for the knowledge and intelligent solutions PMP credential holders propose in challenging situations which can help move you up the career ladder and closer to global assignments.
“No matter which part of the globe they come from, the project manager brings along predictability in planning, monitoring and tracking projects to successful closure,” he says. “Plus, PMP [credential holders] are driven by a superior commitment to corporate social responsibility, professional ethics and avoiding conflicts of interest.”
Since most of today’s projects, at some level, cross physical and cultural barriers, securing global assignments serves as a powerful vehicle for project managers to advance in their career paths, explains Mr. Giotis.
“This is why the PMP credential is a must-have certification. It not only proves that you have the technical skills needed for global assignments, but also shows you have the soft skills—communications, listening, commitment, focus and dedication, problem-solving, professional responsibility and a code of conduct,” he says.
Mr. Giotis had 15 years of experience that mostly focused on local projects across Greece. But when he earned the PMP credential in 2004, projects that he was not qualified for in the past became new opportunities.
“The PMP credential opened [several doors] as a project manager in the global flat world,” he says.
Because he had the PMP credential, he was chosen to manage a project for a pharmaceutical company in the Balkans. He also participated in a project for a petrochemical company in the Gulf region.
“Now I am part of the global PMP community, and I prefer to be involved in IT projects crossing countries and cultures… Meeting new people and learning their cultures and habits is fascinating,” he says.
Forward-looking project managers usually seek opportunities that promise career growth and the ability to achieve their professional goals. This often means entering the global marketplace, explains Mr. Barros.
He believes that global assignments help project managers sharpen their skills under different cultures and legal environments and that the PMP credential holder is more equipped to win those assignments.
“This tends to produce better, more competitive professionals [who can obtain] progressively challenging projects and higher pay,” he says.
Since credential holders already operate under the common project language, they only need to adapt to cultural nuances and business practices. This makes for a smaller learning curve.
“I've been all over Latin America … and always feel at home on the first day,” he says.
His first global assignment was to support a multinational (Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Uruguay) deployment of microwave backbones for a major telecom operator. Other initiatives followed, including a contract to deploy a country-wide Wi-Max network in Chile.
