Từ Đăng Khoa, PMI-ACP, PMP
For building a vibrant community of project leaders—all learning from each other
While studying for the Project Management Professional (PMP)®, Từ Đăng Khoa didn’t just hone his project management know-how. He also forged deep connections with his peers. So he started a Facebook group to keep that sense of community and camaraderie going. And in the four years since, the group has grown to more than 21,000 members—while Khoa has made serious career progress, too.
“The PMP certification has had a significant impact on my professional life,” says Khoa, now a project delivery manager at FPT Software. “Knowing the common project management language makes it easier to communicate with stakeholders, and I’m better able to optimize project outcomes by both doing the right things and doing things right.”
Along with managing project teams that sprawl into the hundreds, he devotes much of his time to nurturing the local project management community and sharing his knowledge. Beyond the social media group and regular get-togethers, Khoa has organized a series of project management workshops “to build up the next generation of project management in Vietnam.”
Young project professionals are brimming with “fresh ideas, new perspectives and a passion for position change,” he says. And there’s a “real hunger” to discover how to implement those ideas using common standards, like A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide).
“Project managers are motivated to share and innovate together,” he says. “With project management, we’re building a shared culture in which team members are empowered to take action and drive outcomes through their contributions.”
Q&A: Từ Đăng Khoa on tackling climate change and why he’d recruit Elon Musk
What moonshot project would you most like to work on?
Developing and implementing a sustainable energy system that can replace fossil fuels and mitigate the effects of climate change—what an exciting and impactful imperative to take on.
What book are you obsessed with recommending right now?
For project managers, I highly recommend Choose Your WoW! A Disciplined Agile Approach to Optimizing Your Way of Working.
What famous person would you want to recruit for your team?
Elon Musk. To a lot of people, his ideas seem crazy. But he knows how to implement his vision to make it a reality, and his commitment would be an incredible asset to any project team.